Every day we hear about the lack of oil, or the cost of water, or how concentrated the UV rays hitting our skin any moment we are out in the sun. These are all arguably local issues which makes sense considering how much time and effort we put into these issues. One issue that not too many are actually aware of is the lack of energy; the by product of rising scarcity of natural resources.I'm sure people think, "Well duh, obviously if we don't have natural resources we don't have energy," but what people fail to do is make the proper connection between our consumption of natural resources and our production of electricity. People have a simple image in their mind of our resource management, mainly because it's not something we think about on a regular basis. Are are told all the time that one day we will run out of natural resources and people think, "Oh no, I won't be able to drive," which is merely a small pixel in this whole picture. If we run out of resources than we run out of electricity as well. You won't be able to drive your car sure, but you also won't be able to turn on your TV, or charge your phone, or even write a blog!
Currently in Europe, many people are coming to this realization. The issue itself has been being presented every year, but still no one really thought the danger was anywhere near. This year, the price of natural gas skyrocketed in the UK due to the shutting down of the UK's biggest import lines raising prices of natural gas up 50% in one day. Since then, the price has dropped a little, but it sure was a wake up call for the entire UK.
As previously stated, the lack of natural resources effects the prices of electricity greatly. Currently in the UK the price of electricity is 0.21CAD/kWh which is almost 3x that of the electricity prices that we pay here in Canada (0.06CAD/kWh) and the UK has the lower costs for their electricity. Electricity costs in Germany are this year 0.35CAD/kWh, 5x more than what we pay here in Canada! Unfortunately for Europe, the prices are only going to continue to rise.
People may be wondering why this crisis is happening in Europe and not quite happening here in North America. This is mainly because here in Canada we have more land than people. We have plenty of land in North America that we use to gather natural resources which Europe lacks. Europe has much higher population densities. Even worse is how terribly Europe has been developed. Because Europe was pretty much where the world started developing first so now they are out of most natural resources. Another down side is that many buildings in Europe are less than 3 stories high and in the oldest parts apartment buildings are scarce at best. If the population of Europe was living using the same housing as China then they would have more land to work with and have more of a concrete infrastructure for pipelines and electrical lines etc.
Solutions to this problem are in the works such as creating more, larger wind fields, but like previously stated, they do not have as much land to work with that would help them. Other solutions would be technological advancements that can help make energy more efficient. For instance, a new electrode has been discovered that expands the lifetime of batteries 5x and the charging time by half! Advancements like this will definitely help the continent move towards more affordable lifestyles.
Liam McClement--> WOWW i had noooo clue that Europe was in such an energy crisis... if anything I thought they would have been much better off than Canada not worse!!! the electrode that expands lifetime of batteries is very interesting though, any idea how it does it?
ReplyDeleteNo idea really, all I know is that it was discovered by a student at some super expensive university like Harvard something. The thing that I find interesting about the electrode is it's really going to make a huge jump for the electric car business. My roommates dad' has this beautiful Tesla which is a electric sports car but the battery only lasts 250KM, could you imagine when the electrode finally makes it's way into the products in the market, that now becomes 1250KM which is a HUGE difference!
ReplyDeleteSammantha Giles: I had no idea that energy was such a problem in Europe. But I wonder what the connections that the European power crisis has with the rest of the world's energy? I know Canada supplies power to the USA and are building a pipeline from BC to China, so do you think there are options for other countries to help Europe in the same ways by suppying power?
ReplyDeleteParis - Well there are ways to help them. For instance, Singapore consumes a TON of electricity and there is nowhere for them to get power from so everything comes from underground and underwater pipelines that come from other countries the power all of Singapore. These pipelines are good BUT unfortunately when something goes wring allofthesudden your entire country is in black out which actually happened for a few days in Singapore. Luckily everything has back ups but I mean if we did this system for Europe, it would generally be a good idea with little consequences (I hope). The thing is though, electricity doesn't just come from nowhere. Someone has to make it and that's Europe's problem. They don't have any resources left. We have an entire oil industry here in Canada, Europe has to import their resources.
DeleteIt is an eye opener for us Canadians, where most of the population lives in only a small fraction of our country. Of course our energy is cheaper with so much land to get it from, but people don't think. Do you think is possible to recreate housing in Europe to be like that of China? How do you think people would respond to even higher population concentrations allowed by such? I wish I had more information about their current living conditions and how Europeans are coping with the rise of energy prices.
ReplyDeleteOne problem that Europe has when it comes to housing is that it thinks it's way too beautiful for things to be fixed. But unfortunately, because it's old doesn't mean it's good. Some housing will have to be fixed but should we really risk losing that culture? Something to think about.
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