April 7, 2010, 10:33 pm
On the Energy Gap and Climate Crisis
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
It's worth beginning Dot Earth's new iteration with a few straightforward points about humans and their planet that I feel are powerfully established. Below, I start with several thoughts on energy and climate. In coming days, along with a regular flow of news-driven posts, I'll add similar foundation-building pieces on relations between people and Earth's other inhabitants and on ways to mesh humanity's infinite aspirations with life on a finite planet.
1) Energy matters. Energy can produce bountiful supplies of drinking water. Energy enables food production, storage and dispersal. Energy enables mobility, connectedness, health and comfort. The late Nobelist in chemistry, Richard Smalley, devoted the last years of his life to delivering an admirable distillation of the benefits of abundant energy, and need for an energy quest.
2) Even with spreading efforts to conserve energy, a world heading toward roughly 9 billion people seeking decent lives will require far more of this resource than today's supplies and systems can provide. There is already an enormous energy gap on the planet, with some 2 billion people lacking the simple gift of illumination or a clean source of heat for cooking meals.
3) If countries like China and India follow the American pattern in transportation, ballooning demand for oil is bound to be a disruptive influence on world affairs with or without the climate impact of all those additional emissions of greenhouse gases. Think of it this way; the United States, with 307 million ( heading toward 400 million) people, now consumes nearly 20 million barrels a day; India, with more than 1.1 billion people, is barely in first gear, currently using 2.67 million barrels of oil but poised for vastly increased demand. Add in projections of car use in China and you see why status-quo fuel choices don't hold up.
Click Here
