US renewable electricity output

As the United States has generated more electricity from renewable sources, more pedestrians have been struck and killed by vehicles, a correlation that will be cited by exactly the wrong people for exactly the wrong reasons. The coefficient is 0.896 across twenty years, during which both wind turbines and traffic fatalities multiplied with the steady confidence of trends that are saving the planet and endangering its inhabitants simultaneously. The grid gets cleaner, the streets get deadlier, and the data connects them with the moral neutrality of a chart.

US renewable electricity output grew from about 350 billion kWh in 2002 to over 900 billion by 2021, driven by wind and solar expansion, falling costs, and state-level renewable portfolio standards. Pedestrian fatalities grew from about 4,800 to over 7,300 during the same period, driven by larger vehicles, faster speeds, distracted driving, and inadequate pedestrian infrastructure. Both trends are measures of a modernizing economy: renewable energy reflects technological progress in the power sector, while pedestrian fatalities reflect the failure of transportation design to keep pace with vehicle size and smartphone ubiquity. They share an economy, not a mechanism.

Twenty years of renewable energy and pedestrian deaths growing together is a portrait of a civilization that is getting better at some things and worse at others at the same time. The grid improves, the streets deteriorate, and the shared variable is simply an economy large enough to produce both progress and failure simultaneously. The wind blows, the car accelerates, and the crosswalk waits.