Energy of the Future II

By the year 2050 the world will need more than 50% more energy to keep up with the growth of the consuming publics demand for the energy. Right now it takes 110,000 watts a day for each person in the US. In Europe they need 55,000 watts. And in Asia they consume 16,000 watts and Africans us only 8,000 watts.

Where does all this come from? Well it comes from fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas), water, sun, nuclear, and wind. As we all know, we are running out of fossil fuels and because of that all the prices have risen and will continue to rise until we find a more usable (reusable?) source. You and I have heard of the "new" engines for cars and other means of transportation that use other sources. But you probably don't know that they have had these engines for decades, but because the oil was so cheap, the manufacturers thought that retooling their assembly lines would cost too much and the consumer (you and I) would not purchase them as long as the price of gasoline was so low. Now that the prices of the fuel have risen so much, they have decided to bring them out of the development stage to the fabrication process.

But vehicles are only one of the consumers of these fossil fuels as I have stated before. You and I also use electricity for our cooking, ironing, washing, housecleaning, and just lighting our homes. Think about all of the consumption that is going on in all the offices and stores where we shop. Again, lighting, heating/cooling, advertisements, and of course the ever present computers, screens, and printers which we no longer can get along without. How many of you have more than one computer at home? At work? We see special stores selling them and all of the accessories that we "need" to have to make our work/gaming easier and faster. New larger homes need more energy just because of their size and the growth of the earths population and their connection to the "lines" require more and more energy.

If everyone on the planet used the same amount energy as the "average" US user, we would need 5.4 earths to supply the amount of force required to feed their requirements. This calls for all of us to use less and less and for someone to design more efficient equipment requiring less energy supplies. And there is the request for all of us to be more creative in how we re-use our supply and find ways to use less energy. More efficient light bulbs can save 1% of requirement. If everyone on earth would use these light bulbs and turning off the light when it is no longer required, you would save 20 power plants around the earth.

As a little thought before I go: Raising beef cattle requires the use of 10X more energy than to raise the same weight in chickens. So save where you can.