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Overview
Why study about energy? Why is it so important? The subject seems pretty esoteric, in the domain of "experts." As long as I pay my energy bills, do I really have to worry about it? I have enough to worry about already. And do I really have to know the details - how much energy I really use, where does it come from, what are the most efficient devices, and what are the environmental and social consequences? By learning about energy, can I really make a difference in my own life, and in what is happening to the planet? As you begin the Energy and Society course, you may have many such questions. The purpose of this course is not to provide answers to them. The purpose is to provide factual information and methods of analysis that will allow you to answer them for yourself, now and in the future. Of course, many of your immediate questions will be answered. But our energy possibilities are evolving in complexity. There are many competing new energy technologies today, and scientific and technological advances give us new options for the future. But energy is not just about science and technology; economics, environmental quality, and social/political issues are as equally important in determining what decisions can and should be made. The reality is that your energy future will have to be envisioned and reevaluated on a regular basis. And you will have to make conscious and hopefully educated decisions on a personal and on a societal level (through public policy mechanisms and political action) that are consistent with what you envision as a desirable energy future.
At the beginning of the 21st century, what is the energy situation? Why is it such a compelling issue? How can energy problems be resolved? To answer these questions, we need a take a very broad and long-range view. Let's start with a historical look at energy consumption.
In the most general sense, energy is necessary for all activity, whether that is for life processes (our personal metabolism) or for societies. Many scholarly books have been written linking the development of human cultures to their use of energy. The way that societies obtain and use energy determine a lot about their structure and evolution. Thus, hunting and gathering societies, agricultural societies, and industrial societies all developed within the context of certain available and exploitable energy sources. Energy allows and constrains lifestyle, material wealth, social structure, population size, and the "powerfulness" of societies. We must realize the all-embracing nature of our energy use and make connections to many other seemingly unrelated parts of our lives.
With this in mind, we have a situation in the world today where the bulk of the energy used for every nation comes from stored energy from the sun - our coal, oil and natural gas resources. We call them fossil fuels, emphasizing their origin millions of years ago. The use of this type of energy on a large scale began only recently, around 1750 for coal, and later for other fossil sources. Their use has allowed a vast expansion of population and technological activity that we term the industrial revolution, and created the modern industrial societies that we take for granted. Not only has this "cheap" energy allowed us conveniences that are considered our birthright, it has created an inefficient infrastructure of buildings, transportation and manufacturing plants that are very dependent on large unsustainable energy use.
Major problems have evolved because of this fossil fuel dependence. One has to do with the finiteness of the supply. Expert estimates of the lifetime of petroleum and natural gas indicate that it will effectively be depleted around the middle of the 21st century. This does not mean that it will all be used up, but that the remaining amounts will be too small (and too expensive) to provide the energy that nations presently demand. Of course, there are some uncertainties about exactly when this will happen, but the general conclusion is robust. There will have to be a massive shift to use other energy sources in the relatively near future, or our societies will be massively disrupted. Even though there is a larger supply of coal, it is found in only a few nations. As a world energy source, it would be also depleted relatively rapidly, and it poses a host of serious environmental and health problems.
A second problem associated with the large use of fossil fuels is their environmental and health consequences. Drilling, mining and burning fossil fuels creates enormous pollution on the planet. There is increasing recognition of the impacts of oil and gasoline spills, and the toxicity associated with petrochemical use. While air pollution has generally been recognized as a major problem for the past 50 years, only recently have we been made aware that our energy use is rapidly changing the global climate. While human societies can adjust to some change in the climate, the kinds of changes that scientists see happening over the next century will be very difficult to face. Agriculture, ecosystems, water supply, and coastal regions will be among some of the most impacted areas. No less than the livability of the planet for humans and other species is at stake. While again there are some uncertainties, the general conclusion is robust. We must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, drastically and relatively soon, or suffer dire consequences.
There are major economic ramifications no matter what we do or don't do. A depleting supply of fossil fuels with a rapidly expanding world population and an increasing energy demand is a recipe for disaster. The "energy crisis" of the 1970's had severe world economic repercussions for well over a decade. Since 70% of the remaining world supply of petroleum is located in the Middle East, there is the certainty of increasing control of the international oil trade by that region. Increasing price volatility of oil, due to decreasing supply, increasing demand, monopoly of supply, and political instability in the region is likely. With about 90% of its oil supply now depleted, the U.S. is facing the reality of increasing oil imports from the Middle East (beyond 50%, roughly the current oil import rate). In addition, there is an increasing balance of trade deficit due to petrodollars exported, and the necessity of increasing military expenditures for stability in the world oil market. Economic impacts due to rapid energy price increases are generally severe; when they are erratic, they are even worse.
Even though most of our energy infrastructure and technology is quite old (the basic design of our electrical power plant and transportation technology is based on developments made in the late 19th century), there is great economic and social inertia to changing it. Changing our present energy infrastructure will require significant investments of capital over time, and such changes do not take place quickly. Perhaps even more important, corporations that control fossil fuel sources do not find it is their short-term economic interest to invest in alternative sources of energy, particularly ones that they will not be able to easily control. The policy rules for energy have been set over the last century. They heavily favor large-scale centralized production of energy and the present giant energy corporations. New sources of energy have to compete on unequal terms, with government policies giving tens of billions of dollars yearly of taxpayer money to giant energy corporations. This allows them to keep prices relatively low, and prevent competition.
As a society, the U.S. is pretty much in denial about confronting an energy future that is filled with difficulties. We are comfortable and familiar with the energy infrastructure that has evolved in the past century. Cheap energy prices have allowed great mobility and high standards of living. That this is changing is frightening. Opponents of changing the present system (particularly corporations heavily invested in the present energy infrastructure) find it easy to provide simplistic reasons not to change. It's too expensive to change. It's too soon to change. There are plenty of fossil fuels. There is no global warming. They offer temporary non-solutions: drilling for more oil and gas, digging for more coal, and building more of the same power plants. These create even greater dependence on depleting supplies. They deny the very obvious and severe problems associated with the present energy system. They deny that the system is leading to disaster. In our society today, money controls the media and the political process. These companies have plenty of money and they get their message out to politicians and to the public. It is very hard to move beyond the rhetoric.
In Energy and Society, we will try to move beyond the rhetoric. We will try to outline strategies to achieve a more sustainable energy infrastructure, to critically analyze technologies and policies, and to try to come to conclusions about what is possible and feasible for the future. Yet, this is only a first step. Change to a more sustainable energy system ultimately will require considerable public education about energy alternatives and their consequences, a willingness of the public to put political pressure on policymakers, and courageous citizen leaders willing to organize and educate. This will be a great challenge to our society. But the consequences of not meeting this challenge will be disastrous for all. Action must be taken, and soon, to avoid the worst consequences of our present energy path. To continue on the present course is unconscionable. It is my hope that once you understand the situation, and recognize your investment in a sensible outcome, you too will become part of the solution.
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