The energy we take for granted is becoming scarce
Writers on the Range: The energy we take for granted is becoming scarce
By Randy Udall
Writers on the Range
March 18, 2008
A modern snowmobile is more powerful than any machine that existed on the planet 200 years ago. In an hour you can be 20 miles from the nearest road, high-marking a corniced ridge. But if the engine breaks or you run out of gas, how quickly the tables can turn. One minute you are omnipotent, devouring space, living like a god. In the next you are frightened, shivering like a dog.
The Inuit understood cold, and how to survive it. For centuries, they lived on Arctic shores, heating their igloos with seal oil. If there was no seal oil, they ate their meat raw. In contrast, we modern people have become dangerously cavalier about this thing we call winter, perhaps because we live inside a civilization that is one big bonfire.
Energy consumption in the United States is approximately 1 million British Thermal Units per person per day, nearly twice what it is in Europe or Japan. That means we each use the equivalent of 100 pounds of coal, or eight gallons of gasoline, or one lightning bolt
