Blog 3

This map here from world mapper shows which countries consume the most oil in the world. Obviously America is the number one customer of oil, but who was second? It caught me off guard when it was Japan. How does Japan use so much oil for such a small (size-wise) country? I believe that Japan is a developed country similar to the United States, and that most people use or own cars. That would be around 130 million people with cars. The estimated population total of Japan. Also, Japan is considered a wealthy country as well, so they can afford to buy gas for everyday driving use, and not just for emergencies, or for special occasions like other people in other countries. In third place was Germany, another developed country, and like the US they can afford to buy gas too. I was expecting China or Russia to use more gas, but I guess a majority of their populations do not own or use cars. African and South American countries have a very small percentage of gasoline usage, probably because they do not have the wealth of developed countries, and must rely on farming and self sustenance more

This here map to your left is a map displaying Forest Loss per year. I am not surprised at all by these numbers, since in my previous map, these countries did not use oil hardly at all. Instead of oil, it looks like using wood is the main source of fuel. Africa is losing their wood supply due to over grazing and desertification. The forests near the deserts are being cut down for fuel and farmland space, and since their are no roots to hold the fertile land in place, the desert settles in only one or two years later. Many Africans rely on this wood though, and must do it for their very survival, otherwise they might freeze at night, or would not be able to cook their meat. We take such things for granted in America. Now over in South America their problems are similar but still different. They are another expanding population, and they need more farmland to support it, and since their is little natural occurring farmland, they must cut down and clear rain forest to make room for farming. Everyday farmers down there cut down thousands of acres of rain forest to support this trend, and eventually the rain forest will be gone. The basic common trend on this map, is that poor countries must cut and use wood a lot more than a rich developed country would. It is a sad vicious cycle, I cut down trees because I am poor, and my land becomes poor, because I cut down trees.