National Geographic Statistics

National Geographic has some awesome stats that help me as I try to learn more about the energy and environment industry. I find that it may be easier to store them on a blog and access when I need. Also their March 2009 issue hit the energy scarcity issue at its core: the solution is to start saving energy...starting at home. Debate over a national cap-and-trade program or tax could span endless hours to no avail. Moreover, when enacted, will the initial results be effective or meet the targets? Regardless of who is to blame for the pollution--the power plants, businesses, producers or consumers--Americans cannot deny that they are energy hogs. Point the fingers back at China and India as well but if we stop being a child feeling as if it's unfair that China and India aren't playing the same game of "Save Energy," grow up and realize that we can't continue wasting energy. Is climate change real or anthropogenic? Does the U.S. efforts to curb greenhouse gas emission have any real impact if China and India don't? The fact of the matter is that all you skeptics out there can continue expending your energy like Wall Street hordes its bonuses while the rest apply our time to rethinking our lifestyles. Energy--especially clean energy-- is scarce. Oil has to come from overseas. Coal is plentiful but dirty and hard to clean without viable emission controls. Renewables are the emerging markets but can they keep up with the rate that each person in the U.S. wants to power an IPOD, a new laptop, a car, or keep our heat on the winter, and run our ACs in when it's hot? One way to immediately start dealing with this issue--energy crisis, global warming,etc. (call it the name you want)--is to think wisely about the energy we use and whether we really need to use it. Turn the TV off when you aren't watching it, the light off when you aren't using it, unplug those cell phone chargers when you are not charging anything. Mitigating this issue does not mean converting yourself into a treehugger, giving up your thirst for big cars or TVs etc; rather, it's about thinking wisely about your energy budget. Don't spend the money you don't need to spend. Don't use the energy you don't need to use.

- 1 part per billion (ppb), a standard metric for measuring chemicals in the body, is like dropping a half-teaspoon of red dye into an Olympic swimming pool ("Pollution Within")
- A CFL uses so much less energy than an incandescent bulb, over its lifetime a single one can save electricity equivalent to the quarter-ton pile of coal in the foreground. - (April 2009 "Solutions for a Better World: A lighter footprint")
-For new plants coming online- 5-7 cents/KWh vs $0.22/kwh for solar
- average U.S. household emits 150lbs CO2/day from commonplace tasks
-a kwh of electricity in the U.S. produces 1.5lbs of Co2
- every 100 cf of nat gas emits 12 lbs of Co2
-China is building the equivalent of 2 midsize coal-fired powerplants a week
-a product's true cost includes the environmental impacdts from harvesting the raw materials used to make it, GHG s emitted in creating it, manufacturing process, packaging, transporting,
- a typical aluminum can can contain 40% recycled aluminum