Fossil fuel consumption

Description:

Fossil fuels are non-renewable natural resources. There is a limited amount of fossil fuel reserves. Fossil fuels are being consumed faster than they are produced by the earth and they will eventually be exhausted.

Enablers:

• We are dependent on fossil fuels as they power almost all equipment and machinery. They are used for heating homes and businesses, running businesses, tranportation and communication networks.Almost every aspect of modern life is made from, powered with, or affected by fossil fuels.
• They are the cheapest and safest source of energy currently available to everyone.
• Need for energy across the world is increasing.

Inhibitors:

• Burning of fossil fuels pollute the air and cause global warming.
• People are increasingly aware of problems with fossil fuels and are trying to find ways to limit our dependence on them.
• Fossil fuels are increasing in price with time.
• Renewable sources of energy

Paradigms:

With the conflict in the Middle East, there has been growing concern over the availability of oil in the Middle East. Experts have also said that there is only another 40 years of crude oil left. Geologists are suggesting that global oil production could peak and decline steeply much sooner, increasing oil prices. Non-OPEC oil producing countries are already nearing peak production leaving most of the reserves in the unstable Middle East. Increasing tensions between Islam and the West will likely threaten access to affordable oil.

Experts:

Petroleum geologists

Timing:

• Around 900 AD, coal was discovered and was soon widely used. The population rose to 1 billion in 1800.
• In 1850, crude oil was discovered in Romania, and in 1859 the first North American oil well went into operation. Machinery availability and usage increased. In 1930, there were 2 billion people; in 1960, 3 billion; in 1974, 4; in 1987, 5; and in 1999, there were 6 billion inhabitants of this planet.
• In 1933 Viktor Schauberger, in his book “Unserer sinnlos Arbeit” (Our Senseless Toil), wrote: “The temperature on earth is a product of balancing processes involving carbonaceous matter in the earth (note: Schauberger used “carbonaceous matter” to mean all organic and mineral matter like coal, crude oil, natural gas, minerals etc. excluding oxygen and hydrogen) and the oxygen that penetrates the earth dissolved in rainwater. When all this highly organised carbonaceous mater is extracted from the earth by humans, these balanced processes will be interrupted. As a result the outer layer of the earth will cool down and the atmosphere will become colder.
• At the end of 2004, world proven crude oil reserves stood at 1,144,013 million barrels, of which 896,659 million barrels, or 78.4 per cent, was in OPEC Member Countries.
• According to the reference case of OPEC's World Energy Model (OWEM), total world oil demand in 2000 is put at 76 million barrels per day, As world economic growth continues, crude oil demand will also rise to 90.6m b/d in 2010 and 103.2m b/d by 2020.

Web Resources:

• [1] http://www.calder.net/mwright/2003-10-06-renewable-energy.html
• [2] http://www.emagazine.com/view/?171
• [3] http://www.zegg.de/englisch/oekobroschuere/energiegeschichte.php
• [4] http://www.solcomhouse.com/fossilfuels.htm

http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/2008.asp