Introduction to Global Energy Challenges

Abstract

Intentional energy use by humans is many millennia old, but until about two centuries ago, the energy used was almost entirely bioenergy. Since then, we have witnessed a transition to fossil fuels as the dominant energy source. This change has produced not only many benefits but also a number of environmental side effects, chiefly climate change from emitted carbon dioxide. In this introductory chapter, we outline the serious challenges we face in attaining ecological sustainability, their interconnections, and their links to the global energy future. On a national per capita basis, both energy use and consequent carbon emissions are very unevenly distributed, largely the result of inequitable income distribution. Paradoxically, those countries with the lowest carbon emissions per capita are those most likely to bear the brunt of the effects of climate change. Besides climate change, other problems that have indirect impacts on energy, and need to be urgently addressed, are declining biodiversity, global chemical pollution, and continued global population growth.