“The World Without End” presents a graphic survey of the history of consumption and the illusion of development

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The Industrial Revolution, Jancovici explains, was not just about machines, but about a quantum leap in energy. Coal powered factories, built railways, made steel, and expanded cities. Oil transformed humans into beings capable of moving faster than horses, cooling refrigerators, lighting the night, and producing the plastics that now encase everything.

Jancovici arrives at a startling truth: humanity has not evolved through intellectual progress, but through the acquisition of more watts. This surplus of energy allows the individual to live as the kings of old: with electricity, washing machines, the internet, air conditioning, and... mass-produced beef. This excess of energy has given birth to a new type of human: Iron Man (as in Hollywood). This arrogant figure can do everything—fly, build massive structures, fight wars—but always with an insatiable thirst for more energy.

That insatiable thirst has both shaped the institutions that govern our lives—consumerism, urban organisation, global connectivity, growth targets—and contributed to their destruction: climate change, resource competition, and a welfare crisis.

The entire process of life is comprehensively reflected by Jancovici, resembling a machine with countless gears: politics, economics, administration, and more, all closely intertwined, devouring energy. It also paints a picture of endless grey areas, should the issue of global energy management remain unresolved.

The book confronts the unsustainability of our way of life head-on: we are living on the cusp of a civilisation that is... too dependent. Blain, a talented cartoonist, illustrates modern humans sitting atop a black robot, spewing tons of exhaust, stomping on everything, and still thinking they are flying with their intelligence. Every technological “breakthrough”—from toothpaste to smartphones—hides the vast amount of energy it consumes from the public eye.

We talk about “personal freedom,” “quality of life,” and “success,” but perhaps this is only true when we are surrounded by millions of kilowatt-hours of cheap, readily available, and invisible energy. As energy becomes more expensive—or, at the very least, limited—Jancovici asks a simple question: do these values still hold? Is everything “sustainable,” or merely “illusory”?

That is the problem, but what makes The World Without End even more haunting is that it does not offer an easy solution. Rather than calling for “digital transformation” or “greening technology,” as is often promised in the media, it delivers a cold warning: renewable energy cannot completely replace the role of fossil fuels—unless we are willing to change the way we live.

In other words, the question is not “what new energy sources will we have?” but: do we dare to live differently?

Dare to slow down, when speed was once hailed as a measure of civilisation. Dare to reduce consumption, in a society that worships growth. Dare to cancel non-essential amenities, to preserve the climate, the forests, the oceans, and ultimately life. Dare to organise into action networks, to prevent the constant cross-sector changes. The World Without End places you, the reader, at the centre of an energy puzzle. Not just the mathematics of power, but the ethics of consumption and the philosophy of organisation. Every line between Jancovici and Blain is a whisper: “How much horsepower are you living on? And do you know what it costs humanity?”

The World Without End is remarkable not only in its content, but also in its presentation. The book is a testament to the power of interdisciplinary knowledge: where energy engineering meets sociological thought, where charts meet graphics, and where dry numbers are conveyed through vivid images.

Jancovici has a remarkable ability to turn data into stories. The CO₂ charts are no longer mere graphs but warnings. The emissions figures are no longer statistics—they become whispered conversations between two characters trying to make sense of the world. Christophe Blain, with his deft cartoons, reinterprets complex concepts through comic scenes: mindless miners become powerful bosses, energy towers melt like ice cream, and so on. It’s a rare science book that makes the reader laugh without forgetting to shudder.

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