Hooked on energy

In just a few decades the world population and individual energy use have both experienced nearly exponential growth. These two trends together lead to the following observation: world energy consumption has been multiplied by 10 in 60 years, despite the constant technological progress that has accompanied the industrial revolution over the years. Energy is no more and no less than our ability to modify the world that surrounds us; it is a global indicator of our growing impact on the environment.

Abundant energy has brought short-term material prosperity to a large part of the world population. Can this trend continue for the next 50 years, to bring the same degree of prosperity to those who do not have it today, and still preserve natural resources and the climate? All the substantiated information available on this issue indicates that the answer is unfortunately “No”.

If this trend continues two fundamental and intrinsically linked problems arise:

Our energy consumption relies for 80% of its supply on finite fossil resources that were created once and for all tens of millions of years ago. We are thus dependant on reserves that cannot indefinitely produce ever greater amounts. Their output will rise to a maximum level and then inexorably fall. This situation is fundamentally in conflict with today’s economic models that assume the existence of “infinite” resources.

The use of carbon-rich fossil energy engenders carbon dioxide emissions in quantities that significantly affect the evolution of the climate.This process will lead to–among other effects–an average global warming of several degrees centigrade within a few decades.This evolution is certain to profoundly disrupt human society and endanger the conquest of democracy for which our ancestors fought long and hard.

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