[throwaway832939]

According to the article, we we got 44 * energy input in 1950, and 8 * input in 2020.

Bad maths warning - I think this means that for a given activity that uses oil, say driving a mile, ignoring all the energy that went into the car etc. you're burning 12.5% on top of what you put into the tank. Whereas in 1950 this was only 2.3%. Seems like a noticeable chunk of efficiency improvements are cancelled out just to keep polluting at the same rate as before.

[dzhiurgis]

FWIW that's just CO2 - can't ignore other nasty stuff (like benzene - the stuff that people lost their shit when tiny bit was found in sunscreen) that reduced significantly.

[acchow]

Your math looks correct to me.