What is Digg?613 Comments
- emanggid, on 10/11/2007, -37/+193this graph is a little tricky.... i mean i will admit we have an amazing addiction to gas and we need to conserve and go green, etc, there's no doubt about that.
But - you have to take in account that the US is the 3rd most populated nation in the world, and most other nations trail way way behind us. Also, take in account how we are way more developed than the other two largest countries (chine, india) and basically every family has at lest 2 cars (stereotypically speaking).
Also take into effect our infrastructure: our nation is built to drive in. It is not uncommon for people to drive over an HOUR a day....in big SUVs.
Add up some of these factors and you can see, at lest, WHY we consume so much...
I say this in defense, because we are wasteful, but that graph is pretty damn shocking. - raskali, on 10/11/2007, -36/+156Japan's economy is about half that of the US and yet they use 1/7 the gasoline. So it would seem to sum things up quite nicely.
- ScrabbyDoo, on 10/11/2007, -27/+140Are you saying that the US has a more productive economy than :
Japan, China, Canada, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Britain, Italy, Iran, Australia, France, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Indonesia, India, Spain, Taiwan, South Africa AND South Korea .....
COMBINED?
Welcome back to earth, US are living a wasteful lifestyle, much to the detriment of the whole world. - killiansman, on 10/11/2007, -69/+152It only sums up how wasteful of a society we are. And you sum up the average American's arrogant sense of entitlement.
- Chandon, on 10/11/2007, -20/+90Wait a second... what's so "productive" about the US economy? As far as I can tell, all we produce is bombs and Paris Hilton...
- catalysis, on 10/11/2007, -14/+75I love how the oh-so-liberal digg suddenly turns into a bunch of conservatives when it hits close to home. Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk. With all of the ***** I see on here about global warming and big oil, I have to say that I am quite surprised at all of the responses in this thread defending mass consumption of gasoline.
- js530, on 10/11/2007, -19/+78Well, the US is ranked 172 by population density, and has a huge number of cars. A more accurate graph would be fuel consumption per car.
- Dotnetsky, on 10/13/2007, -226/+285It doesn't really "sum up" much of anything, other than to confirm what we all know: that the US has the biggest and most productive economy in the world, and can certainly thus be expected to be the biggest consumer of gasoline.
- DevastatorIIC, on 10/11/2007, -11/+65I wonder what a similar coal-consumption chart would look like. China has tons of coal-fueled power plants that pollute far more than natural-gas fired ones.
- knomevol, on 10/11/2007, -29/+81and go to war for it
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+52If we could power our cars via our body fat we wouldn't need any imported petro
- SirNoobius, on 10/11/2007, -27/+75you dont know what you're talking about dude. my school is 25 miles away and the nearest bus station to my house is 5 miles away. I usually drive 30-50 miles to work. nothing here is in walking distance. and yes we do need our cars and we can't live without it so STFU.
- TenebrousX, on 10/11/2007, -3/+44I'm moving to Turkmenistan
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -26/+67Thats because 300 million people live in a country that can fit many dozens of those countries in it. There is more space in between places.
- chicoer2001, on 10/11/2007, -7/+47The US has ***** public transportation. That's it's problem.
- Donwangugi, on 10/11/2007, -9/+48Actually Japan's economy is one third the size of the US and it is a bunch of islands the size of Montana. So it has far fewer roads and cars.
- Racerx52, on 10/11/2007, -36/+71Has anyone considered the sheer physical size of America compared to most of those countries? We drive a lot more because... WE HAVE TO GO FARTHER. Shocking. I know.
If that article says anything it's, "What the ***** France?, Where are you driving?" - Fordi, on 10/11/2007, -4/+37Temptation got the best of me. Here's the lineup:
(Gas Consumption^2)/(Population*Land Area) in l^2/km^2/cap
Taiwan: 894.08
US: 624.92
Japan: 499.29
UK: 329.22
Germany: 274.93
Italy: 177.14
S. Korea: 125.08
Venezuela: 50.87
France: 42.14
Mexico: 37.68
Canada: 32.47
Spain: 31.89
Saudi Arabia: 27.58
Iran: 25.04
Australia: 15.03
S. Africa: 12.56
Russia: 3.48
Indonesia: 3.41
China: 1.39
Brazil: 1.13
India: 0.21
We still look pretty bad, mind you, far as gasoline overuse goes. - jmpeagle, on 10/11/2007, -9/+42the U.S. has Urban Sprawl. I had a 60 mile round trip to get to high school everyday.
- brokenspatula, on 10/11/2007, -11/+43They have train systems in Australia, Japan, etc, but do you expect a train system to be built through Wyoming where the population density is 1.96/km according to wikipedia?
- killiansman, on 10/11/2007, -11/+43you are aware that what that means is that 350 million people, out of 6 billion, consume a fourth of the world's oil, right?
- scootinger, on 10/11/2007, -3/+29How about a chart of gas consumption per capita for each country? That would be a lot more straightforward.
