Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
But times change. Which is to say culture changed. And with it came a change in energy resource
consumption as machinery was developed that made use of oil and gas instead of wood.
Resources and power
Fuel resources generate two kinds of power. On the one hand, they can be used to make heat
that can be transformed into physical energy. In addition, resources may generate significant
political and economic power for the countries that possess them.
Petroleum, for example, comes as close as any substance today to being the economic lifeblood of the
global economy. Its geography is highly concentrated, however (as seen in Figure 16-2). The coun-
tries that border the Persian Gulf possess about half of all the world's known petroleum reserves.
Saudi Arabia alone possesses nearly 23 percent. Elsewhere, major reserves exist in Russia (13 per-
cent of the world's total), Venezuela (6 percent), and Mexico (4 percent). The United States possesses
thousands of producing oil fields. Most are small, however, so overall it isn't a leading center of re-
serves.
The essential fact is that few countries possess petroleum in great quantity. That virtually guarantees
that those countries will enjoy substantial political and economic clout for as long as petroleum main-
tains its status as the most important energy source. This was vividly demonstrated in 1973 when, in
the wake of an Arab-Israeli war, oil-producing nations in that region curtailed shipments to western
countries. About 60 percent of the world's petroleum reserves then came from countries that border
the Persian Gulf. Much of it was exported to developed nations whose economies depended on it to
different degrees. When the tap suddenly was turned off, everybody got a quick and unmistakable
lesson in political petrol-power.
But that kind of power is obtained only when a particular resource is sorely needed by countries that
either have none or not enough. We have seen that resources are culturally determined, and that cul-
ture change brings resource change. Accordingly, as resources rise and fall in importance, so do the
economic and political power of the places that possess them. One hundred years ago, the countries
that border the Persian Gulf were of little economic importance to the outside world. Times have
changed. Today, virtually every country consumes petroleum, and the vast majority of them can-
not satisfy their thirst by domestic production. So they rely for their economic lifeblood on foreign
sources — the Persian Gulf nations in particular — who accordingly assume great power.
