The Problems of Earth: Global Demand For Energy and Global Warming

Global demand for energy is the need of energy to power building, industry, transportation and other socioeconomic factors.

 

City by night (Pixels Art, 2021)

Global demand for energy is increasing due to industrial activity and advances in both developing and developed countries. Fossil fuel energy sources –such as coal, natural gas, and oil– are used to meet energy needs for much of the world. But the combustion of fossil fuels has increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by more than a third since the Industrial Revolution. The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is a problem because it’s changing the climate faster than majority living world can adapt to. Moreover, burning fossil fuels emit high amounts of particulate matter and toxic gases that are highly harmful to health. 

Polar bear struggled to find food due to ice melting. (The times, 2017). 

Every year, an estimated 40,000 children die before their fifth birthday because of exposure to particulate matter pollution from fossil fuels. NO2 –a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion– is linked to roughly 4 million new cases of asthma in children each year, and is attributed to approximately 429,000 asthma-related trips to the emergency room each year. 

There are two main sources of energy: fossil fuels – oil, gas or coal– and renewable energy –wind, sunlight, geothermal and water. Each of these sources has side effects, but some are worse than others. Fossil fuels have two main problems: they pollute a lot and they are limited, which means that we will run out of them eventually. Anything we can’t do forever is by definition unsustainable. If we do things that are unsustainable, the damage accumulates ultimately to a point where the whole system collapses. Renewable sources of energy are sources that naturally renew themselves or are –for what the humanity time-perception is– unlimited.

Oil wells in Yemen (koiosllc, 2021)

Unfortunately, the demand of energy relies on fossil fuels, accounting for over 80% of power generation and 90% of transportation. Oil interests were bound tightly to the national interests of the governments concerned and those interests could influence governments they had power over to attack other governments that were hostile to the oil corporation’s interests –e.g. 2003 Iraq War.

Soldiers and politicians in 2003 Iraq war (This Day in History, 2012)

The oil industry has played a major role in the development of human 20th century civilization. Human civilization has an innate dependence on energy. Growth of global energy demand for energy is almost 5.3% per year. The increase in the world energy use will reach 28% by 2040. To make things worse, changes in temperature and precipitation due to climate change are likely to lead to supply-side and demand-side effects in the energy sector.

World Energy Demand by source of energy (World Energy Outlook, 2013)

Energy demand depends on different factors such as population, urbanization, industrialization, net capital income and development of technologies, etc. Growth in global energy demand is driven by emerging economies, with the emerging world accounting for around 70% of energy demand by 2050. This growth is led by India and followed by the rest of Asia. The fact is that there is the belief that the more energy you consume, the more development and prosperity you get.

New research from 2020 found that air pollution from burning coal, oil, and natural gas accounts for an estimates 4.5 million deaths each year worldwide and costs 8 billion USD every day. Researches also estimate global economic losses from fossil fuel air pollution at 2.9 trillion USD each year. China Mainland, the United States, and India bear the highest financial costs from fossil fuel air pollution worldwide. The economic impact of fossil fuel air pollution is staggering, but the tragic loss of life is what makes continued political and financial support for the fossil industry morally unacceptable. 

Child protecting himself from air pollution with a mask in Pekin (Topsante, 2016)

Fossil fuel combustion by-products are the world’s most significant threat to health and are major contributors to global inequality and environmental injustice. The emissions include a myriad of toxic air pollutants and CO2, which is the most important human-produced climate-altering greenhouse gas. Besides the global warming, impacts of pollution from fossil fuels include impairment of cognitive and behavioral development, respiratory illness and other chronic diseases. No country is spared, even high-income communities are experiencing impacts of fossil fuel-related pollution, climate change and resultant widening inequality and environmental injustice. Only one person in 10 lives in a city that complies with the World Health Organization (WHO) Air quality guidelines. 