- macguy815, on 10/11/2007, -6/+31Welcome to the Suburbia USA, where there's a walgreens a 10 minute walk from your house, but want anything that walgreens doesn't have, and you have to walk for an hour. It would take me close to and hour to walk to my high school, where as driving takes 10. In America our cities aren't old like the rest of the world's, everything is spread out because there's room for it to do so.
- mastertop, on 10/11/2007, -14/+39Right, but still, I'm impressed by the quantity used by countries like South Korea or South Africa, or even India which uses MUCH more gas than China, and another noticeable fact ;
Canada uses WAY more gas per habitant (about 3 times) than Americans... An insteresting graph would be about the gas per habitant. - derning, on 10/11/2007, -5/+28YOU'RE ... not YOUR.
Bah! - jmg703, on 10/11/2007, -14/+37You overlook the fact that the US is also much large than japan, jack.
- atheinostic, on 10/11/2007, -6/+27The U.S. economy as a proportion of the total world economy is large, but not nearly as large as the proportion of the world's gas we use.
- MotleyTool, on 10/11/2007, -6/+26All the more reason for the US to be a front runner in changing it's policy towards fossil fuels. Why is it that Europe can force higher emissions standards than the US? If we are so prone to using gasoline because we are so developed, why are we perfectly happy not to imrpove?
- spiffytech, on 10/11/2007, -12/+32"Wasteful and arrogant"
I'd like to point out the difference between how American formed vs. most other countries in the world. The entire Old World and much of South America was formed in a time where you had to walk everywhere you went, and possibly ride a horse or boat. Even in the latter cases, your travel distance was limited. If you went a couple hundred miles it was a major trip. Consequently, all communities and and resources (food, iron, etc.) were organized in fairly tight clusters within a very short range of each other. Fast forward hundreds/thousands of years, and the cities haven't moved. Most people can still walk/bicycle to school or work or the store, and the dense population makes public transportation easy to implement.
Contrast this with America. America was first populated by Europeans around the time that railroads began springing up. In fact, railroad carts were often used to move supplies from the coast to inland cities in America. By the 1800s, locomotives were in full swing, allowing America to become one of the geographically largest countries in the shortest time in history. This was because America was one of the first countries to exist in which citizens had almost always had the ability to travel 20-40 miles in a hour, not a day. Consequently, everything here is very spread out. I drive 40 miles each day to go to work/school, then 30 miles back kinda towards home for church several days a week, then home.
Would I like to drive less than 10 miles a day, and be able to ride a bicycle for most of that? Sure. Unfortunately, most Americans who aren't still living at college or in a big city like New York don't have that option. Many people wind up going to a different city to work, because the job opportunities aren't near home, and the home opportunities aren't near the job. You often need to go to a different city to buy a certain kind of product because your 10-mile radius hasn't been accustomed to being independent of non-local supply lines for hundreds of years. Had America been born before railroads, this would be different. We'd be a geographically small country with a decent public transportation system and wouldn't burn so much oil driving to different cities or flying across the continent.
Just think about all of that before you blame our extreme oil consumption on wastefulness. - myeyesarered, on 10/11/2007, -1/+18even if you combine the members of the EU to 'one economy' it's bigger than the u.s. and uses far less than them.
but the reasons are obvious: over-sized cars, no insulation in houses etc. - Burn, on 10/11/2007, -8/+24I already do. It's called Australia, and it's awesome.
- toast1226, on 10/11/2007, -3/+19Not to mention that Japan is also a much smaller country and it's pretty crowded over there. A lot of them use subways, trains, and buses to get to where they need to go due to traffic.
- bugsy187, on 10/11/2007, -4/+19I've had friends from Europe live and work here. They went back home and said they would never live in the US permanently. Their work and living experience here was awful and I'll confirm it. We have pretty miserable boss-worker relations here and miserly social programs. People in France get a minimum of 7 weeks of vacation per year. That applies to even the lowest level workers. Germany has comparable benefits. Many Americans get little or no vacation. On top of that, it's illegal for bosses in France to ask people to work weekends. The poorest person in It's also interesting that a poor person in England has a longer life expectancy than the wealthiest person in America. We're getting the shaft here, and bad.
Why shouldn't we sample the fruit of our work? Why shouldn't we have nationalized health care when every other industrialized does? America has much room for improvement. Chanting about how great we have it is interesting propaganda. We have certain freedoms, but let's keep the benefits rolling forward. Unfortunately we're losing our freedoms to the war on "terrorism" and our benefits are sacrificed more and more to corporate profits.
On the up side they did like American people, who they said were smart and friendly. - jmpeagle, on 10/11/2007, -21/+35and yet we only consume less than 25% of the world's oil
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2174rank.html - Jugalator, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15Your reply makes no sense. The graph compares against the COMBINED amount, not against any single country, or any average of the countries.
- uglyboxer, on 10/11/2007, -6/+19Everyone seems to have missed the point of the original digg. They said global politics. It is not the details of the breakdown of the total number of gallons. It is the total number of gallons that drives Americas foreign policy, and all of its global niceties. So get off your high horse, forget what you think you deserve as an American, and face the fact that your choices have dire consequences in places near and far.
