Inconvenient Fact of the Day
The Skeptical Optimist has a great chart on who consumes energy and what fuels that consumption comes from. Don’t miss it.
He also makes an interesting point about energy conservation that has been undeniable through the course of history so far:
Conservation measures reduce our energy usage per standard-of-living-dollar, enabling our standard of living to increase at a faster rate, which in turn will increase the total amount of energy we’ll use. Sounds counterintuitive, but it’s the one sure bet about our energy future: Energy efficiency improvements will help drive increased energy usage.
In other words, against the desires of enviro extremists, people haven’t, and in all likelihood won’t, volunteer to return to pre-Industrial Age ways of life as they conserve.
