Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the PRoblem: fossIl eneRgy
Fossil feedstocks provide most of the energy consumed by the world's population
and have for more than a century. Petroleum, natural gas, and coal are burned to
produce over 80% of the current world energy use. All industrialized economies
are dependent on petroleum. However, because it is a nonrenewable, nonreplenish-
able resource, reliance on fossil energy for the long-term is obviously not sustain-
able. As people's energy expectations and demands grow, as developing countries
become increasingly industrialized and adopt more mobile lifestyles with greater
demand for electrical and liquid fuel-powered devices, and as populations increase,
the competition for fossil energy, in particular petroleum and natural gas, will
become more intense and contentious. Although there is considerable uncertainty
associated with estimates of recoverable reserves, it is certain that fossil energy
is finite. Even with worldwide energy use growing, some estimates of existing
recoverable reserves suggest there is sufficient fossil energy in conventional and
unconventional reserves to meet overall demand for many years. Other projections
suggest the capacity to produce conventional petroleum is reaching a peak, and the
world is nearing, if not already past, the point at which one half of the petroleum
resources have been consumed; this has occurred in only a century. Oil production
in the United States reached a peak in 1970 and has since steadily declined. There
are of course areas that contain potentially significant amounts of oil but are off
limits to oil recovery primarily for environmental reasons. If worldwide oil pro-
duction and discovery are waning and worldwide demand is increasing, supplies
may soon be insufficient to meet demand. Rising oil prices are an indication that
this is already occurring.
Fossil fuels have attributes that make them great energy sources. These fuels are
generally easily mined or extracted and are relatively low cost, transportable, and
energy dense. Because fossil fuels have been such good energy sources and have been
in use for some time, efficient and effective infrastructures have been developed for
their use. As a result, most people in the world have come to rely on coal, petroleum,
and natural gas for heating, cooling, electricity, power, and transportation.
Unfortunately, dependency and continued reliance on fossil energy has associated
collateral damage. Three serious negative side effects are associated with energy
security, the environment, and the economy.
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n e r g y
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e C u r i t y
Securing an adequate supply of energy involves maintaining and deploying a mili-
tary with the capacity for intervention to provide political stability for regions of
the world with petroleum and natural gas resources and to protect supply lines
that deliver these products. As supplies become scarce and more expensive and as
demands increase, nations will become more aggressive in acting to ensure that their
supplies are secure and adequate for current and future needs. These actions have
serious political, military, and economic consequences, as demonstrated by Japan's
invasion of Southeast Asia in 1941, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the U.S.
