Energy and Environment

The Policy Challenge

John Byrne, Danile Rich, John Byrne, Danile Rich

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000676655
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Originally published in 1991, this volume number 6 in the Energy Policy Studies series focuses on important interconnections between energy use and global change issues such as upper atmosphere ozone depletion and global warming. Policy options for meeting these challenges are explored in eight contributed chapters that concentrate on Energy and the Environment, economic growth and industrialisation in Europe, a comparison of solar and nuclear options, as well costs surrounding electricity generation and sustainable development.

PART I Overview

DOI: 10.4324/9780429337031-2

Chapter 1 Energy and Environment in the 21st Century: The Challenge of Change

DOI: 10.4324/9780429337031-3

James J. MacKenzie

As the world nears the end of the twentieth century, it finds itself facing the third major transition among energy sources. This transition will not be driven by an underlying shortage of carbon fuels: the world has huge coal resources which in principle could be converted into synthetic oil and natural gas. Rather, the transition will occur in response to three serious problems intimately connected to the use of energy: climate change — in large measure the result of burning fossil fuels; air pollution in the form of smog and acid rain; and growing reliance on the part of many nations on insecure sources of oil, jeopardizing their national and economic security. These three problems are linked together by the burning of fossil fuels and together they point to the urgent need to develop new energy sources (MacKenzie, 1989).

In this chapter we begin by sketching out the historical role that energy has played in the development of human affairs. From the discovery of fire, to the development of agriculture, the harnessing of animal power, the invention of the steam engine, and the splitting of the atom, energy use has allowed humankind to adapt to — indeed, to triumph over — the natural environment and to prosper over the millennia.

The transition from renewable energy sources to fossil fuels, a change which began in the mid 19th century, shifted human development onto a non-sustainable development path. The large-scale burning of fossil fuels now threatens human welfare and security as well the natural environment. Protecting the earth's climate will require a major, relatively rapid shift from fossil to non-fossil energy sources. The technological and institutional implications of this transition are discussed, as are the relative roles of the industrialized and developing countries.

Energy in Human Affairs: A Historical Overview

Energy has played a crucial role in the evolution of the human species (Cook, 1971; Foley, 1987; Harrison, 1968). By harnessing various forms of energy, humankind has survived ice ages, accommodated to hostile weather, and industrialized. In a cruel reversal it now appears that — unless drastic changes are soon made in the forms of energy and it uses — uncontrolled energy use may lead to far-reaching, possibly irreversible, changes in the earth and its climate and to the widespread jeopardy of many forms of life itself (Gribbin, 1990).

Over the millennia, humankind has moved from dependence on renewable resources — wood, the winds, water power, and human and animal power — to our present dependence on depletable resources, mostly fossil fuels. While the burning of fossil fuels has enabled mankind to remake the surface of the earth, it has also brought with it its own seeds of decline. Over human time frames, fossil fuels must be considered non-renewable. As a result, we are living — unsustainably — on our capital, not our income. For its long-term survival, mankind must once again move to renewable energy sources. How quickly must such a transition occur? How would the new world differ from that of the 20th century? And how would the technologies differ? These are some of the issues we address in this introductory chapter.

Transitions over the Millennia

According to present understanding, land-based life began some 300-400 million years ago (Foley, 1987; Parker, 1986). What we call modern man began his evolution in Africa some 5 to 8 million years ago. These first humans were probably vegetarians and their food consumption constituted their entire energy consumption, some 2000-3000 kilocalories per day. Primitive people had no access to fire or domestic animals.

It is estimated that only about 40 million people could live on earth as gatherers, less than 1 percent of the earth's present level. The first tools, chipped stones, were probably used to cut up dead animals some 2 million years ago. The use of tools reflects an important step in evolution: it allowed early people to expand their diet and to use materials for shelter and other purposes. However, energy use was probably not much greater than with gatherers.

Homo erectus was the first user of fire, some 100,000-400,000 years ago (Foley, 1987). Fire and the development of clothing allowed people to live in colder climates and to cook meat. They developed elaborate tools including the hand axe. The energy use of these early people was probably double that of vegetarians.

These early humans had to cope with major changes in the earth's climate. About 1.5 million years ago the first full-scale glaciation occurred with huge ice sheets covering much of the earth. These patterns of ice ages have continued with a periodicity of some 80,000 to 100,000 years. The last ice age was at its maximum some 18,000 years ago, and ended some 10,000 years ago. The present interglacial is some 10,000 years old and presumably is approaching its end.

