Date: 2025-04-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021085
Performance
The Individual / Household
The individual / household emissions footprint ... the example of the Holthaus family
Burgess COMMENTARY
This graphic is pretty clear that the average person in the USA (and other rich economies) has a quite modest environmental footprint compared to those who are rich and have a life style that is enabled by their financial status.
In this graphic it is the air travel that adds a major part of the delta.
It should be noted that big mansions are a high source of emissions ... not so much in the operation of the houses, but in their actual construction.
Travel is a not insignificant contributor to emissions in the USA, even when the travel is not air-travel. It should be noted that both travel and utilities are both energy intensive where the energy industry has a major role in the way the industry is structured and operates. I am reminded that the oil (petrol/gasoline) industry had a huge role in the 1940s in eliminating electric powered city trams both in the UK and Europe and in the United States and Canada. It is high time the energy industry gets held to account!
Peter Burgess