Energy Per Death

GJ extracted per death · Tier 1 (war direct, Iraq mid)

—

300K deaths · 145B bbl · 6.1 GJ/bbl

kWh per death · Tier 1

—

= GJ × 277.78 kWh/GJ

Human-years of electricity per death

—

at 3,285 kWh/person/yr global avg

Atomic bombs equivalent per death

—

Little Boy = 63 TJ · per death yield

// Core conversion chain
E_per_death = (reserves_bbl / deaths) × GJ_per_bbl
= (1 / deaths_per_barrel) × 6.1 GJ

// Tier 1 · Iraq war direct
E_t1 = (145×10⁹ bbl / 300,000) × 6.1 = 2.944×10⁶ GJ/death = 817.9 GWh/death

// Tier 3 · Full indirect attribution
E_t3 = (1.5×10¹² bbl / 100,000,000) × 6.1 = 91,500 GJ/death = 25.4 GWh/death

// The machine's feed rate
feed_rate = global_production × GJ_per_bbl × deaths_per_bbl
= ~6 deaths/hour (Tier 1 war rate, Iraq reserves)

Per-Conflict Energy Accounting

all tiers · GJ/death · kWh/death · human-power-years · war duration

Conflict	Deaths (mid)	Reserves (Bbbl)	GJ / death	kWh / death	Human-yrs / death	City-days / death	Nuke-equiv / death

What Does One Death Buy?

Tier 1 · Iraq direct · 2.94M GJ per death

🏠

—

US homes
powered for 1 year

🚗

—

EVs
fully charged

⚡

—

human lifetimes
of electricity (global avg)

🌆

—

days NYC
fully powered

🛸

—

moon missions
energy equivalent

💧

—

tonnes of water
boiled from 0°C

🔋

—

Tesla Megapacks
fully charged

🌍

—

seconds of
global energy demand

OLS Slope β₁ (log GJ/death ~ year)

—

log-GJ per year trend

Intercept β₀

—

at year 1991

R²

—

variance explained

Mean log₁₀(GJ/death)

—

geometric mean GJ/death

Std Dev (log)

—

±σ in log space

[1] 1 barrel crude oil = 6.1 GJ = 1,694 kWh (Oak Ridge / NCSU / ScienceDirect consensus) [2] Global avg electricity consumption: ~3,285 kWh/person/yr (IEA 2023) [3] US home avg: ~10,500 kWh/yr (EIA 2023) [4] Tesla Model 3 battery: 75 kWh [5] NYC energy consumption: ~4,300 GWh/month → ~143 GWh/day [6] Apollo 11 total mission energy: ~400 GJ [7] Tesla Megapack: 3.9 MWh = 0.0039 GWh [8] Global energy demand 2024: ~620 EJ/yr → ~19.65 TJ/sec [9] Boiling water from 0°C: 4.186 kJ/kg × 100K = 418.6 kJ/kg → 1 GJ boils ~2,390 tonnes [10] War deaths and reserve data: Brown Univ. CoW / IBC / Lancet / EIA / OPEC (see v1.0 model) INTERPRETATION: The energy-per-death figure is not the cost of the war. It is the energy the machine extracts per unit of human life it destroys. The higher the number, the more "efficient" the machine is at converting death into power. Iraq is the highest-efficiency war ever fought.