Some scary statistics on how much energy American's Consume - embodied energy

"Americans live in one of the most developed nations on earth, with some of the highest quality of life. Our economic, educational and cultural influences shape the growth of countries across the globe and more and more people are seeking to live an American lifestyle. But can we survive the growth of American-style consumerism? What price are we, and the rest of the world, paying for our material wealth? How much energy actually goes into the products we buy? Sure, outsourcing labor to developing nations saves money, but think about the amount of fossil fuels used on shipping all that product half way around the world. This is just a small portion of what is called embodied energy. Embodied energy is the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product lifecycle. This lifecycle includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition. In the past 50 years, the worlds population has used as much natural resources as was needed to sustain the entire course of human history before then. By 2050, the Earths population is projected to be 8.9 billion. In that time, the US will have gained 150 million, thats four times the population of California, our most populous state. What does this mean when Americans make up 5% of the population but account for 35% of global energy consumption? Per person, thats 31 times the amount that is used in India. Even the way we choose to eat presents sustainability issues. 56% of US farmland is used for beef. We feed 85% of corn and 95% of oats we produce to livestock to support a fast food infrastructure that has Americans eating 200 billion excess calories per day. It takes 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat, but it takes over 5,000 gallons to produce a pound of beef. Another reason why we need to consider the embodied energy in the things we buy. We have a unique opportunity, by choosing to lead healthier lifestyles, to change our system and become a healthier and more sustainable example to the world."



While attending Northeastern Universities' School of architecture, I was enrolled in an Environmental Class. Here is a public service announcement animation. It was a partner project, done mostly in Adobe Illustrator, After Effects, Keynote, iMovie, and Garage Band for those curious.

Music: DJ Shadow - Stem

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Green
• energy
• environment
• animation
• voice over
• oil
• sustainable
• sustainability
• United States
• consumption
• population
• growth
• food
• graph
• embodied energy
• statistics
• scary
• epic
• intense
• After Effects
• Illustrator
• iMovie
• natural resources
• nature
• natural
• autotune
• autotuned
• auto tune
• auto tuned
• california
• US
• USA
• U.S.A.
• fat american
• issues
• fat
• United
• States
• 2050
• wasteland

[01murk10]

propaganda, growth doent need to be slowed down, and America and Americans are not evil

[neversummer427]

@01murk10 that's not the point. The point is, Americans consume more than any other country. We are wasteful. And this is not propaganda, it is a public service announcement that was a class assignment for an environmental class.

no where did i say we American's are evil

[revivalxnever]

Not to be picky but BC dates don't have negative signs

[neversummer427]

yeah, I was using after effects and really really couldn't figure it out. If anyone knows how to do it PLEASE let me know!

[vicNU10]

I love the fat american guy!!!! great video!

[revivalxnever]

Yeah seriously! my favorite part. Pretty crazy facts, a real eye opener

[freedan33]

we recently hired a car in america and as we didn't want a big gas guzzler , we chose a vw golf which was nice as thats what we drive at home, imagine our suprise when it turned out to be a guzzler after all, i'm pretty sure i was only getting about 25-27 mpg and my own golf does about 50mpg give or take. strange but true.

[anom2lol]

All I can say is this shows how bad ass america is. Look we have a lot more shit to power then other people so it's obvious that we use so much power because america is the best fucking country in this god damed world!

[V4L4N1]

It's time to stop shitting on this earth which we think we own. The western world is materialistic and its time for a change, unfortunately I don't see it happening....

[mookixox]

No discussion of how many barrels of oil america uses each day???

[FaerieTigerLilly]

It was a good video. People are FINALLY paying attention to what's important!! (Btw, what's 'BC dates'?)

It was a really cool video, but you should maybe include more statistics-- there aren't a lot of videos that have the global statistics ready and at hand. Just a suggestion =)

[paultheuglydog]

I dont care how much energy I consume I will still live very wastefully.