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Economy & Finance
The Balance
One of the biggest threats for
the current economic boom is surging energy consumption. It is leading to
increase of energy cost. With the economic growth, the consumption of energy on
per capita basis surges substantially. Energy consumption is one of the
parameters to judge the economic growth of a nation. The developed countries
consume much more per capita energy than the developing countries. Availability
of adequate energy can be a great booster for the economic growth. Shortage of
the same can cause lot of hardship to an economy as well as the people living
therein.
In the primitive stage of human
development, burning of wood fulfilled the energy requirement. Wood could give
light as well as heat. The quest of human beings to find more energy sources
leads them to discover coal and fuel oil. When people realized that these
sources are easy to garner and use but their supply is going to be limited, they
discovered the renewable energy sources like hydal, wind and solar which were
more complicated to garner; and needed more investments and technology. The man
discovered the power of atomic fission and fusion and realized that it is an
enormous source of energy albeity difficult to handle and control. His passion
for new sources of renewable, cheap and easy to handle energy is on and probably
it will go on forever.
The natural fuels are cheaper
source of energy; but they are not easily renewable. The renewable sources of
energy need high capital investment and they also have displacement effect on
the ecology and demography in many a cases. These sources are also more
expensive due to their high capital costs and they have a long gestation period.
Still, the mankind has realised that availability of energy is going to be the
biggest hurdle for rapid economic growth and there is no solution but to keep
researching for renewable and more environment friendly sources of energy.
Traditionally, world has been
more dependent on the non-renewable sources of energy which are based on
chemical reaction of carbon and hydrogen. Such sources are easily available
today, but their excessive use and depletion is a concern for the whole of
mankind. Such sources are easy to operate and need less capital costs for their
activation. The energy from oil and wood can be easy to generate in small
quantities and even in difficult environments. Burning wood and oil generate
energy in the form of light and heat but it also generates carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is an essential gas, but in limited quantity. Its excess
generation can cause global warming and number of negative effects on the
environment on the earth. It can disturb long-term ecological balance too. The
need for the energy has pushed the population to use more and more non renewable
sources of energy which are by and large pollutant. The world has started
creating more harmful gases and by-products, which if not controlled and
monitored properly can jeopardize even the human existence on the earth. Off
late, the developed nations have taken the matter very seriously and the
movement of requirement of carbon credit is one of the outcomes of such a
concern.
As the commonly used sources of
the energy in the world, such as wood, coal and fossil fuel are fast exhausting,
the production and consumption of bio-fuel is getting attention and importance.
There are variety of Bio fuels, which can give energy and light. They are
biologically grown substances, which can generate heat by burning them or
burning oil extracted from them. They are natural hydrocarbons, which can
release energy when they are reacting with Oxygen in typical environment. The
energy generated by them is comparatively more environment friendly and the
residues are biodegradable. Though they can pollute, the pollution can be
minimized. More importantly, the earth can generate them again and again with a
short generation cycle and so they can be perpetual sources of energy. However,
to produce such fuels in substantial quantity needs systematic plantation and
nourishment of certain plants, which can be converted in fuel. Most of these
plants need fertile land and large quantum of water. With the pressure of
population, land is becoming more scares. As the cultivated land is needed for
generating food for the human beings; the land, which is not cultivated is being
sought for such plants. The unutilized land in the world has remained so only
because it did not have friendly environment for human beings. Such land is
either wasteland on which nothing much can be grown mainly due to non
availability of water or extreme cold climate or it can be a forest which is not
destroyed because of its difficult accessibility, remoteness or due to force of
law to preserve the same. Wastelands are not suitable for biological growth of
energy generating plants but the jungle land is most suitable for them. To have
plantation, the equatorial jungles and tropical rain forests are being destroyed
which are likely to create more problems for mankind. The world has been fast
depleting its forest cover. Trees are the only sources of mass scale conversion
of Carbon dioxide into Oxygen. If the conversion reduces, it will affect the
survival of the living objects other than trees. We are currently living in a
balanced cycle of life between plants and animals on earth.
The plants convert Carbon
dioxide into Oxygen and food in the form of hydrocarbons, which is used by them
and other living objects. Living objects use that Oxygen for their survival and
convert that again into Carbon dioxide. They consume the food which the plants
generate or consume some other living objects to get required nourishment. In
many a cases, the food for plants is the waste from other living objects and
products of plants is food for the living objects. This is a simple but most
wonderful cycle of the nature on earth and any distortion in the same can cause
disaster for every living thing on the earth.
In the quest of progress and
due to greed, we human being have become the most polluting animals on the earth
and we are conveniently ignoring the same. This can be done only at our own
perils. We cannot afford to treat the environment lightly. We need to strike a
balance between our needs and the environmental equation on the earth. It is the
only way to assure the survival of our future generations.
India is environmentally well
bestowed with fertile land, reasonable rainfall and temperate climate. That is
the reason due to which historically India kept on getting influx of people from
other lands. Indians live in much more friendly natural environment than many
other parts of the world. It is the responsibility of every Indian to recognise
this blessings, which the Mother Nature has bestowed on us and keep the
ecological balances intact throughout the country to safeguards the future.
I believe that this subject is
always at the back of the minds of the learned professionals. Now the time has
come for it to take prominence. We are answerable to our future generations.
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