January 29, 2007

Efficiency is Crucial to a Green Future
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 01.29.07
Science & Technology (alternative energy)
When we say that efficiency is crucial for a green future, we mean it. Look at these graphs from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (they are similar to those used by Amory Lovins in his book Natural Capitalism and in his Winning the Oil Endgame video presentation). They show that out of the ~97 quads (1 quad = 10^15 British thermal units) or ~103 exajoules (1 exajoule = 10^18 joules) generated from various sources in the US in 2002 (nuclear, hydro, biomass, natural gas, coal, petroleum), 56.2 quads or 59.3 exajoules were wasted, lost, unused for any valuable work. That's more than half. We all need to take a moment and seriously think about that.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/efficiency_cruc.php