Not Oil is Well
Earlier in June, General Electric (GE) released a report which made sobering reading for anyone who is concerned about the future of this country's economy (read: everyone).
So what shall we do about this? An interesting article was published in The Geographical Journal late last year called Global Energy Dilemmas: a geographical perspective. The author, Michael J Bradshaw of the University of Leicester, rightly points out that as global problems, energy security and climate change are the responsibility of no single country or region. Therefore no single country or region can be expected to solve them.
Despite this we do have a problem with a growing demand for energy, coupled with a shrinking supply of its main ingredient. Added to this is the damage of climate change.
Bradshaw's idea of the global energy dilemma nexus just goes to highlight the extent to which energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and gross domestic product are interlinked.
It is only a small pool of countries with high levels of all three. The unfortunate result
of this is that different regions will face different energy dilemmas. Here in the šwest' our main concern is finding affordable and reliable energy sources on the one hand, but on the other hand also decreasing our CO2 emissions. Then there are the post-socialist countries which are coming to terms with energy in a privatised and liberalised economy.
But the interesting distinction is that between energy-rich countries, like Saudi Arabia, and energy-poor countries like China. One is the energy exporter and the other is the energy importer. These two sets of countries will naturally have radically different priorities.
The challenge we now surely face is learning how to pull in the same direction. But how is this possibly to be achieved? The truth of the matter is that no end of hybrid cars will save the planet. These vehicles are often dismissed as transport for the smug, but whether you sign up to this view or not, using a battery to travel slowly through the city before switching to a petrol engine to roar down a country road, isn't really the answer to energy issues.
What of nuclear energy? It is frequently dubbed the future of our energy supply chain, but the images broadcast around the world from Japan over the past month might make some people think twice before lending their voice in support of this energy source. Despite all this the Chinese and Indian governments are experimenting with thorium, a substance which is abundant and that - theoretically at least - should provide much safer nuclear energy. Apparently with a thorium reactor there is no possibility of meltdown, it's impossible to produce weapon grade material and you could even burn up existing radioactive waste - almost too good to be true!
Like it or not, however, for the short term we have no other option. Wind energy production is erratic and very expensive, fusion is still decades away, wave
and tidal generation is still experimental and a truly cost effective conversion of solar power is still some way away.
Tragedies such as Chernobyl are infamous mainly because of their rarity. Nuclear would certainly be a step forward from our current dependency on oil - which as we know, is notorious for never leaking and causing havoc with its environment.
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