Outpacing U.S., China now the world’s largest gorger of energy

[Javaman]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/outpacing-us-china-now-the-worlds-largest-gorger-of-energy/article1645406/

China has leaped ahead of the United States as the world’s largest energy consumer, marking yet another tectonic shift in the global economic order.

Already this year, China has sped past the United States as the largest auto market on the planet and moved ahead of Germany as the world’s No. 1 exporter. Now, driven by a seemingly endless series of major infrastructure projects as well as rising demand from its fast-growing consumer class, China’s energy consumption is outstripping the U.S., according to the International Energy Agency.

China last year consumed 2.252 billion tonnes of oil equivalent of energy from sources including coal, oil, natural gas, hyrdro and nuclear power, about 4 per cent more than the United States, the IEA said told the paper. The U.S. had held the title of the world’s biggest energy user since the early 1900s.

Ascendance to the top spot underscores the rising influence of the world’s fastest growing major economy and the reordering of international power following the global financial crisis. China’s oil-equivalent consumption, which includes crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and hydropower, was just half the size of the U.S. 10 years ago.

(a couple of more paragraphs at link)

[SocialistLez]

1. Makes sense, they have LOTS more people. NT

[rucky]

2. How much of it is used to make crap that we consume here?

:shrug:

[Javaman]

3. Very good question. nt

[The Croquist]

4. What a stupid headline

China has a population over 4 times that of the US. The fact that they use more power than the US is
more an indication of the fact that their economy is lifting them out of poverty then anything else.

To claim that they are the world’s largest gorger of energy is absurd. Per person they are using a quarter of the power that the average American uses.

You might as well claim that a family of 4 gorges too much compared to their single next door neighbor.

[NickB79]

7. The rate of energy consumption is pretty significant though

20 years ago, China used 1/10 the energy of the US with 4X the population. Today they use more than the US with 4X the population. That is the fastest increase in a country's energy consumption we've ever seen, and it shows few signs of slowing down. Despite their claims about stepping up solar, wind and nuclear, the vast majority of that energy is coming from coal-fired plants, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

[XemaSab]

5. Punny headline

:P

[Statistical]

6. given they have 5x the people let me know where their per capita consumption passes ours.

Alternatively the US could cut it's per capita consumption to that of China. Should be easy right? since they are the world's largest energy consumer.

Hell if the US had lower energy density (energy per unit of GDP) then maybe we had room to complain about what China does.

Right now it is kinda like 5 obese Americans will still eat less food than 1000 malnourished Ethiopians combined. By the logic of the headline there is nothing wrong with American's. If those Ethiopians would just eat a little less (or some of them starve to death) then Americans can eat a little more. Those damn food hog Ethiopians.

"I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror, I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways"

The obsession with China is simply a way for American energy hog to pretend THEY aren't the real problem.