World Energy Supply

  Energy is the basis of industrial civilization; without energy, modern life would cease to exist. During the 1970s the world began a painful adjustment to the vulnerability of energy supplies. In the long run, conserving energy resources may provide the time needed to develop new sources of energy, such as   hydrogen fuel cells, or to further develop alternative energy sources, such as solar energy ad wind energy. While this development occurs, however, the world will continue to be vulnerable to disruptions in the supply of oil, which, after World War II(1939-1945), became the most favored energy source.

   Wood was the first and, for most of human history, the major source of energy. It was readily available, because extensive forests grew in many parts of the world and the amount of wood needed for heating and cooking was relatively modest. Certain other energy sources, found only in localized areas, were also used in ancient times: asphalt, coal, and peat from surface deposits and oil from seepages of underground deposits.

    In addition to developing alternative sources of energy, energy supplies can be extended by the conservation (the planned management) of currently available resources. Three types of possible energy conservation practices may be described. The first type is curtailment, that is, doing without-for example, closing factories to reduce the amount of power consumed or cutting back on travel to reduce the amount o gasoline burned.  The second type is overhaul, that is , changing the way people live suburbanization of society, using less energy- intensive materials in production processes, and decreasing the amount of energy consumed by certain products.The third type involves the more efficient use of energy, that is, adjusting to higher energy costs- for example, investing in cars that go farther per unit of fuel, capturing waste heat in factories and reusing it, and insulating houses. This third option requires less drastic changes in lifestyle, so governments and societies most commonly adopt it over the other two options.