Americans are 5% of World Population, consume 1/4 of its Energy (infographic)

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/americans-population-infographic.html

Americans are 5% of World Population, consume 1/4 of its Energy (infographic)
By Juan Cole | Dec. 3, 2013

[Wilms]

1. Exceptionalism!1!

[Flatulo]

2. True, but don't we also produce a proportionate amount of the world's stuff?

I believe the American worker is currently the most productive in the world. It takes a lot of energy to produce agricultural products, machine tools, airframes, autos etc.

Obviously we need to become more efficient, but these talking points tend to represent only one side of the story.

[unhappycamper]

3. Military stuff, yes.

Everything else - no so much.

[Flatulo]

5. Food? Machinery? Aircraft?

Unfortunately, our economy depends on consuming stuff and then throwing it away. Do we really need new iPhones every six months?

I'd like to see stuff made to last longer.

[Iterate]

6. The US is 43rd in exports per capita, so 'no' is the answer to that question.

It's easy enough to check.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_exports_per_capita

You'll notice that a few which rank higher in exports would be those where oil and mining drives the numbers. Those nations also have a high CO2 output per capita.

But most exporting nations are not in that category. They live, and export, with a consumption and CO2 output 1/2 to 1/3 of the US, per capita.

[Flatulo]

7. But in sheer volume of exports, not per capita, we're number 3.

I believe the OP speaks to net resource usage, not usage per capita, so it would make more sense to compare this to net exports, not exports per capita, no?

If you look at energy consumption per capita, were number 10. It looks like the highest energy users are places that are very hot or very cold, or both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_energy_consumption_per_capita

Cheer up, though... At at the rate middle class is disappearing, we'll be a third-world country soon, and our energy use will no doubt go down.

[Iterate]

11. Iceland's high consumption is driven by the aluminium industry

and the others are similarly small populations with an energy intensive industry such as oil extraction and refining. Iceland gets a pass for that because nearly all of their electricity is from renewables. So even with the high consumption, their CO2 output is around 1/2 of the US, per capita.

The disappeared...interesting that the US has cut CO2 by fracking near those with little power, and cutting the powerless from the economy - people who themselves were not the big consumers and not the prime source of the problem.

[quadrature]

10. the US exports food

production of grain is CO2 intensive

[Iterate]

12. ...and wastes 40% of what it grows.

And it's not enough to suggest that consumers be more careful and farmers use biodiesel.

Consumption is built into the infrastructure.

Ban the garbage grinder, as other nations do, rather than using clean drinking water to pump the waste back to an overloaded treatment plant.

Cut the cord from the freezer, where good food goes to die. Small markets within walking distance are the key there.

Learn to cook, as that bit of de-skilling inevitably leads to the drive-thru. There's less waste in the cook's home than the frozen food factory or the fast food outlet.

Four-bin recycling, mandatory and universal, gets the bio-waste to a plant where biogas and usable fertilizer are made.

I could go on, but that's enough for a starter course.

[beachbum bob]

4. I choose not to live in a grass hut

America's consumption rate is not so far out of whack when compare with other INDUSTRIALIZED and MODERN countries...

There are things we can do for sure, especially with energy consumption.

[Nihil]

8. Ironic really, given your choice of username ... (n/t)

[beachbum bob]

9. if i could afford beach front property

A grass hut would be suffice!!!