clear environmental

The following post from Carbon Kids Blog talks about how the increase in residential energy use is outpacing population growth.  This pattern holds true in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMTs), water consumption, and the rate at which we are gobbling up land for development.  I discussed this in a January 2008 post at greener loudoun titled “Can we keep doing what we’re doing?“

Apparent in the following table is the dramatic increase in residential energy use relative to the population change during that period. Use of coal and natural gas required to generate that additional electricity has also increased, though coal used for electricity is not specific to residential consumption. Consumer gasoline consumption has slightly outpaced population growth.

The following table and plot illustrate changes in usage of electricity, gasoline, coal, etc. with respect to changing population.

A natural target for conservation efforts is therefore in the residential electricity sector. The increased per-capita consumption apparent in the plot below has not resulted in a significantly higher standard of living–at least not in the past few decades. <READ MORE at CARBON KIDS BLOG>