One cubic mile of oil
Posted by admin, Wed Jan 17 07:06:13 UTC 2007
Sort of puts things into perspective. I love the graphic.
The idea is to cut past all the different ways we measure energy output—BTUs, joules, kilowatt-hours, and a bunch of other stuff, all appropriate for certain kinds of energy under certain conditions. Instead, say the authors, a few researchers, have realized that every year humanity consumes one cubic mile of oil every year. So they propose, as an equivalency, a new unit: the CMO. It’s a cool idea, and—even though I’m a huge fan of alternative ways to generate energy, these numbers do put the current ideas into some context.
