Energy Facts:

or how do you grock a giga tonne?

 

• To lock up the 8 billion tons of carbon released into the atmosphere each year would require planting a forest 4 times the area of the United States.
• In spite of a stated policy originating from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 to reduce carbon emissions in the US to 1990 levels by the Year 2000, emissions have increased at 1.3% per year over the same period.
  
• In order to meet its increased demand for electricity, China plans on building new coal fired power plants that will triple its coal consumption in the next 25 years.
  
• There are the equivalent of 500 1000 megawatt power plants in the U.S. In order to fuel just one standard 1000 megawatt power plant with wood, on a sustainable basis, requires a forest plantation of roughly 1,500 square miles.
  
• If present consumption continues, by 2025, 2/3 of the world's population will live in areas with insufficient water to meet their needs.

Definitions

Giga = 10⁹or 1,000,000,000

Tera = 10¹² or 1,000,000,000,000

kg. = kilogram = 2.20 pounds

tonne or metric tonne is 1,000 kilograms or 2,205 lb. or 1.10 tons

mmt = million metric tonnes