Population and Energy Consumption
The population problem isn't just a matter of the number of people. People consume food, fresh water, wood, minerals, and energy as we go about our daily lives. And producing food, pumping groundwater, harvesting wood, mining minerals, and burning fuel all deplete our resource base.
One indicator of environmental impact is to measure our energy consumption. As much of our energy is consumed and depleted, it also is increasing pollution. And unlike a lot of environmental factors that are hard to measure, we have very precise records of how much energy is being consumed each year by each country of the world. So we can estimate how much environmental impact each country creates.
When you click on one of the countries in the graph below, you'll see how that country compares to the United States in the size of its population, the amount of energy it consumes as a country, and the amount of energy consumed per person.
You may be surprised to see how much energy people consume... but remember that we're not just looking at their electricity bills! Every time you buy something, you're also buying all the energy that was used to produce that thing. Every time you pay your taxes, you're paying for photocopies, business trips, and air conditioning in government offices. In fact, on average, every time an American spends a dollar, the energy equivalent of a cup of oil is used to produce what that dollar buys!
Why single out the U.S.A.?
Why are we focusing on the United States? Because Americans make up only 5% of the world's population and yet consume 20% of its energy! That's really extravagant! Imagine if you consumed four times more gasoline as your neighbors... or four times more food... or produced four times more garbage. Your neighbors wouldn't be very happy! Yet, that's what we're doing.
That's why we've singled out the United States for comparison here ... its energy consumption is truly extraordinary!
What's the Point?
The purpose of this exercise isn't to blame people in rich countries for wasting energy, because for the most part they don't know they're doing it. It's not to say each person in a poor country is as poor as every other person in that country, because there are rich and poor people in every country. And it's not to imply that all we need to do is consume less energy and everything will be OK. The point is that the population problem isn't just something "over there" in "those poor countries," where they may be having more children. From a consumption perspective, the developed countries have a bigger population growth problem than the developing countries!
Next time you hear about a woman in India who has 7 children, remember that she'd have to have more than 10 children to match the impact of an American woman with just one child! And immigrants who move to the U.S. are likely to consume far more energy just by moving here. Even if they scrimp and save energy at home, everything they buy will increase consumption of energy and other resources.
Population and Energy Consumption by Country
| Country: click to compare to USA |
 Population Energy consumption Hover over bar for actual data |
Percent of global total |
|
| China | |
| India | |
| USA | |
| Indonesia | |
| Brazil | |
| Pakistan | |
| Bangladesh | |
| Russian Federation | |
| Japan | |
| Mexico | |
| Philippines | |
| Germany | |
| Egypt | |
| Turkey | |
| Iran | |
| France | |
| Thailand | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Italy | |
| South Africa | |
Percent of global total |
Data courtesy:
BP, "Statistical Review of World Energy 2007;". See 2007 in review and Statistical Review of World Energy 2008.
Wikipedia (compiled from various sources), 2007. See List of countries by energy consumption per capita.