Making the Connection Between Energy Consumption and Global Warming
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03.27.08
"The average American uses 11,400 Watts of power continuously. This is the equivalent of burning 114 x100 Watt light bulbs, all the time. The average person globally uses 2,255 Watts of power, or a little less than 23 x100 Watt light bulbs.
What are the consequences of us all using this much power?"
This is just one of the questions asked by Wattzon.org, which recently published a "game plan" to tackle global warming. Noting that the problem has been addressed before (some guy named Al Gore won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar Award for his efforts), they acknowledge it's an old story, but tell it in a new way.
Addressing both the big and the small of it -- the impersonal story using big numbers, and the personal story about how every decision each of us makes has wide-ranging global warming-related effects -- the document offers an interesting take on education and inspiration. Everything in the world is intertwined -- energy use, fossil fuel-depletion and climate change, for example -- so it makes sense that this version of the way forward is as well.
It's a very logical, linear document, and, where An Inconvenient Truth drew criticism for being short on goals and solutions, this game plan has them in spades, if big-picture-focused. Their point of view, though, is worth repeating: it's not going to be easy, but it can be done. Get inspired and get educated at ::Watzzon via ::MAKE: Blog
The average American's electrical consumption is quite shocking! This is the reason that Americans should be trying harder than anyone else to harness and use alternative forms of energy and electricity produced in a green and environment friendly way. One initiative in recent times that deserves praise is the Santa Rosa 'Geysers to Watts' project.Under this project 12 million gallons of wastewater the city is pumped to the steam fields daily which is then converted into 85 megawatts of power, enough to power 85,000 homes.
Things are slowly changing just because of the price of energy. In Europe them pushed them ahead with taxes and energy prices.
It's true, Americans use a vast amount of power, but there are real ways to bring it down, especially because most Americans can afford to invest in long term solutions. Take home lighting; by installing super-efficient LED lights, especially in places where you don't need as much light, you can seriously cut your utility bills.
The thing is, not only is saving that much energy good for the environment, it's also good for your wallet in the long run.
Learn more about switching to LED bulbs at:
http://weloveleds.com/
Thank you for your end notes, which read:
“ … I’d like to add something that says we have to do everything that has been described in this document so far, as well as prevent further deforestation and in fact reforestation.”
Tree Blessings to you!
Warmly,
Cindy Katz ‘Tree Angel’
Founder & CEO, Plant a Tree USA
www.plantatreeusa.com … Planting 18 billion trees and educating millions
1-877-A-Tree-4-U
Partner in the UN Billion Tree Campaign
The 11400 Watts figure is slightly misleading. That is the primary energy used, i.e. the energy content of the fuel used in the power plant or the vehicle engine. The end use power is approximately a third of that figure. So it's more like 38x100 watt light bulbs continuously. Still a lot of energy though.
There's lots of talk about global warming, along with lots of initiatives, business plans, gadgets, inventions, debate, science, news specials, but this article hits it. We need solutions, and I argue that we need those solutions to be simple and effective:
This is an article on how reducing your carbon footprint is about taking 3 simple approaches to life:
http://climatepact.org/blog/15/three-simple-ways-to-reduce-climate-change
Shocking stats! Even though you can discount some of this power usage as non-domestic there are still huge energy savings that can be made at home, though business needs to be the early adopter of these practices to make the affordable for the home and businesses are usually the most wasteful of energy.
Large amounts of energy use are simply a fact when we enjoy a high standard of living.
Efficiency is important, but I believe that climate solutions can only succeed when they allow us to enjoy the same or a higher standard of living.
If everyone uses 38 kwh per day, then we need to install enough solar base-load plants to produce that amount of power and have a grid robust enough to move those watts around.
Asking people to give up their cars or coffee or fresh fruit out of season is unlikely to prove feasible. Asking them to pay a little more for ecologically sound solutions is better. Letting the high cost of oil and natural gas make solar a no-brainer is optimal. That's where we are now, and the game is already changing.
The technology is here, it's cost effective, and the sooner the public is educated about it, the faster the inevitable switchover will occur.
Jonathan Blitz
CTO - Utility Scale Solar
www.utilityscalesolar.com