- threemagic, on 10/11/2007, -7/+20You make it sound like we regularly go from California to Rhode Island on car rides... come on.. most countries are big enough to have travel as much as we do in any city.
- threemagic, on 10/11/2007, -17/+30I love how he says something about America being wasteful (something I dont think anyone in the world would disagree with) and the 3 right wingers jump in and call him names, just typical!
PS if you say someone is an idiot.. at least do it correct or you look like more of an idiot. In the case you used, it's you're. - jmpeagle, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16U.S. is ranked 172 meaning it has a very low pop density
I drove or my parents drove an hour to get to high school every day for 4 years. If you live in the D.C, Houston, LA, or Seattle metropolitan areas, one hour plus commutes are not uncommon. In the DC area it is even worse with lots of 90-120 minute commuters. - tech42er, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16Size might have something to do with it. We're roughly 25 times as large as Japan. According to Wikipedia, the US is 9,631,420 km squared, while Japan is 377,873 km squared. The former divided by the latter is 25.4.
- Scheissen, on 10/11/2007, -16/+28No, America just doesn't tax the hell out of gas like all of the europeans countries. This is a ***** statistic that means nothing. Americans do not live in cities. You euros would do the same if you had the space but you people keep the one lane roads and have to live in cities to keep your job.
- stmiller, on 10/11/2007, -4/+16For those complaining how 'this is how it is in the US, we cannot do anything,' I've got an interesting chart for you:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/images/sep06/images/ngasf2.gif - jbob2000, on 10/11/2007, -7/+19Ok, then Canada and Russia should use tons of gas, right? Size isn't the issue as I'm sure most driving is done in and around the city and across the freakin country. Americans have some sort of obsession with large vehicles. You won't see SUVs and pickups in huge numbers in Europe and other parts of the world simply because they aren't fuel efficient and nobody really needs that much space. It's not just cars that use the oil. Plastics, energy, military, and entertainment (NASCAR anyone?) use tons of fuel
- Fordi, on 10/11/2007, -4/+16Ah, I wouldn't apply that particular statement to all United States Citizens; some of us take the bus, you know.
'Wasteful', in the context of gasoline use, applies to the ***** who own hummers. Especially those with license plates that say '7 MPG' and park it in Center City. Seriously, I hope someone keyed that arrogant *****'s urban assault vehicle. - PakoBedejo, on 10/11/2007, -7/+18neiltc13...
What you fail to realize is that Americans live in free-standing houses, mobile homes, & apartment complexes. Please don't stereotype all cities/counties by what you see on Sex in the City.
Where I live, the nearest public transportation would be a 90 minute walk. I can drive 2 miles to a drugstore, wal-mart, lowes, home depot, sam's club, burger king, subway restaurant, etc.
Post WWII American Urban/Rural planning was done by a bunch of pricks who were patting each other on the backs about how great we are as a nation. They had their heads so far up their asses, they never imagined Americans wouldn't want to drive 20-40 miles to work every day & at least 3-7 miles to go to the store for Asprin. Their legacy of urban sprawl will haunt the US for decades to come & I blame that generation for America's current woes. Sure, they helped to end WWII, but they spent so long celebrating, that they doomed the next 3 generations to excessive debt, wars for oil, & and losses of liberty.
We can only begin to recover when communities take enough responsibility to create workable public transportation alternatives and when zoning boards decline new commercial/industrial developments 3 miles out of the city & new housing editions in similar locations. - marx2k, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11@factorof2 - you need to stop thinking short term and think on the long term and how much money/oil/lives we save by constricting urban sprawl, raising mpg efficiency of vehicles, pouring money into public transportation, financial incentive to use less fuel, conserve more, not drive hummers to work and back...
The only thing that would NOT cost money NOW to solve this problem is doing nothing, which is what a lot of us do. - bugsy187, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12Gasoline is subsidized at $7/gal? Can we see your sources?
Also, why would you divide volume used by land area? The purpose of the graph is to show consumption by nation. I don't see what the point is. The US is using more gasoline than all of the listed nations combined, a larger land area. - aquahelix, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12Australia has only 20 million people living on a huge continent. How does your argument make any sense?
- wordsofwisedumb, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14The thing is no one made Americans spread out so far. Sprawl is the reason for the disjoint, you are right about that. But what if sprawl is the problem? Could it also be the reason for other problems in America? Could driving everywhere instead of walking could be tied to obesity? Could the huge success of social networking websites and the resulting low quality pseudo friendships be caused by the difficulty teenagers in suburbia have when they try to get together with their peers? Maybe sprawl is part of the problem?
- swanny89, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14Its because cities that experienced major growth after the automobile became widespread in America were designed with the car in mind. Europe was well established before the invention of the car and was designed to have everyone walk everywhere. Just take a look at middle America: every building stands by itself and has a ginormous parking lot around it to accommodate cars in accordance with city code.
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