The World Energy Crisis
The energy crisis is the concern
that the world’s demands on the limited natural resources that are used to
power industrial society are diminishing as the demand rises. These natural
resources are in limited supply. While they do occur naturally, it can take
hundreds of thousands of years to replenish the stores.
Industrial development and population growth have
led to a surge in the global demand
for energy in recent years.
Government actions like tax hikes, nationalization
of energy companies, and regulation of the energy sector, shift supply and
demand of energy away from its economic equilibrium. Market
failure is possible when monopoly
manipulation of markets occurs. A crisis can develop due to industrial actions
like union organized strikes
and government embargoes. The cause may be over-consumption,
aging infrastructure, choke
point disruption or bottlenecks at oil
refineries and port facilities that restrict fuel supply. An
emergency may emerge during very cold winters due to increased consumption of
energy.
Pipeline failures and other accidents may cause
minor interruptions to energy supplies. A crisis could possibly emerge after
infrastructure damage from severe
weather. Attacks by terrorists or militia
on important infrastructure are a possible problem for energy consumers, with a
successful strike on a Middle
East
facility potentially causing global shortages. Political events, for example, when
governments change due to regime change, monarchy collapse, military occupation,
and coup may disrupt oil and
gas production and create shortages. Fuel shortage can also be due to the
excess and useless use of the fuels.
Rather counter intuitively, the world economy has had
to deal with the unforeseen consequences of the 2015-2016 oil glut also known as 2010s oil glut, a major energy crisis that took many experts by
surprise. This oversupply crisis started with a considerable
time-lag, more than six years after the beginning of the Great Recession.
Possible Solutions of the Energy
Crisis
1. Move towards
Renewable Resources: The best possible solution is to reduce the world’s
dependence on non-renewable
resources and to improve overall conservation efforts.
2.
Buy Energy Efficient products:
Replace traditional bulbs with CFL’s and LED’s. They use less watts of
electricity and last longer. If millions of people across the globe use LED’s
and CFL’s for residential and commercial purposes, the demand for energy can go
down and an energy crisis can be averted.
3.
Lighting Controls: There are a
number of new technologies out there that make lighting controls that much more
interesting and they help to save a lot of energy and cash in the long run.
Preset lighting controls, slide lighting, touch dimmers, integrated lighting
controls are few of the lighting controls that can help to conserve energy and
reduce overall lighting costs.
4.
Energy
Simulation:
Energy simulation software can be used by big corporate and corporations to
redesign building unit and reduce
running business energy cost.
5.
Perform Energy Audit: Energy audit is
a process that helps you to identify the areas where your home or office is
losing energy and what steps you can take to improve energy efficiency.
6.
Common
Stand on Climate Change: Both developed and developing countries
should adopt a common stand on climate change. Both developed and developing
countries must focus on emissions cuts to cut their emission levels to half
from current levels by 2050.
There are many global
initiatives that are working towards resolving the energy crisis. This has
taken the form of increased regulation and restriction on carbon emissions, the
promotion of greener manufacturing and construction projects, the funding of research
into hybrid technologies and more sustainable technologies and more. Locally,
more communities are seeing beyond the recycle bin and recognizing that how the
community uses their local resources is important too. More community gardens,
parks and farmer’s markets are springing up not only as a means of introducing
more sustainable elements
into people’s, but as an important part of educating the public about the
importance of resources.
M.R.F.Rifna
(Member
of ENIGMA)
ICT/12/13/078
