The Current Global Energy Crisis

With modern technology, it is clear that there is a global energy crisis. The Earth is simply running out of resources to create energy from. A clear indication of this is the dramatic raise in price of fossil fuel oil for gasoline. In order to keep the amount of energy consumption the human population is doing without lowering living standards, something must be done.

            There are many causes to the global energy crisis. For example, 70% of energy is made from fossil fuels. These fossil fuels include coal and oil. The issue with these fossil fuels is that they are depleting drastically. Another cause is that modern technology, such as laptops and personal computers, use up a lot of energy. Since most of the voltage is lost within the transformer of most plugs, most of the energy is simply wasted in the plug. This is a major issue within the energy crisis. Also, most people leave chargers and most plugs plugged in even when they are not using them. When a plug is plugged in, whether it is connected to something or not, it extracts energy and electricity from the port. Therefore, even more energy is simply being wasted in the houses of many of the world’s people.

            Nuclear Fission is the modern day solution to part of the energy crisis. The issue with nuclear fission is that it is dangerous. The Uranium that breaks down leaves radioactive material as waste after the reaction. The alternative is nuclear fusion. However, the technology to obtain energy through fusing atoms does not exist yet and probably will not exist for a while.

            A possible modern day solution other than fission is to use the ocean as a way to extract energy. There are many sources in the ocean to get energy. There is water power from the currents and waves to turn a turbine. There is also extracting heat from the temperature differences at different depths of the ocean. Most machines work off of a temperature difference and from the second law of thermodynamics, the energy transfers. This transferring energy could, in turn, spin a turbine coil to generate electricity. The electricity would then be put into storage. There is no form of pollution in this example, but there is no guarantee that the ocean temperature will remain constant and not change the ecosystem. However, a manmade lake could be made to use this. Therefore, a natural marine ecosystem is not disturbed in the process of extracting energy from the water temperatures. Artificial lakes and water sources can be built throughout the entire world and then these generators that use the temperature difference of the water source could be build on these artificial lakes.

Works Cited

ElBaradei, M. Tackling the Global Energy Crisis. Retrieved from

http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull501/Energy_Crisis.html

Klare, M. (2011, June 6). The Global Energy Crisis Deepens. Retrieved from

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/60-60/6193-the-global-energy-crisis-deepens

Mills, R. (2011, July 7). Global Energy Crisis, Germany Unplugged. Retrieved from

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article29120.html

Riley, D. The Coming Energy Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.infinite

-energy.com/iemagazine/issue34/comingenergycrisis.html

Lionfish

Lionfish have been traveling to the Atlantic

There are no known predators in the Atlantic

They are released into the Atlantic by people with pets

They disrupt Atlantic ecosystems

They are native to Japan and Korea

2 out of 9 species can now be found in the Atlantic

The Caribbean is also effected

The invasive lionfish out number the native lionfish

The larva is distributed by the Gulf Stream

Bottom Trawling

            Bottom trawling is a destructive fishing practice that is carried out by scraping a trawl net across the sea floor to pick up desirable fish. While bottom trawling yields many fish fit for the table, far more harm is done than good.  Bottom trawling picks up tons of other, unwanted organisms and plants, from seaweed to coral.  It is indiscriminate in its selection, and can destroy the ecosystem of the sea floor.  Bycatch can account for 90% of a trawl's total catch.  Since weights are needed to hold the net at the bottom of the sea, large areas of benthic habitats can be destroyed while trawling.

Marine Conservation Biology Institute. Destructive Fishing. Retrieved from             http://www.mcbi.org/what/destructive_fishing.htm

            People are eating down the food web, which means that they are eating more bottom-dwelling creatures.  This causes more need for bottom trawling, which churns up sediment and kills bottom dwelling fish, invertebrates, and corals.  More dead zones appear. Fisheries further north have been depleted, so companies are moving south to catch fish, destroying even more ecosystems.

Pauly, Daniel (9 October 2007).  Fisheries and Global Warming: Impacts on Marine Ecosystems             and Food Security.  Retrieved From http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/501/

            Bottom trawling reduces habitat complexity.  In areas that don't get much natural disturbance from waves or tidal currents, like the deep sea, are more affected by bottom trawling than areas that do.  Trawling can collapse ecosystems and hurt the populations of rare species.  Even if bottom trawling is stopped, it is not there is no guarantee that the areas affected by bottom trawling will return to their pre-trawl ecosystems.  It also homogenizes the sea floor, which decreases habitat complexity, reduces the range of some species, messes with reproductive rates, and fragments habitats and populations. 

            A possible solution to the bottom trawling problem are closing areas to fishing to protect marine organisms and their habitats.  Another solution is to modify fishing gear to minimize contact with the sea floor.

Alaska Marine Conservation Council (2006).  Impacts of Bottom Trawling. Retrieved from             http://www.akmarine.org/our-work/conserve-fisheries-marine-life/impacts-of-bottom-            trawling

The Global Energy Crisis Research

Fossil Fuels

-Coal prices doubled

-Disruptions to electricity

-Worlds energy needs will be 50% higher in 2030

-Fossil fuels far from environmentally friendly

-Efforts to make a global energy organization in the 1970s failed

-Need to reduce greenhouse gases.

-$130 oil barrels

-85 million barrels of oil produced in the world per day

-The UK ran a trade surplus in oil and gas

-UK putting millions of dollars into bio fuels, CCS and hydrogen technologies

Money

-Inflation

-High fuel prices are what is needed to reduce waste

-Gets people to stop buying them

-Production decline

-cost of producing energy is constantly rising

-Failure in the UK energy conservation policy

Energy Production

-natural gas liquid and ethanol produce a much smaller amount of energy than oil

-With economic growth comes increasing energy need

-The UK government supports road and air transport over electrified train and light train transport

-Efficiency is normally ignored

Greenhouse Gases

-Drastic increase in greenhouse gases

-causes increases in global temperature and increase in ocean tides

-Loss in Arctic Sea Ice

-Decline in Energy Production

-Possible effect may be another mini Ice Age

 

Works Cited

ElBaradei, M. Tackling the Global Energy Crisis. Retrieved Mar. 24, 2012, from

http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull501/Energy_Crisis.html

Mearns, E. (2008, November 3). The Global Energy Crisis and its Role in the Pending Collapse

of the Global Economy. Retrieved Mar. 25, 2012, from http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/4712

Causes of the Energy Crisis

1.     80% of the world uses fossil fuels as an energy source
2.      The fossil fuel industry has so much money that it does not want more clean energy, because that would mean less money for the industry.
3.      Clean energy is expensive
4.      Current technology makes green energy inefficient
5.      Things that make clean energy are “ugly,” like wind farms
6.      People are afraid of nuclear energy
7.      Current nuclear technology creates dangerous waste

Graphic of Causes

Burning Up the Oil

Running Out of Energy

Solutions to the Energy Crisis

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)

1. Similar to an air conditioner, the OTEC moves water around a system of tubes to create steam energy, turn turbines, and generate power.
2. Nobody knows how this will affect the ocean; it can potentially raise the temperature of the oceans.
3. This issue can be avoided by building a man-made lake deep enough to use this system.
4. Government subsidized green energy, like solar panels.