Energy Crisis
GLOBAL ENERGY CRISIS: THEN AND NOW
Global Energy Crisis: Then and Now
Introduction The world today faces an energy crisis. The world is dependent on certain natural resources like oil and natural gas that are quickly depleting. These resources are being imported from countries that have the ability to set higher prices due to demand (Nef 1977). Because of this, the world faces a great recession, and like Britain in the second half of the 16th century, we need to find alternative sources of energy. Britain found itself in an energy crisis and was on the brink of a recession however they were able to exploit a new means of energy and revitalize their country and situation. The purpose of this paper is to show similarities between Britain’s Energy crisis of the 16th century and our Global energy crisis of today, with the hopes to learn from Britain to solve our current global issues.
Argument Claim In today’s Global energy crisis, we find ourselves dependent on wood, as did Britain. Based on the reading from “An Early Energy Crisis and its Consequences” (Nef 1977), Britain in the second half of the 16th century had its first energy crisis due to deforestation. The country had a large supply of forest, and was greatly dependent of wood for everything. They used it for building homes and furniture among many other things. The government regulated the use of wood as it used it for building there ships, which was used for everything from there Navy to transportation (Nef 1977). With the rise in population came the rise in more materials, and wood was being quickly used up. Books became very popular with the creation of the printing
press, and wood was used for making paper (Nef 1977). Furthermore, with the discovery of metal ores, great amounts of wood were needed to heat the metal to manufacture items such as weapons (Nef 1977). Wood quickly became scarce, and Britain was on the brink of Deforestation. Britain found itself dealing with higher
Global Energy Crisis: Then and Now
Introduction The world today faces an energy crisis. The world is dependent on certain natural resources like oil and natural gas that are quickly depleting. These resources are being imported from countries that have the ability to set higher prices due to demand (Nef 1977). Because of this, the world faces a great recession, and like Britain in the second half of the 16th century, we need to find alternative sources of energy. Britain found itself in an energy crisis and was on the brink of a recession however they were able to exploit a new means of energy and revitalize their country and situation. The purpose of this paper is to show similarities between Britain’s Energy crisis of the 16th century and our Global energy crisis of today, with the hopes to learn from Britain to solve our current global issues.
Argument Claim In today’s Global energy crisis, we find ourselves dependent on wood, as did Britain. Based on the reading from “An Early Energy Crisis and its Consequences” (Nef 1977), Britain in the second half of the 16th century had its first energy crisis due to deforestation. The country had a large supply of forest, and was greatly dependent of wood for everything. They used it for building homes and furniture among many other things. The government regulated the use of wood as it used it for building there ships, which was used for everything from there Navy to transportation (Nef 1977). With the rise in population came the rise in more materials, and wood was being quickly used up. Books became very popular with the creation of the printing
press, and wood was used for making paper (Nef 1977). Furthermore, with the discovery of metal ores, great amounts of wood were needed to heat the metal to manufacture items such as weapons (Nef 1977). Wood quickly became scarce, and Britain was on the brink of Deforestation. Britain found itself dealing with higher
References: Neff, J. (1997). An early energy crisis and its consequences. Scientific American. November 1997. 140-151. Retrieved from Nelson, H. & Drummond, S. (1997). The Human Perspective. Readings in World Civilization. (2nd ed.). Vol. II. Wadsworth. Cengage Learning. Australia. Brazil. Planet for Life. (2008). The Global Oil Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.planetforlife.com World Preservation Foundation. (2010). Deforestation Statistics. WPF. Retrieved from http://www.worldpreservationfoundation.org