We Americans love the energy. We represent 5% of the world population and consume 20% of the total energy.
The host of environmental trade offs associated with the typical American lifestyle are becoming more familiar: global warming, deforestation, mountaintop removal, pollution. For those of us with a passion for the outdoors, these changes have a direct impact on what we experience. Wilderness is diminished, rivers dammed and ecosystems altered, generally for the worse.
It’s clear something has to change: either we use less energy or figure out more sustainable ways to produce the energy we use. Or both.
It’s a bewildering problem, which may have been what prompted the National Academies of Science to produce an interactive website, titled “What you need to know about energy,” that explains where we get our energy, how we use it and at what cost.
The site also offers an overview of various ways that energy efficiency has been improved in cars, home heating and cooling units and lighting.
Arguably the coolest part of the site is the interactive energy system map (pictured above) that demonstrates the flow of energy from various sources – from solar (currently providing less than one hundreth of one percent of our total energy supply) to oil (about 37 percent) – to our factories, businesses and homes.
Okay, so it’s all a bit wonky and pretty depressing. But there’s nothing wonky about having your favorite hike marred by mountain removal or about the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And talk about depressing…
You can’t overcome a problem until you understand it. This is a fairly entertaining way to begin understanding it.