The first fully modern human, homo sapiens, developed around 40,000 years ago. This species spread over the entire globe partly as the result of the ice age which dropped oceans levels hundreds of feet allowing the migration among continents. In addition to using fire these people had stone lamps using animal fat as the fuel.

Advent of Agriculture

Food is humankind's most indispensable energy form. Of the 2 million years or so that man has been on earth, he was a gatherer for the first 1,990,000. Agriculture is only some 10,000 years old. On average, the development of agriculture allowed about five times as many people to live on the same area than if gatherers were there. Agriculture allowed the domestication of animals through the growing of grain to feed them and produced the surpluses of food that made possible the evolution of the great civilizations of antiquity.

Animals have been used in agriculture and as means of transportation for thousands of years. Wind was used to power ship and grain mills, and to pump water. The domestication of animals allowed milk and meat to be obtained from grass that was otherwise indigestible for humans. Animals were used to lift water, plow the land, and haul loads; they also served as sources of hides for clothing and other purposes. Energy consumption per person in a primitive agricultural setting was probably six times the minimum 2,000 kilocalories per day.

The progression in per capita energy use can be seen in Figure 1.1. Food still accounts for a small fraction of human energy needs. Yet many people today still live at the level of the gathering or primitive agricultural stage and about 2 billion rely on wood to meet most of their energy needs. Wood is the most widely used fuel worldwide and in many developing countries, people meet 90 percent of their energy needs with wood and other forms of biomass (Foley, 1987).

The Industrial Revolution: The Transition to Fossil Fuels

Until about the middle of the 19th century, the world was powered almost totally by renewable resources: wood for heat and smelting; and water wheels, wind mills, sailing ships, and animal

Figure 1.1Evolution of Human Energy Use (Daily Per Capita Energy Consumption)

Source: Cook, 1971

power for mechanical energy. Over the past century two major transitions among energy sources have occurred (Landsberg and Schurr, 1968; Schurr et al., 1960). The first was from wood to coal beginning in the middle of the 19th century. The second, to oil and gas, began in the early part of the 20th century. A third transition is now imminent though it is still not certain to which energy sources humankind will be moving.

Coal: The Fossil Fuel of the 19th Century

One of the most important limitations of ancient civilizations was their inability to concentrate large amounts of energy on a task. Human and animal power were the main sources of concentrated mechanical power. Wind and water wheels were quite limited in their power output. This changed with the introduction of coal for smelting and the subsequent widespread use of the steam engine.

Coal was first used to replace wood as a source for heating and for smelting iron. In England, charcoal used for smelting iron, lead, tin, and copper led to a widespread improvement in the standard of living but at the cost of the destruction of forests. The wood shortage was so severe in the 16th century that England had to ship ore to Ireland, Scotland, and Wales for smelting where forests in turn, were devastated to make charcoal. The entire iron industry was saved by the substitution of coke (made from coal) for charcoal — a fossil fuel for a biofuel.

Until the middle of the 18th century, mechanical energy was available only from water wheels, wind machines, and animals. All this changed with the introduction in 1776 of the steam engine, itself facilitated by the introduction of coke into iron making. Steam engines allowed a concentration of energy never available before. Coal, iron, and the steam engine together paved the way for the industrial revolution.

The widespread use of fossil fuels in the United States began in the mid 1800s when 90 percent of our heat energy was still obtained from wood (Landsberg and Schurr, 1968; Schurr et al.; 1960). Though in 1850 about five times as much work was obtained from wind and water wheels as from steam engines, only twenty years later the amounts were about equal. By 1900 about 75 percent of the country's heating needs were met by coal. In the latter part of the 19th century, coal became the energy source for U.S. industry, iron and steel making, and transportation. Wood, the energy source for households, was growing scarcer and coal was cheaper and more convenient than wood.

From the middle of the 19th century until about 1910, coal use grew at over 6 percent per year, accounting for all the growth in energy supply. By 1910, coal production was 60 times as great as in 1850 and it supplied 80 percent of total fuel needs. Steam boats and locomotives converted from wood to coal. In the latter part of the 19th century, sailing ships were largely replaced by iron ships powered by steam.

The relative contribution of coal in the United States declined from a peak of about 75 percent of total energy supply in 1910 to about 17 percent in 1973, back to about 23 percent in 1989. During the past 80 years, coal lost many of its important markets. Locomotives and ships converted from steam to diesels; buildings switched to natural gas and oil; and industry converted from steam engines and pulleys to electric motors.

