Chickens, roost

US Air Force fuel consumption: 2.5 billion gallons a year

2.5 billion gallons a year is 163,000 barrels a day

That puts the US Air Force, with a population of about 500,000, between Ireland (population 4.5 million) and Belarus (9.5 million) as the world’s 62nd biggest consumer of refined fuel.

Now, the Air Force Academy is threatened by a wildfire that may have something to do with climate change.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Fire crews fought to save the U.S. Air Force Academy and residents begged for information on the fate of their homes Wednesday after a night of terror sent thousands of people fleeing a raging Colorado Springs wildfire.

More than 30,000 have been displaced by the fire, including thousands who frantically packed up belongings Tuesday night after it barreled into neighborhoods in the foothills west and north of Colorado’s second-largest city. With flames looming overhead, they clogged roads shrouded in smoke and flying embers, their fear punctuated by explosions of bright orange flame that signaled yet another house had been claimed.

Sad all around. I can only hope that smoke and flames get through the heads of some climate change denialists where logic has failed. (No, not literally through their heads.)

Chile and the temptations of petro-populism

It would be hard to find two countries more opposite within South America than Chile and Venezuela. Excessively rigid rules vs. no rules. Homages to a right-wing dictator vs. homages to a left-wing dictator. Majority white European vs. a rainbow of mestizaje. Wheat, wine, apples, softwoods and salmon vs. oil, rum, mangoes, chemicals, and red snapper.

But there’s one thing everyone can agree on: we want cheap gas, cheap parking, and unlimited road space for our death monsters.

Latin America reality check: You too may be the 1%

I’m in the “model” Latin American country, Chile. Yesterday, I had to run some errands in Vitacura, which is part of the prosperous “favoured quarter“* of Santiago. It was a classic edge city day. Much of it could as easily have happened in San Ramon, California, as Santiago, Chile. I dropped off my MacBook Pro at a certified Apple dealer next door to a vendor of fine leathers. Walked on a tree-lined sidewalk past an Audi dealer. In the distance, the Marriott, a towering executive desk ornament, windows shut against the smog.

To keep all this prosperity running, you need a critical mass of people with money, right? Which is why an article in the Sunday print edition of generally elite-oriented newspaper La Tercera was so surprising. Here’s what Yale/UChile economics professor Eduardo Engel writes:

Slightly more than 6 million Chileans received a salary in 2010. How many received a monthly wage of more than 6 million pesos (US$144,000 a year)? Please, wait a second. Don’t keep reading, just answer. It’ll be worth the trouble. You have an answer? Second question: how many earned at least 2 million pesos a month (US$48,000 a year)? And third, how many earned at least 1.2 million a month (US$29,000)?