Do I Contribute?
With America’s rapidly growing population, energy use in today’s society is greater than ever.
Almost every American citizen uses more energy than needed by not doing such simple things as turning off a light switch, or leaving the water running when they brush their teeth. This may be fine to do now, but with rapidly increasing prices in water and energy, and the rapid growth of America’s population, it will be very expensive and harder to find in the future. Do American’s use too much energy? According to a study done by Stone Marmot Enterprises, America accounts for only 4% of the world population, but uses over 25% of the world’s energy. This is an outrageous number, and if this much energy use is kept up, their will be none left for our grandchildren and great grandchildren. Many would blame the businesses in the U. S.
for this disproportionate energy consumption. But businesses have a very strong incentive to conserve energy. That incentive in the bottom line: How profitable the business is or even if it can stay in business. With a booming economy, vast profits may overwhelm the costs associated with energy so that these costs may not be noticed by all but the most profit conscious firms. But in lean times, such as we have been going through, and companies trying to cut costs any way that they can, the hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars spent by a company each year on energy can’t be ignored. With non renewable resources accounting for over half of then energy used in America, this epidemic cannot be ignored.
Some places such as big industries need to use as much energy as they do to run their company, but most Americans use more energy than they should. According to a study done by Marc Gunther; a columnist at GreenBiz, Americans waste over $130 billion dollars worth of energy every year. Almost half of that could be cut out by doing simple things such as taking shorter showers, turning off lights when you leave a room, and turning off the water in your sink when you’re brushing your teeth. To compare America’s energy usage on a global scale, one American consumes as much energy as six Mexicans, thirteen Chinese, thirty one Indians, and over one hundred and seventy Ethiopians. This is all according to a study done at Washington State University. Those are outrageously high numbers that could be drastically reduced by just turning lights off, taking shorter showers, or taking less showers.
The Chinese are not light energy consumers, and they still consume thirteen times less energy than the average American does. Global warming is a rising phenomena that is believed to be caused by emissions of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere destroying the ozone layer. The United States in ranked number one in the world for Carbon Dioxide emission with China following closely behind in second. A majority of this is due to non fuel efficient cars that reduce large amounts of Carbon Dioxide into the air, but some of this is due to over consumption of energy in American households. According to a study done by Mother Earth News, the Average American has an energy bill of about one hundred dollars a month. This may not seem like much, but on a global scale it is huge.
Cutting down on energy usage would not only help Americans save money, but it would help with the global warming crisis and it would leave more energy for future generations to thrive and prosper. According to a study done by Green Biz Enterprises, Americans could cut out over 23% of their energy consumption, merely by taking simple, practical steps to save energy such as driving a more fuel efficient car, turning off lights that you are not using, and taking shorter or less showers. These simple steps would also give America a better reputation than being the largest energy consumer in the world, with larger carbon dioxide emission than China; the most heavily populated country in the world. How does energy consumption affect my peers at school? I recently conducted a survey amongst my peers to find their opinions and ideas about energy consumption. My research found that amongst my fellow peers, about 75% of them takes showers that are ten minutes or longer.
My research also found that 90% of students feel like they waste energy even though most of them shower only once a day. Their explanations for why they feel that they waste energy were very similar. Most of them said they do it because it has become a habit to them and they don’t think about how much they are actually wasting. So the question remains; how can we remedy the energy consumption problem in America? Well the answer is very simple. If people can do simple things such as taking a shorter shower or turning off lights when they leave the room, it will cut out a large percentage of the energy consumption.
A greater way people can help is by buying incandescent or energy saving light bulbs, or by driving a car that emits less Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. Simple things such as these can reduce America’s energy consumption by over twenty percent and leave more nonrenewable resources for future generations to come. So, my fellow Americans, it is time to stop all the wasting and start conserving. It’s time for a revolutionary change that will not only benefit America, but the rest of the world also. The fate of the world and future generations to come depends on you making the right decision to cut back on energy usage and think about how it affects other people.