In 1989 about 86 percent of domestic coal consumption was accounted for in electric power production. The rest was used by industry and to make coke. The decline in coal was precipitated by the convenience, cleanliness, and efficiency of new competing technologies.

Coal is both the most abundant fossil fuel worldwide and the most environmentally damaging. From its mining to its consumption, coal takes a heavy toll on the land, water, and air. In addition to mining impacts, it is a major source of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates, and, perhaps, the most serious pollutant, carbon dioxide.

Oil and Natural Gas: The Fuels of the 20th Century

The switch from wood to coal in the mid-19th century represented the first major transition in energy sources. The second transition, to oil and natural gas, began at about the turn of the century and has just been completed.

In the United States, the first successful oil well was completed in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The goal of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company was to find enough oil to begin meeting the illuminating and lubrication needs of the country. Within ten years of the first well, oil production had reached four million barrels per year. Within 20 years it reached 26 million barrels per year; and by 1900, 63 million barrels.

Kerosene, used in lamps, comprised 85 percent of refinery output in the 1870s. There was a genuine reluctance at the turn of the century to use oil as a heating fuel because of the abundance of coal and wood, the high price of refined oil, and the lack of suitable burning equipment. These obstacles were eventually overcome and by 1910 about one-half of total oil production was being burned as a heating fuel by railroads, manufacturers, the navy, and the electric utilities.

During the nineteenth century, gasoline was regarded as a waste product of oil refining. The first internal combustion engine using gasoline was made in 1876 and by the 1890s the basic motor car had been developed. The convenience and efficiency of the internal combustion engine soon led to its dominance over steam and electric systems. In 1900 there were 8000 registered motor vehicles in the United States. By 1921 there were 10 million, and by 1925, 20 million. Gasoline production went from 11 percent of refinery output in 1909, to 25 percent in 1918, to 42 percent in 1930. Today oil is the nation's single largest source of energy with almost two out of three barrels consumed in transportation.

Domestic oil production in the United States is declining sharply (see Figure 1.2). With demand growing, oil imports have increased and in 1989 were approaching half of domestic supply. The Persian Gulf war with Iraq demonstrated the economic and security risks of relying on the Middle East for significant amounts of petroleum. Reducing long-term security and economic risks will require becoming more energy efficient and developing alternative energy sources. Nowhere is the urgency greater than in transportation.

Figure 1.2Trends InU.S. Oil Production

Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy

Natural gas, like gasoline, was first considered a useless waste product and was normally flared at the well or vented directly into the atmosphere. Until the late 19th century, transporting it was difficult due to the crude pipeline technology. The first high-pressure pipeline in 1891 transported gas from northern Indiana to Chicago. It was not until the late 1920s that seamless, high-pressure, large-diameter pipes and underground pipe-laying equipment became available, enabling the gas industry to expand rapidly. Other factors favoring increased gas use include low price, no on-site storage needed, and gas-burning equipment that is virtually maintenance free. Over the decades the markets for natural gas have slowly changed. Residential and commercial customers increased their use from about 20 percent in 1930 to 44 percent in 1989. Industry (40 percent) and power production (16 percent) consume the remaining gas.

Factors Driving the Third Transition

The transition from fossil fuels, which now account for nearly 90 percent of global energy supply, to non-fossil energy sources will be fundamentally different from previous ones. Factors such as physical scarcity, convenience, and relative fuel prices will be of secondary importance to the driving forces of global climate change, air quality, and international oil security. These latter issues are of vital importance to all nations both industrialized and developing, whether they are large consumers of commercial energy or not. In the following sections we summarize these threats as they exist today and their implications for global energy use.

Global Climate Change

The release of vast amounts of gases into the atmosphere is threatening an unprecedented global warming (IPCC, 1990). The buildup of greenhouse gases threatens to commit the world, as early as 2030, to a global temperature rise of as much as 9 F, a temperature change that was sufficient thousands of years ago to carry the earth from the coldest depth of the Ice Age into the warmest period ever known (Abrahamson, 1989; Gribbin, 1990).

Greenhouse warming occurs when a blanket of atmospheric gases allows sunlight to penetrate to the earth, but partially traps the earth's radiated infrared heat. Some greenhouse warming is both totally natural and necessary. Without it the earth would be about 60 F colder and life as we know it would not be possible. Over the past century, however, human activities have led to the buildup of...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents Page
• Introduction
• Part I: Overview
• Part II: Historical Analysis
• Part III: Contemporary Issues
• Part IV: The Policy Challenge
• Contributors