Fossil fuels depletion in future
If we consider that the total energy consumed worldwide, 85% is non-electric, and consists mostly of fossil fuel applications, foremost among them oil, we understand the magnitude of the task of replacing primary energy sources from fossil fuels, and therefore not renewable, renewable alternatives.
For clarification purposes we consider a question of terminology: when we include the electricity or hydrogen from energy sources, we must bear in mind that these are two different sources. On one side is the primary energy. There is only one primary source of external energy on this planet: the sun, and two internal: the gravitational and nuclear forces inside the Earth. And after the transformation process, human action or time or physical-chemical phenomena, there are others that we call “secondary” such as electricity, hydrogen, fossil fuels, energy mechanics.
What is possible is to find alternatives and solutions that solve specific problems. The sum of all these solutions will lead to a new stage. In order to deepen the study of possible measures should be organized and classified, to avoid looping on the same or overlook important facts. Overall we rank the alternatives or possible solutions in three sections:
Until about two centuries, mankind lived without fossil fuels. In the early nineteenth century the population of the planet was around 1000 million people, only 3% of which lived in cities, and its energy base was the human and animal power, supplemented by the use of renewable energy tamed. And it was not until the early twentieth century, the use of fossil fuels (mainly coal, then, even dawned and the use of oil) shifted the global importance of the energy matrix after (renewable). In 1900, the human population had undergone a discrete jump (although very important in historical terms) to exceed 1600 million inhabitants and the urbanization rate had increased by 5 (up to 15%). Urbanization broke out where it was producing the industrial revolution, especially in Western Europe, appearing the first cities millions (though London had exceeded this threshold by the end of the century). Today, on the threshold of the new century and millennium, world population is over 6,600 million people, more than half of which live in cities (for the first time in history), over a hundred times more than in 1800 ( especially in big cities), the base is clearly residual renewable energy (6%), and the bulk of the needs in this area (80%) is guaranteed by fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas), although oil the main source that keeps an increasingly industrial, urban, metropolitan and motorized operation. 40% of global energy needs is ensured by the “black gold” (in the last fifty years the demand has multiplied by seven). Without him and without coal and gas (rising) too, the increasingly globalized world, and highly consuming natural resources that we know (not just energy) simply would not be viable.
However, this urban-industrial world faces two enormous challenges. One is the change of the energy mix, because as we see the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era, which will occur as a result of reaching the roof of the extraction of oil. The other is how they can cope with feeding a growing population, whose growth and nutrition has been very feasible until now largely thanks to fossil fuels, especially oil (due to industrialized agriculture and animal husbandry) although the extent of malnutrition (and starvation) to more sectors of humanity.
Related posts:
- How fossil fuels are affecting global warming
- Fossil fuels – from the past to present
- New technology could turn ground heat into cheap alternative to fossil fuels
- Fossil fuels and global warming – the letter
- Are bio-fuels still relevant?
