Keith Addison wrote:
>
> The gross size doesn't account for it though. The average American
> uses twice as much energy as the average European or Japanese. In
> terms of production, Americans produce more per head than Europeans
> and about the same as Japanese, but they use twice as much energy as
> the Japanese to do it.
In my view, two things contribute to this excessive energy usage. The
first,
is that the U.S. is a very large country whose manufacturing, farming and retail
centers are dispersed over a large geographic area. This "creates" a need to
move goods and services in excess of what smaller nations, like Japan or
Germany,
are required to do. Hence, 25% of all energy used in the U.S. is "used" for
transportation, most of that is derived from petroleum, and better than 50% of
that is imported.
Secondly, our economic and tax policies favor resource extraction rather
than
resource conservation. This might have been an important factor in developing
the national infrastructure, but now that it's in place, such policies
contribute
to excessive resource use.
If people have no economic incentive to conserve resources, few will
actually
do so. This is not a problem limited to Americans--we just happen to be wealthy
enough to afford waste, and that's a shame. What we typically don't see, is
that
our waste creates distress for other nations that supply us with goods and
services, while it undermines our economic future. (Increased efficiency will
result in greater productivity and profit for local businesses.)
Living in someone else's country has brought these issues into clear focus
for me. Americans interested in changing this dynamic need to begin by reducing
their own energy use as much as possible, then work to address myopic policies
that promote waste.
Alack! I've been preaching this sermon for almost 30 years, and nobody
seems
to be listening!
I'm done with my rant now. . .
robert luis rabello
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck
Monitoring Service trial
http://us.click.yahoo.com/ACHqaB/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address.
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
