Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
(a)
(b)
25.000
225
AUT
UK
AUT
UK
20.000
150
15.000
10.000
75
5.000
-
0
(c)
(d)
500
250
Hydropower/electr. import
Natural gas
Petroleum
Coal
Wood
Agr. biomass
400
200
300
150
200
100
100
50
0
0
Fig. 2.9 Historical divergence and convergence paths followed by the United Kingdom and
Austria in per capita GDP and energy consumption (1830
2000) a GDP per capita in real terms
b Primary energy consumed per capita c Energy transition in the UK (per hectare domestic energy
consumed by sources) d Energy transition in Austria (per hectare domestic energy consumed by
sources). Source Krausmann et al. (
2008
, p. 191)
-
2.9 Was There a General Crisis of Biomass Energy
Carriers in Europe?
Looking at deforestation, the second factor that, we can presume, led pre-industrial
societies towards greater unsustainability, Rolf Peter Sieferle is in little doubt that
Europe did suffer an increasing shortage of wood. He claims that
the historically
decisive escape from the wood crisis of the 18th century was the substitution of
wood by coal. In the end this process resulted in such an enormous breakthrough in
energy supply that any other attempts to substitute and conserve appear marginal by
comparison. But for contemporaries it was only one way out among others
“
—
they
.
98
This is a controversial issue that
deserves to be studied further to clarify whether there was a true widespread wood
crisis in Europe or not before the large-scale resort to fossil fuels; and if so, what the
main factors were that brought this about.
Landscape photographs taken between the 1870s and 1920s, and the
were unaware of its epoch-making importance
”
rst aerial
photos made shortly afterwards, show an apparent deforestation and rejuvenation of
98
Sieferle (
2001
).
