Energy Flow
I had a chance to visit the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge last week, and among the many inspiring things I saw was this beautiful information graphic - albeit not for its content - illustrating the total energy flow in and out of the U.S. in 2005. (Click to enlarge - Energy in Quadrillion Btu). The image was used in a presentation on sustainable architecture by Kent Larson.
Two things to notice in the illustration are the overwhelming dependence on fossil fuels, and that nearly two thirds of all petroleum/crude oil consumed is imported. When looking for the image, I came across several other equally powerful visualizations of energy use, such as the one below which illustrates the shocking amount of energy lost when converting fossil fuels to electricity.
It felt appropriate to post this on Blog Action Day.
Labels: information design, sustainability
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