Energy from My Backyard - The Renaissance of Renewable Energy - page 229

However, public perception of fossil fuels has changed considerably during that time.
They began to fall out of favour during the first oil crisis in 1973, as people became more
aware that the oil supply was finite. The Gulf War of 1991 and Iraq War of 2003-2011
underscored the geopolitical dangers of relying on a resource that is concentrated in
one region of the world. Ultimately, the strongest argument against fossil fuels may be
environmental, as carbon-heavy fuels are known to be the main cause of climate change.
Despite changes in attitudes to fossil fuels, we have yet to implement a viable
alternative, and so modern human societies stumble along in a confused way, still wedded
to fossil fuels but no longer happy with the relationship. In fact, far from serving divorce
papers, we have recently renewed our vows, through the rapid development of
unconventional sources, such as tar sands and shale gas.
Contrary to popular belief, America's main foreign source of oil is not in the Middle
East but immediately to the north. More than a quarter of U.S. oil imports come from
Canada, half of it in the form of bitumen melted out of the Alberta oil sands (Biello 2012b ) .
The discovery and use of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') has brought about a similar
revolution in the gas industry; shale gas now accounts for 25 per cent of the American gas
supply, up from just 1 per cent in 2000 (Yergin 2011 ) .
7.2 The Stillborn Renaissance of Nuclear Energy
One of the most important developments of the twentieth century was the replacement of
coal by oil as the world's major energy source. The British industrialist William Armstrong
predicted in 1863 that England would cease to produce coal within two centuries because it
“was used wastefully and extravagantly in all its applications” (Higgins 2007 ). Armstrong
was a strong advocate of solar power and hydroelectricity because “the solar heat operating
on one acre in the tropics would … exert the amazing power of 4,000 horses acting for
nearly nine hours every day” (Higgins 2007 ). Although hydropower played an important
role during the early stages of industrialization in many countries, recent global
development has been mainly based on the exploitation of fossil fuels (Sathaye et al. 2011 ) .
In 1973 the so-called traditional renewables (biomass, waste, and hydroelectric power)
accounted for roughly 12 per cent of global primary energy production, compared with a
whopping 86 per cent produced by fossil fuels. The share provided by 'new' renewables
(wind, solar and geothermal) was insignificant (0.1 per cent). At that time the
fastest-growing alternative to fossil fuels was nuclear energy, and many people expected
nuclear power to gradually replace fossil fuels.