Air pollution in China (Discovery, 2021)

Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities –especially emissions of greenhouse gases– are primarily responsible for the observed climate changes in the industrial era, especially over the last six decades. Human activities emit about 35 billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, primarily from energy use. CO2 levels in the atmosphere are at their highest in 800,000 years. A marked change in atmospheric carbon has always been incompatible with a stable earth. It was a feature of all of the five previous mass extinctions.

For some time, climate scientists had warned that the planet would get warmer as we burned fossil fuels and released CO2 and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. In previous events, it had taken volcanic activity up to one million years to dredge up enough carbon from within the earth to trigger a catastrophe. By burning millions of years’ worth of living organisms all at once as coal and oil, we have managed to do so in less than 200 years. 

CO2 concentration in the atmosphere the last 1,020 years. (co2levels.org, 2021)

We live in the Holocene era, 65 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs –when the impact of a meteorite triggered an atmospherical change on the planet and 75% of the species were wiped out. The Holocene has been one of the most stable periods of our planet’s great history: for 10,000 years, the average temperature has not wavered up or down by more than 1ºC. Phytoplankton and forests have helped balance the atmosphere by locking away carbon and the polar ice has prevented a great amount of solar radiation to warm up the atmosphere. Since phytoplankton and forests need of the other species on Earth to thrive, we can say that the biodiversity of the Holocene, helped to bring stability, and the entire living world settled into a gentle, reliable rhythm: the season. The pace of progress was unlike anything to be found in the fossil record.

Geologic time scale of Earth showing Eras and epochs (Bytesdaily, 2015)

By releasing heat-trapping gases such as CO2 as we power our modern lives, glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. Global warming is triggering a climate change. Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also extreme weather events, shifting ecosystems, rising seas, and a range of other impacts that change the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely on. 

Humpback whale in Mexico (Maria Serra, 2020). 

What is done and what to do?

The living world is essentially solar-powered, the earth’s plants capture 3 trillion kilowatt/hour of solar energy each day. That’s almost 20 times the energy we need, just from sunlight. Imagine if we phase out fossil fuels and run our world on the eternal energies of nature too. Sunlight, wind, water and geothermal.

Morocco used to rely on imported oil and gas for almost all of its energy. Today it generates 40% of its needs at home from a network of renewable power plants, including the world’s largest solar farm. Morocco could be an exporter of solar energy by 5050.

Solar farm in Morocco (Digitaltrends, 2015)

100% of the electricity in Iceland comes from a renewal energy source produced by heat from volcanic activity under the surface and the force from the magnificent cascading waterfalls. Geothermal energy is the solution that Iceland found to stop depending on imported coal and oil. 

There are 4 geothermal plants in Iceland to convert the steam from the wells –that they dig deep underground– into electricity using turbines. Each steam-powered turbine produces energy to sustain 45,000 homes. Moreover, there is hot water coming up from those wells and they use it to warm up fresh water. Geothermal energy emits only 3% of the CO2 that a plant ran by fossil fuel would emit. This CO2 and other the other byproducts are conducted back under the ground and solidified. This method of harvesting hot-springs was developed in Iceland but it can be done elsewhere with geothermal activity. 

Geothermal power plant in Iceland (robertharding, 2010)

On the other hand, some countries such as the US, weaken regulations to protect air quality. In 2017, President Trump appointed committee said that “Modern air is a little too clean for optimum health”, a claim not supported by well-established science. The “Affordable Clean Energy” of President Trump rule would worsen air quality. The proposed rules would result in 1,000 additional air pollution deaths per year and other health-related effects. 

In both –Iceland and Morocco– cases, change didn’t happen overnight, but big adjustments rarely do. Change has to start somewhere, and even if it’s a little uncomfortable at first, if the change is for the better, it’s worth it. Maybe it’s time we all change, just a little bit, what we can, where we can. Before it’s too late. 

Sei whale in the Azores(Maria Serra, 2020)

“If we focus our energy on working with nature rather than against it, we can get so much energy in return.”

Maria Serra

SOURCES

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