The Economics Behind Energy
I'm writing my senior project about the world's energy consumption and I've run into quite a few crossroads between energy consumption and economics. I thought I'd share some of them in a blog post.
To give a brief overview of how energy production works, there are three main types of energy: fossil fuel (nonrenewable) energy, renewable energy, and nuclear energy. In 2017, around 80% of United States energy consumption was done through burning fossil fuels, while 11% was renewable energy and 9% was nuclear energy. Fossil fuels are mainly comprised of coal and oil. They’re called fossil fuels because they take millions of years to become usable fuels, and are made by the fossils of old creatures millions of years ago. And therefore, of course, fossil fuels are obviously not renewable.
Renewable energy, on the other hand, is most commonly known in the forms of solar power and wind turbines. These methods of energy production come from outside of our planet; solar wind and rays from our sun are the heart of renewable energy. This energy is, as per its name, renewable, meaning it will never run out and is harmless to our environment.
In the long-term future, the argument between fossil fuels and renewable energy has a clear winner from an ethics point of view: we want to move away from fossil fuels because they will run out.
But why haven't we?
Many rich and influential businesspeople are against renewable energy solely due to the fact that the cost of energy production will skyrocket for their businesses, lowering the profits on the production of their products. This could, in turn, damage the economy.
However, if we continue to use fossil fuels, there will be no more fuel left to sustain our planet. In addition, millions of people die each year due to the carbon dioxide emissions that result from the burning of fossil fuels to create energy.
The fight between fossil fuels and renewable energy will most likely be a short term hurdle. In the long run, it is estimated that governments around the world will begin to have stricter environmental policies, forcing the businesses to adopt renewable energy if available.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=us_energy_home
To give a brief overview of how energy production works, there are three main types of energy: fossil fuel (nonrenewable) energy, renewable energy, and nuclear energy. In 2017, around 80% of United States energy consumption was done through burning fossil fuels, while 11% was renewable energy and 9% was nuclear energy. Fossil fuels are mainly comprised of coal and oil. They’re called fossil fuels because they take millions of years to become usable fuels, and are made by the fossils of old creatures millions of years ago. And therefore, of course, fossil fuels are obviously not renewable.
Renewable energy, on the other hand, is most commonly known in the forms of solar power and wind turbines. These methods of energy production come from outside of our planet; solar wind and rays from our sun are the heart of renewable energy. This energy is, as per its name, renewable, meaning it will never run out and is harmless to our environment.
In the long-term future, the argument between fossil fuels and renewable energy has a clear winner from an ethics point of view: we want to move away from fossil fuels because they will run out.
But why haven't we?
Many rich and influential businesspeople are against renewable energy solely due to the fact that the cost of energy production will skyrocket for their businesses, lowering the profits on the production of their products. This could, in turn, damage the economy.
However, if we continue to use fossil fuels, there will be no more fuel left to sustain our planet. In addition, millions of people die each year due to the carbon dioxide emissions that result from the burning of fossil fuels to create energy.
The fight between fossil fuels and renewable energy will most likely be a short term hurdle. In the long run, it is estimated that governments around the world will begin to have stricter environmental policies, forcing the businesses to adopt renewable energy if available.
Many of the concepts that I just talked about are very prevalent in economics, such as government regulations on usage of items and the opportunity cost decision between using fossil fuels or cleaner energy.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=us_energy_home
Nice post Jamsheed! It's interesting how economics affects our energy usage; although it is more ethical to use renewable energy sources, nonrenewable energy tends to be cheaper and thus more economically sound. It's hard to assign a quantitative economic value to preventing climate change, but in my opinion, the world should shift towards using renewable energy sources as soon as possible.
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