jayparkinsonmd: “A human being at rest runs on 90 watts,” he says. “That’s how much power you need just to lie down. And if you’re a hunter-gatherer and you live in the Amazon, you’ll need about 250 watts. That’s how much energy it takes to run about and find food. So how much energy does our lifestyle [in America] require? Well, when you add up all our calories and then you add up the energy needed to run the computer and the air-conditioner, you get an incredibly large number, somewhere around 11,000 watts. Now you can ask yourself: What kind of animal requires 11,000 watts to live? And what you find is that we have created a lifestyle where we need more watts than a blue whale. We require more energy than the biggest animal that has ever existed. That is why our lifestyle is unsustainable. We can’t have seven billion blue whales on this planet. It’s not even clear that we can afford to have 300 million blue whales.” Obviously though, if we just make all the whales extinct then we won’t have to worry about our crippling energy addiction, right?

jayparkinsonmd:

“A human being at rest runs on 90 watts,” he says. “That’s how much power you need just to lie down. And if you’re a hunter-gatherer and you live in the Amazon, you’ll need about 250 watts. That’s how much energy it takes to run about and find food. So how much energy does our lifestyle [in America] require? Well, when you add up all our calories and then you add up the energy needed to run the computer and the air-conditioner, you get an incredibly large number, somewhere around 11,000 watts. Now you can ask yourself: What kind of animal requires 11,000 watts to live? And what you find is that we have created a lifestyle where we need more watts than a blue whale. We require more energy than the biggest animal that has ever existed. That is why our lifestyle is unsustainable. We can’t have seven billion blue whales on this planet. It’s not even clear that we can afford to have 300 million blue whales.”

Obviously though, if we just make all the whales extinct then we won’t have to worry about our crippling energy addiction, right?

(via kmparker)

7 months ago
  1. spilledcandy reblogged this from jayparkinsonmd
  2. ohhhhtheweatheroutsideisweather reblogged this from tyleroakley
  3. emmajocarlson reblogged this from under-thesea
  4. tetrachromacy reblogged this from kygs
  5. weekendlifestyles reblogged this from neako
  6. thevacanthearted reblogged this from yokocobain
  7. sirobtep reblogged this from lustik
  8. yokocobain reblogged this from under-thesea
  9. under-thesea reblogged this from champagnehangovers
  10. theozgun reblogged this from jayparkinsonmd and added:
    Abi makale hayvan gibi uzun, yalan yok tamamını okumadım, ama şunu anlatmam lazım: Bir insan dinlenme halindeyken
  11. laminatedbandit reblogged this from kjartanthemagnificent
  12. jmbalmaceda reblogged this from neako
  13. coffeeandblueprints reblogged this from ziyadmd
  14. thedelfina reblogged this from spicycolleen
  15. spicycolleen reblogged this from tyleroakley
  16. sineadmckid reblogged this from christianarghhh
  17. unique-0ne reblogged this from mosttt-dope
  18. michaelpurrrez reblogged this from mosttt-dope
  19. hartandsoul reblogged this from lodeshisthename
  20. barsandtwists reblogged this from pointlesslinks
  21. lodeshisthename reblogged this from barsandtwists
  22. ponchomejia reblogged this from garavato
  23. bubbleegum reblogged this from butterflyeffect
  24. butterflyeffect reblogged this from -withinyouwithoutyou
  25. gluetosketchbook reblogged this from paris2london
  26. ctrunley reblogged this from waneofents
  27. toans reblogged this from fujicolor200
  28. vivreunreve reblogged this from champagnehangovers
  29. blood-flow reblogged this from pebbled-leather
  30. asweburn reblogged this from barsandtwists
  31. barsandtwists reblogged this from pointlesslinks
  32. yinwinner reblogged this from bearbearpdx
  33. bearbearpdx reblogged this from jujubeejules