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Reducing Poverty Can Actually Lower Energy Demand, Finds Research

posted by mrpg on Sunday June 06 2021, @03:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the good dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AzumaHazuki:

Reducing poverty can actually lower energy demand, finds research:

[...] We found that households that do have access to clean fuels, safe water, basic education and adequate food—that is, those not in extreme poverty—can use as little as half the energy of the national average in their country.

This is important, as it goes directly against the argument that more resources and energy will be needed for people in the global south to escape extreme poverty. The biggest factor is the switch from traditional cooking fuels, like firewood or charcoal, to more efficient (and less polluting) electricity and gas.

In Zambia, Nepal and Vietnam, modern energy resources are extremely unfairly distributed—more so than income, general spending, or even spending on leisure. As a consequence, poorer households use more dirty energy than richer households, with ensuing health and gender impacts. Cooking with inefficient fuels consumes a lot of energy, and even more when water needs to be boiled before drinking.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @03:53AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @03:53AM (#1142239)

    > That's where good loamy soil comes from.

    And pine barrens too. Not all trees are the same.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by coolgopher on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:21AM

    by coolgopher (1157) on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:21AM (#1142249)

    Don't bring Barrens chat over to this site too!

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:31AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:31AM (#1142251) Journal

    Actually, mixed in reasonable proportions, pine straw and pine chips make good mulch. Fifty pounds of pine trash mixed with fifty pounds of other vegetation and hoed into the garden soil will make nice soil for next year. "Other stuff" may include oak leaves, acorns, and twigs, grass clippings, gum tree leaves and gumballs, and clippings from bushes and shrubs. Basically anything that grew from the soil will decompose into good nutrients.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:56AM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:56AM (#1142257) Journal
    Keep in mind that pine barrens aren't that way because of the trees, but because of the nutrient-poor soil (and the fact that the forests are recent due to warming after the latest glacial period). It takes longer to build good soil when nutrients are hard to come by.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @06:07AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @06:07AM (#1142279)

      This is why when I go hiking I drop my trash anywhere I please. Suck on *those* nutrients, trees.