Monday 8 February 2010

The Energy Crisis

Firstly define the term.

Wikipedia*, an encylcopedia, Encarta, Google, blogs, newspapers? Reliable information. Books

It is Web 2.0 – anyone can edit it.

Science journals. Are they reliable? A journal

Peer review.

E = mc2

An example with food

A farmer plants a seed and in the earth. The plants are watered by rain and the plant grows.At some point it's ready for harvesting. Tractors are involved. No chemicals are involved if it is organic (Bio). Chemicals include pesticides and fertilisers.

Fertilisers come from the oil industry.

The food is then harvested, processed and then transported to a warehouse.


Energy issues:

Energy supply – supplies from nuclear power, the sun (solar power), wind, oil, coal & gas.

Demand & supply. Demand is high and increasing while the supply is leveling off and now diminishing. Peak oil

Energy security – Energy in Germany. War.

Electrical energy comes from power stations. They run on nuclear power, brown coal (it's full of sulphur and produces a lot of CO2).

Fuels – oil, mostly the middle East especially Saudi Arabia & Iraq. Peak oil.

Climate change – GHG's, mostly CO2, but also include CH4, but also unburnt hydrocarbons, etc.

Sustainable energy – energy cannot be created, or destroyed (laws of thermodynamics).Entropy.

Links:

International Energy Agency
http://iea.org/

Guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/07/branson-warns-peak-oil-close

Interesting comment on the above article

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