The general public has no clue how important energy is to our way of life. They just know that when they flick a switch, the light comes on. It is important to know all that energy has done to bring mankind out of the dark ages. Given our reliance on energy and our need to respond to climate change, it is also important to consider where we will get our energy in the future. This video provides a good overview.
Climate change has been dominating the energy conversation. I'm a believer that man is contributing to climate change and concur that we need to reduce carbon emissions. However, the public push has been focused on banning fracking and eliminating the production of oil and gas. That is dangerously backwards. We need to reduce our use of carbon energy first. Even an electric vehicle runs primarily on carbon energy.
The bitter rhetoric portrays carbon energy as evil. The truth is that carbon energy is the under-appreciated work-horse that brought us into the modern age. Before the steam engine was invented in the early 1700’s, every person was the main source of energy. If you wanted something, you made it. If you wanted to eat something, you grew it or killed it. There were 600 million human beings on the planet and life expectancy was a mere 29 years.
Today, one farmer can feed thousands. And with clean running water, electricity, a warm home, and medical discoveries made possible with energy, the average life expectancy in the US is now close to 80.
Putting our reliance on energy further in perspective, recall the science exhibit where a bike turns a generator and lights up a lightbulb. Imagine how many people it would take to light up your house, as well as run the air conditioner, refrigerator, all the TVs and computers. And if you think gasoline is too expensive, put a gallon in your car, drive it till it runs out, then push it back. At $10 per hour, the equivalent cost for people to do the work would be $5000 per gallon. Today’s energy is cheap and it makes our lives awesome.
The reality is that energy use has not ruined the planet but has actually led to a cleaner environment. The foulest living conditions on the planet are where people have little, if any, access to energy. In addition, our economy is tied directly to our energy use. Based on GDP per capita, America is five times as productive and five times as wealthy as the bulk of the world. However, it takes five times as much energy to run our economy. That is because literally everything you have and everything you do takes energy. Even a cotton tee shirt was farmed with diesel tractors, milled in a natural gas powered factory and trucked to a department store where you drove in your car to buy it.
The world will continue to need more energy. As the standard of living improves in the third world, it will be on the back of increased energy use. The bottom line is that our lives as we know them are 100% dependent on energy.
George Sharpe has a masters in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and has 40 years of experience in the industry. George is an advocate for ALL energy and has created numerous YouTube educational videos on various energy topics.