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Some interesting numbers

Will Franklin at Willisms looked at some numbers and came up with a great little chart:

Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 481 - Energy Intensity.
America Is Actually Pretty Energy Efficient

People tend to complain about America's environmental record, but few of those same people are willing to acknowledge that America is actually quite a bit more energy efficient than it was many years ago. Instead, we hear that the environment is constantly getting worse in every way, that we are consuming perpetually more energy with no end in sight, and that we ought to be ashamed for civilization itself.

Relative to 1910, though, the picture gives us reason for optimism:


Click to embiggen...

Will then goes on to link to this article at the American Enterprise Institute:

...the United States is currently outperforming Europe in reducing energy intensity (the amount of energy used per unit of economic output) and greenhouse gases. According to the Department of Energy's latest annual report on the subject, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.5 percent in 2006, the first time they have fallen in a nonrecessionary year. It is likely that the United States is the only industrialized nation whose greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2006.

How about that! And the article goes into a lot more detail with links to sources. A longish read but an interesting one. Posted by DaveH at March 27, 2008 5:17 PM