Energy use in the global North

Energy consumption per person in Africa compared to a typical American refrigerator. Energy and resource consumption in the EU is almost as bad as in the US. If every African starts adopting the lifestyle of the Global North, our planet’s natural resources will be depleted within months.

1 Like

This is about overpopulation. If you look at population distribution in the mid-northern latitudes, that’s where people really shouldn’t be living. It’s cold. It has a short growing season. It requires lots of heating in the winter. These are the areas where humans can not thrive without more advanced technologies. Without those technologies humans would be much more sparsely populated in the northern regions.

Europe and N America are a bit different when it comes to latitude. The latitude in Europe can not be directly compared to the same latitude in the US or Canada. Europe is surrounded by water, which acts as a heat sink and tempers the climate. In N America it depends on distance from the ocean more than latitude. Central US and Canada have extreme and unpredictable weather. There is nothing to temper it.

If the people In Africa are going to be fed, not only will more refrigerators be needed, but they will probably need to use more pesticides and herbicides.

It’s ironic that the parts of the planet where humans should naturally live are the parts where they have the hardest time of it. And the parts where humans should be sparsely populated are where they have the easiest time of it. Non-human animals don’t do it that way, but humans somehow manage to, for better or worse.

Pre-European N America was VERY sparsely populated except in the lower latitudes. That low population was sustainable. Most of the American population was in the lower latitudes from present day middle Mexico south to Peru, Columbia, etc. A relatively small area in Mexico had a population much larger than present day US and Canada combined.

The only reason so many humans live in the northern latitudes and harsh interior is because of technology. We build walls around nature and create artificial environments to live in. Then we flood deserts and clear forests to grow food and ship it thousands of miles to feed us. Then when nature tries to “cull the herd” like it does with every other species, we create advanced medicine to counter it. The whole thing snowballs until it’s out of control.

1 Like