Link Think: All Your Gas Guzzling Are Belong To Us

Daydreaming is introducing a new feature where members of the Day to Day team will be periodically posting some of the thought-provoking, relevant or plain strange links we come across on the web. We're calling it "Link Think," and we have to confess to borrowing the name from blogger and ethnomusicologist Wayne Marshall, who organizes links under the moniker "Linkthink" on his most amazing music blog wayneandwax.

Today's installment of Daydreaming "Link Think" is from Wired (with a tip of the hat to Boing Boing):

Amazing Stat: California Uses More Gas than China

Given all the news coverage about the rise of the Chinese economy, you could be forgiven for thinking that the world's most populous country is hogging all the world's resources, while the developed nations are fighting for scraps.

But, at least with transportation fuel, you'd be wrong. California alone uses more gasoline than any country in the world (except the US as a whole, of course). That means California's 20 billion gallon gasoline and diesel habit is greater than China's! (Or Russia's. Or India's. Or Brazil's. Or Germany's.)

[...]

One more choice statistic: gasoline usage in California has increased 50 percent, that's 6.7 billion gallons, since 1988. [full item]

Can you imagine a worst statistical feat for Cali? Most ashtrays? Most non-recyclable plastic used? As the Wired item goes on to explain, the gas factoid was buried in the California Energy Commission's State Alternative Fuels Plan, which came out last Christmas. The plan has yet to be updated, but even accounting for a drop in gasoline consumption as a result of recent spikes in prices, don't expect California to give up the title of global gas guzzling king any time soon.

(Also, those of you wondering about this post's title should refer to this handy Wikipedia entry, which explains an internet meme that some of us fondly remember as the ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US Craze of 2001. Usually linking to Wikipedia is a journalistic no-no, but the best place to research a web meme is, of course, the web.)

Got any good tips for Daydreaming's Link Think? Share them with us here.

--Gary Dauphin

10:11 AM ET | 07-22-2008 | permalink

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