The Price of Energy Consumption - The Renaissance of Renewable Energy - page 223

even then some sacrifice will be required, such as an eagle sliced in two by the blades of
a wind turbine, the sight of hillsides covered with PV panels, or villages relocated for a
hydropower dam.
We must find and embrace sustainable ways to improve quality of life on a limited
planet. This will not happen by the action of governments alone. As individuals, we must
all take some responsibility for reducing waste and producing energy in a more sustainable
way. This is likely to involve a combination of global and local action, such as agreeing
to tackle climate change at a global level and powering our local communities from our
backyards.
1 Hunting and gathering societies could sustain fewer than one person per square
kilometre. Pastoralism raised the sustainable human settlement density to two individuals
per square kilometre, and farming up to ten people per square kilometre. In 1800, only 3
per cent of the world's population lived in towns and cities. By 1900 the share had risen to
15 per cent, and in 2008, for the first time, the majority of the world's human population
was urban (Smil 2008 ).
2 In most countries of North America and Europe the urban population is above 75 per
cent. In China, a slim majority (55 per cent) still live in villages, a major transformation
since 1950, when 89 per cent of Chinese lived on the land (Kojima 1995 ) .
3 Since the energy is generated above the ground, the only impact at ground level is the
area taken up by the base of the tower.
4 Currentestimatesoftherangesoflanduseintensity(insquarekilometresperTWh-year)
associated with various energy sources, based on the expected state of technology in
the year 2030, are nuclear power (1-3), geothermal (1-14), coal (3-17), solar thermal
(10-20), natural gas (1-36), solar PV (21-53), petroleum (1-88), hydropower (16-92),
wind (65-79), sugarcane ethanol (220-350), corn ethanol (320-375), cellulosic ethanol
(120-750), electricity from biomass (433-654), and soy biodiesel (780-1,000). These
estimates take into consideration the land needed for resource extraction, processing,
conversion, and waste storage (Andrews et al. 2011 ; McDonald et al. 2009 ) .