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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @05:59AM (1 child)
> good record
depends on the metric. the giant show-stopping events of the last 100 years are probably the creation of welfare and national health services, won out of vast international wars caused in large part by the decline of monarchs/dictators in the west. coincidentally at the same time, most of the castles and great family estates went bust. hmm....
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 07 2021, @12:35PM