The following is my take on a selection from Environmental Studies, by Thomas Easton. This is it in a nutshell, tried to get the just of what the author was saying. Please leave a comment of your take on these issues.
Reinventing the Energy System
Christopher Flavin and Seth Dunn
When looking back at past generations that are looking ahead at the future one can only think that they could never have seen the way we live today. Past societies thought of a world of coal and moving sidewalks[1], instead we face a world built around petroleum (oil). But as the people of the past did, we might be looking at the wrong things today that will become obvious in the future.
Although the future is uncertain, we are starting to see new technologies that will shape the wave of the future. Moving from obsolete coal, oil and gas to cleaner burning fuels like solar, wind, bioenergy, and fuel cells.
As the last century saw a rise in fossil fuel use, the next might see a decline. With increasing technology, and going back to our roots, using things like plants, animals, the wind and sun, and new things like hydrogen.
Limits on certain resources, i.e. oil, will be one of the major movers in new energy/fuel sources. Oil supplies are running low, though some companies lie about the capacity of their wells to get a bigger orders and payments, the overall message is that discoveries in new wells is becoming harder and harder. We are going to start seeing a halfway point in the production of oil in the shape of a bell. As it stands today we are about “half way” and should soon see these quantities go down and price go up1.
The main worry however isn’t on meeting the needs of the present, but rather the needs of developing countries that are seeking to advance into more industrialized transportation.
Although a shortage seems like our only way to new energy, quality of life for healthy living, air quality, and pure water might be the way you cleaner burning fuels and energy. After all if demand for something is up in the case of these new technologies, the market will swing that way. As it stands today thousands of people are dying because of the burning of fossil fuels1.
With these new fuels we will see a lower amount of CO2 from industrial technologies that have caused our planet to warm. Such as the burning of coal and oil that pollute the air with CO2 and cause an excess of radiation to remain within our atmosphere.
We are starting to see a new wave of technologies such as electronic chips, synthetics, and energies that will reshape the past centuries technology’s. These advances in technology see a change from a century old light bulb to new longer lasting, more efficient bulbs (CFLs) and even newer, more efficient LEDs on the way. Old technologies are also being looked at and implemented again such as wind turbines. With improvements on blades, to computerized motors, these are now competing against fossil fuel energy’s. Sun light as an energy source is also being incorporated in new ways, such as being built into the exteriors of buildings to generate electricity. The costs of solar electricity are still high, so they really can’t compete against fossil fuel energies quite yet. But as technology continues to advance, so will these energy producers.
The advance in technology has also given a rebirth in the fuel cell; which convert hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity1.
Because of different typographic features on the globe, some countries export while others import. The energy economy falls into this bracket. With new energy like wind, solar, hydrogen, the new world energy will see a subside in exporting and importing energy. The resources needed for these energies are found in most places around the world ; in North America we might harness our wind power, while in places near the equator they might harness the sun as an energy source.
With these renewable energies becoming available and so easily operated, developing countries may skip a step in the industrialized country energy order, bypassing non-renewable energies, and going straight into renewable. With this future we may see a decline in incidence over control of resources.
Even though we may have an abundance of energy in the future, we will still have to manage these resources.
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