Rich nations may dramatically minimize vitality use with out compromising their well-being, a brand new examine from Stanford College printed Tuesday in Ecosphere finds.
Researchers measured vitality consumption and well-being benchmarks throughout 140 international locations and located 75 gigajoules (GJ) is the ‘magic quantity’ above which high quality of life typically stops enhancing.
“That implies to me that we may nudge vitality use downwards in a bunch of hyper-consuming international locations and never simply make a extra equitable world, however maybe make ourselves more healthy and happier,” lead writer Rob Jackson instructed NPR.
Vitality consumption is wildly unequal worldwide — folks within the U.S. use 284 GJ per yr, greater than 23 occasions the common particular person in Senegal.
As reported by NPR:
Globally, round 759 million folks lived with out electrical energy and a couple of.6 billion with out clear cooking gasoline in 2019, in accordance with the World Financial institution. That comes at an infinite human price. Round 4 million folks die annually from situations attributable to indoor air air pollution from cooking fires, in accordance with the World Well being Group. Entry to electrical energy is vital for offering medical companies and powering trendy economies.
For a deeper dive:
NPR, Axios, Bloomberg
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