Energy Access Is Green

Poverty wreaks havoc on people. It kills them prematurely, stunts kids in their growth, and makes them work so much harder to complete tasks that rich people consider simple and straightforward - to mention just a few impacts of poverty.

Poverty also wreaks havoc on the environment. People in survival mode don’t care much about their environment.

Liberty's Bettering Human Lives report has long contained a case history with a comparison of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, both on the island of Hispaniola. Why have they thrived so differently when they are neighbors on the same island?

Where it all starts is human freedom - freedom to flourish is about the lowest for Haiti in the western hemisphere bar Venezuela and Nicaragua. People are freer to pursue prosperity in the Dominican Republic. After decades of government failure in Haiti, its lack of progress has made it into one of the poorest countries in the world.

This leads to dramatic differences between the neighbors: Dominicans enjoy longer lives, more money, and more access to electricity, clean cooking and energy. For reference, in the United States, we use about 7 gallons of propane for all of every individual’s primary energy use for every day. In the Dominican Republic that is 1 gal Propane-equivalent per person per day, and in Haiti it is 10x lower.

One ultimate impact of these changes is that the border between these countries is visible during the day. A jungle with thriving trees in the Dominican Republic and just grasslands right across the border in Haiti. Haitians try to get their hands on whatever they can find to cook a meal, which they cook mostly with wood, sticks and dung. Human poverty and the lack of alternative fuels has caused their forests to disappear. The Dominican Republic, with much more access to energy, is much greener.

Yet, I still have to meet the first environmental protester who demands an end to poverty.