Sure, Africa’s green — but also powerless

Jan 5th, 2011 1:23 PM UTC
By Malaka Gharib

We’re totally digging GOOD magazine and Column Five Media’s latest infographic on Africa, “Transparency: The Quest to Power Africa.” Despite the fact that Africa is huge in terms of land mass and population, it uses the least energy per capita than any other continent in the world.

And let’s not forget that Africa is rich in natural resources (like uranium for nuclear energy) — so they’ve got the capacity to generate their own electricity if they had the right infrastructure in place. Unfortunately, the lack of funding, the widespread influence of corruption and a multitude of other problems keep almost 79 percent of third-world Africans living in the dark. While it certainly is environmentally friendly, a lack of electricity to light homes, schools and buildings hinders Africa’s chance to advance and pull itself out of poverty.

Take a look at GOOD’s map and check out more surprising statistics on Africa’s electricity usage. It’s great to see that Africa has a bunch of non-fossil fuel energy projects in place. Maybe if they start building an infrastructure and dependency around things like geothermal or wind power, Africa can boost its quality of life while keeping greenhouse gas emissions at current levels.

TAGS: Energy, ONE