Write about energy consumptin and economic development
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Modern economic development as we know it today, which is the product of the industrialisation process of the last two centuries, is fuelled primarily by non-renewable mineral resources extracted from the lithosphere (the outermost shell of Earth). It benefits from relatively abundant and low-cost energy obtained from fossil fuels, namely oil, natural gas and coal, and, to a much lesser degree, fissile fuels such as uranium. The other, traditional sources of energy such as biomass, wind and water power have been marginalised in the energy mix of the industrialised countries (Chevalier, 2004).
2Crude oil, with its exceptional qualities, has become the primary source of industrial and military power, replacing coal as reference energy. Liquid, easy to transport and store as well as a very intense form of energy, black gold has become the invisible engine of growth, particularly since the 1950s and 1960s. Equally, it has been a stake in many armed conflicts (Yergin, 1991; Youngquist, 1997; Laurent, 2006). Oil is extracted from rare oil fields located in sedimentary rocks of biogeochemical origin (Tissot and Welte, 1984). It is the main source of fuels for continental and maritime transport and the only source for aviation. This raw material lies at the very heart of the way of life of the majority of human beings, in terms not just of energy that it provides, of course, but also of objects, food production and even health.
3The area of social sciences that focuses on development has not yet taken full account of the importance of oil in the extraordinary phase of growth experienced by mankind – albeit in a very unequal way – in the twentieth century. This is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of humanity and in the geological and biological history of Earth. The development model based on high levels of energy consumption and which facilitated the demographic and scientific-technological explosion of the twentieth century is encountering three constraints which, combined, are becoming increasingly problematic: peak oil and its implications (Campbell and Laherrère, 1998; Heinberg, 2003; Sachs, 2006), the rapid demographic and economic growth in the global South, and the degradation of the environment and disturbance of the biosphere’s climate system.
4Since the 1970s debate has been raging between the optimists who trust market forces and man’s capacity for innovation and technological ingenuity to overcome these obstacles, on the one hand, and the pessimists (who nonetheless would describe themselves as realists) who believe that there is an urgent need to take seriously the dual threat of post-peak oil and global warming, on the other. The pessimists appeal to us to rectify the excesses of the consumer society, which are threatening the planet’s ecological balance. On an academic level, they campaign for an epistemological paradigm shift in economics to take the relevant insights from natural sciences into consideration. This epistemological battle pits short-term political and economic visions and imperatives against the long-term ecological perspectives.
5In a relatively optimistic scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that global primary energy demand will increase by 36 per cent between 2008 and 2035, or 1.2 per cent per year, rising from 12,300 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) to over 16,700 Mtoe (IEA, 2010). This scenario of ‘new policies’ presupposes that every country will implement the political undertakings and action plans which they announced for reducing their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Regardless of which scenario is applied, the IEA predicts that fossil fuels will still be the predominant source of energy in 2035 and will account for more than half the increase in overall demand for primary energy. As a consequence of demographic and economic growth and urbanisation in emerging countries, 93 per cent of the additional demand will come from emerging economies and developing countries. But the IEA implicitly indicates that the peak of conventional oil production may have already been reached in 2006 at 70 million barrels per day. In 2035 today’s oil fields are expected to produce about a fifth of total conventional oil production. This means that 80 per cent of the 2035 projected production will have to come from new oil fields, which seems quite an optimistic projection.
MARK BRAINLIEST..
2Crude oil, with its exceptional qualities, has become the primary source of industrial and military power, replacing coal as reference energy. Liquid, easy to transport and store as well as a very intense form of energy, black gold has become the invisible engine of growth, particularly since the 1950s and 1960s. Equally, it has been a stake in many armed conflicts (Yergin, 1991; Youngquist, 1997; Laurent, 2006). Oil is extracted from rare oil fields located in sedimentary rocks of biogeochemical origin (Tissot and Welte, 1984). It is the main source of fuels for continental and maritime transport and the only source for aviation. This raw material lies at the very heart of the way of life of the majority of human beings, in terms not just of energy that it provides, of course, but also of objects, food production and even health.
3The area of social sciences that focuses on development has not yet taken full account of the importance of oil in the extraordinary phase of growth experienced by mankind – albeit in a very unequal way – in the twentieth century. This is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of humanity and in the geological and biological history of Earth. The development model based on high levels of energy consumption and which facilitated the demographic and scientific-technological explosion of the twentieth century is encountering three constraints which, combined, are becoming increasingly problematic: peak oil and its implications (Campbell and Laherrère, 1998; Heinberg, 2003; Sachs, 2006), the rapid demographic and economic growth in the global South, and the degradation of the environment and disturbance of the biosphere’s climate system.
4Since the 1970s debate has been raging between the optimists who trust market forces and man’s capacity for innovation and technological ingenuity to overcome these obstacles, on the one hand, and the pessimists (who nonetheless would describe themselves as realists) who believe that there is an urgent need to take seriously the dual threat of post-peak oil and global warming, on the other. The pessimists appeal to us to rectify the excesses of the consumer society, which are threatening the planet’s ecological balance. On an academic level, they campaign for an epistemological paradigm shift in economics to take the relevant insights from natural sciences into consideration. This epistemological battle pits short-term political and economic visions and imperatives against the long-term ecological perspectives.
5In a relatively optimistic scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that global primary energy demand will increase by 36 per cent between 2008 and 2035, or 1.2 per cent per year, rising from 12,300 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) to over 16,700 Mtoe (IEA, 2010). This scenario of ‘new policies’ presupposes that every country will implement the political undertakings and action plans which they announced for reducing their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Regardless of which scenario is applied, the IEA predicts that fossil fuels will still be the predominant source of energy in 2035 and will account for more than half the increase in overall demand for primary energy. As a consequence of demographic and economic growth and urbanisation in emerging countries, 93 per cent of the additional demand will come from emerging economies and developing countries. But the IEA implicitly indicates that the peak of conventional oil production may have already been reached in 2006 at 70 million barrels per day. In 2035 today’s oil fields are expected to produce about a fifth of total conventional oil production. This means that 80 per cent of the 2035 projected production will have to come from new oil fields, which seems quite an optimistic projection.
MARK BRAINLIEST..
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