Energy Consumption Quotes

Present annual world energy consumption is about equal to the annihilation energy of 4 tons of matter.

Bernard M. Oliver

Energy, World, Matter

Bernard M. Oliver, Len Cutler (1997). “The Selected Papers of Bernard M. Oliver”

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Is the minor convenience of allowing the present generation the luxury of doubling its energy consumption every 10 years worth the major hazard of exposing the next 20,000 generations to this lethal waste?

David R. Brower

Years, Luxury, Energy

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Far from being a drag on growth, making our energy sources more sustainable, our energy consumption more efficient, and our economy more resilient to energy price shocks - those things are a vital part of the growth and wealth that we need

David Cameron

Growth, Energy, Needs

Prime Minister’s address at the launch of the Department of Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) new Energy Efficiency Mission, February, 2013.

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I believe that the average guy in the street will give up a great deal, if he really understands the cost of not giving it up. In fact, we may find that, while we're drastically cutting our energy consumption, we're actually raising our standard of living.

David R. Brower

Giving Up, Believe, Cutting

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All I know about thermal pollution is that if we continue our present rate of growth in electrical energy consumption it will simply take, by the year 2000, all our freshwater streams to cool the generators and reactors.

David R. Brower

Years, Growth, Energy

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The planets environmental woes tend to be overlooked as we scramble for the latest high-tech gizmos - and conveniently ignore their energy consumption.

Sheherazade Goldsmith

Environmental, Energy, Woe

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Better use of space, improving the insulation, getting more daylight into the buildings, reducing the energy consumption of the air conditioning and heating systems, making sure that the internal air quality is good, that we have increased natural ventilation opportunities in the mid seasons. You know these are some of the things we can do.

Ken Yeang

Opportunity, Air, Space

"Q&A: Ken Yeang interview". CNN Interview, www.cnn.com. July 20, 2007.

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When it comes to climate and energy, Gates is a radical consumerist. In his view, energy consumption is good - it just needs to be clean energy.

Jeff Goodell

Views, Energy, Climate

"Q&A: Bill Gates on How to Stop Global Warming". Interview with Jeff Goodell, www.rollingstone.com. December 9, 2010.

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Linking financial element to energy consumption I think has a huge role if you think about a display instrument that could teach us about what we are using, how much it costs us, how much it is saving, and therefore change our decisions.

Dan Ariely

Thinking, Decision, Energy

"A conversation with Dan Ariely, Author of Predictably Irrational". Big Think interview, bigthink.com.

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An aggressive building performance standard for all new buildings, and a set of performance requirements to be met by all buildings before they can be sold (when upgrades can be included in the new mortgage). These should encompass heating and cooling, lighting, and plug loads. Coupled with new efficiency standards for appliances, lights, and furnaces, this should reduce the energy consumption of new buildings by 50 percent, more or less immediately, and go on from there.

Denis Hayes

Light, Energy, Goes On

"The Rumpus Interview with Earth Day organiser Denis Hayes". Interview with Melissa Price, therumpus.net. April 22, 2009.

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I cannot pursue my architecture without considering the minimization of energy consumption, simple and direct technologies, a respect for site, climate, place and culture. Together, these disciplines represent for me a fantastic platform for experimentation and expression. Of particular importance is the junction of the rational and the poetic resulting hopefully in works that resonate and belong to where they reside.

Glenn Murcutt

Technology, Simple, Expression

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We have become a plague upon ourselves and upon the Earth. It is cosmically unlikely that the developed world will choose to end its orgy of fossil energy consumption, and the Third World its suicidal consumption of landscape. Until such time as Homo Sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.

David Graeber

Suicidal, Energy, Viruses

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Only one rational path is open to us - simultaneous de-development of the [overdeveloped countries] and semi-development of the underdeveloped countries (UDCs), in order to approach a decent and ecologically sustainable standard of living for all in between. By de-development we mean lower per-capita energy consumption, fewer gadgets, and the abolition of planned obsolescence.

John Holdren

Country, Mean, Order

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Why are oil prices so low? First, energy consumption growth rates in developing markets have decreased. This is particularly noticeable in China. Second, new technologies are being developed and the shale gas revolution in the USA has taken place

Kenneth Rogoff

Taken, Technology, Usa

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Speaking biologically, fruit in a slightly shriveled state is holding its respiration and energy consumption down to the lowest possible level. It is like a person in meditation: his metabolism, respiration, and calorie consumption reach an extremely low level. Even if he fasts, the energy within the body will be conserved. In the same way, when mandarin oranges grow wrinkled, when fruit shrivels, when vegetables wilt, they are in the state that will preserve their food value for the longest possible time.

Masanobu Fukuoka

Vegetables, Orange, Meditation

Masanobu Fukuoka (2010). “The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming”, p.88, New York Review of Books

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James Russell offers a timely and compelling blueprint for a realistic transformation of America's energy consumption by refusing to fall victim to conventional thinking. Accessible?pragmatic even?Russell's proposals speak to goals on the immediate horizon and underscore the role that intelligent design can play now in America. On a longer horizon, his analysis points to a range of issues about land use, transportation, and coordination of public and private investments to which the design professions have an enormous contribution to make. Here design and policy find common ground.

Barry Bergdoll

Fall, Thinking, Intelligent

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A low-energy policy allows for a wide choice of life-styles and cultures. If, on the other hand, a society opts for high energy consumption, its social relations must be dictated by technocracy and will be equally degrading whether labeled capitalist or socialist.

Ivan Illich

Hands, Choices, Style

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As the United States chains itself down with greater debt, China is building relationships across the globe to bolster its trade, its access to natural resources, and its energy consumption. In far too many cases, this means lost opportunities for America and our businesses.

Reince Priebus

Mean, Opportunity, America

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The Texas Energy Office's Loan Star Program has reduced building energy consumption and taxpayers' energy costs through the efficient operation of public buildings, saving taxpayers more than $172 million through energy efficiency projects.

Rosa DeLauro

Stars, Texas, Office

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...President [Bush] believes that [high-energy consumption] is an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policymakers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one.

Ari Fleischer

Believe, Blessed, Goal

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