Characteristics of the Energy-Deprived

It's hard to imagine how many ways life would be different without electricity. Of the 6.5 billion people in the world, 2 billion do not have access to electricity. Think about a day in your life- everything directly or indirectly involves electricity! If you live in America, you consume around the shocking amount 8,000 metric tons of oil a year. On the other hand, if you live in Sub-Saharan Africa, you annually consume energy that is the equivalent to 500 metric tons of oil 1. This means Americans consume about 16 times as much energy as someone in Sub-Saharan Africa. Not only do Americans consume more, but it's done with the quick flip of a switch or turn of a key, while a person in Sub-Saharan Africa without access to modern energy still uses traditional energy resources, such as wood, coal, or dung. These require time to gather, more time to burn for cooking, fuels the environmental problem of deforestation, and to top it off, is a major cause of deaths due to bronchitis. Check out a day in the life of Térese Jondo, a woman from Ethiouar, Senegal (a village in Southeast Senegal, a country in West Africa) that exhibits the drastic coinsequences of reliance on traditional fuels and how it perpetuates a cycle of poverty.

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Updated: 2016/06/30

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