The Issue of Energy Sector in The Coming Era of Energy Disasters and Slash and Burn - Assignment Example

Energy driven civilization Introduction Since the beginning of time, innovation has been mankind’s strongest trait that has seen the rise and rise of civilizations into the current organized societies of today. It is innovation that helped man manipulate fire for his use and create the wheel. Greater innovation saw the invention of machines that needed energy to fuel them. At the start of the modern industrial revolution, energy deposits containing vast amounts of basic fuels were easy to exploit as they were readily available in friendly and safe locations. However, the onset of the era has seen the depletion of these easily accessible deposits with mankind having to go into deeper, unfriendly and unchartered territories as well as seeking alternative energy sources with the aim of quenching the thirst for energy created by development of the modern societies. These two core readings talk about the potential effects that these actions will have. In their argument, the articles talk about different fuel options explored by man explaining the effect on the environment and community at large. Although, the fuels and methods of extraction different the effects realized have similar attributes, with the negatives outweighing the positives. As such, the continued practice of having an energy-centric civilization spells destruction on a global scale. Core readings “The Coming Era of Energy Disasters” outlines the effect the exploration of fossil fuels is going to have on the world in both the human and environmental aspect. It claims that due to the near depletion of the readily available fossil fuel reserves, people have had to explore reserves located in areas that are either complex in nature or are under political turmoil. Authored by Michael T. Klare, the article goes on to paint a picture of the four possible scenarios created by the exploration and extraction of these reserves. These scenarios involve the possible destruction of the environment as well as the conflict that may arise from the exploration. In “Slash and Burn”, the author highlights the plight of the people of Pareh, a small village nestled in the tropical rainforest located on the Indonesian island of Borneo (Rogers). The article, dated March 1st, 2008 outlines the effect that the destruction of the rainforest in order to plant oil palms for the purpose of extracting biodiesel. In it, there is the destruction of the environment in terms of deforestation and carbon emission as well as the conflict between the community and the organization charged with the logging, oil pal planting and extraction of the oil. Similarities Environmental backlash In “The Coming Era of Energy Disasters”, Klare (n.p.) focuses on the deep sea exploration of oil and gas reserves. He explains that the exploration of these reserves is as a result of the depletion of the easy exploration sites. He even goes further to quote the Chevron company CEO saying, “The era of easy oil is over.” New oil discoveries are happening in regions subject to very hazardous conditions like the Arctic Circle and Newfoundland or political turmoil like Nigeria and East China Sea. This has meant the exploration companies have to partake in mammoth projects like the $5 billion Herbania platform to extract the fuel. The hazardous conditions also mean designing the platforms to withstand the conditions. However, the unpredictable force of nature may have surprises in store as in the case of the unsinkable Titanic. With the current climate change that has seen icebergs become bigger and tropical storms become stronger, Mother Nature may create conditions that the mega projects of the Herbania and pre-salt platforms cannot withstand as in the BP oil spills of the Gulf of Mexico (Hunter 18). Other than posing the threat of imminent loss of life of workers, the magnitude of oil spill and therefore Dead Ocean arises from such accidents will be many times greater than that of the Mexico incident. As such, these projects pose a major threat to the environment. This argument is similar to Rogers’ topic of discussion in her article. The carbon emission derived from a quantity of biodiesel equals less than a quarter of the same amount of fossil fuel (Rogers). This has been the main driver behind the biodiesel projects. With the biodiesel market growing at a high rate due to the increased consumption, developing nations like Indonesia that cannot compete on other global fronts, aim to be big suppliers of the fuel. This has seen the clearance of rainforests to plant oil palms. Factoring this into the emission of carbon the fuel emits ten times that of its fossil counterparts. As a result, the small nation of Indonesia is the third largest carbon emitter globally. The effect of this on the environment in terms of global warming outweighs the benefits. The environmental destruction also involves the destruction of a tropical rainforest that is irreplaceable. Therefore the two authors and therefore article are similar in that they oppose the propulsion of the energy centric civilization as it denatures the environment. Propagation of conflicts The new oil and natural gas reserves, according to Klare (n.p.), are also located in regions of political turmoil. Nigeria’s Niger Delta region is one such area. The region that largely accounts for America’s oil supply is the subject to conflict between the government and a guerrilla outfit called the Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta. The outfit wants a greater share of the revenues for the people and utilises kidnappings, vandalism and militant takeovers as means of intimidation. This has threatened to greatly reduce the output of the region. Potentially the US government may decide to intervene which may result in a replica of scenarios of Somalia and Iraq with a never ending conflict. The conflict may also result in oil spills that degrade the environment. The same may happen in the East China Sea where both China and Japan contest the territory where a sizeable amount of natural gas was found. The exploration of the reserves by any of the nations may cause the breakout of a full out war that will cause massive loss of lives as well as the possible leaking of the gas into the sea. Rogers (n.p.), on the other hand, wants to highlight the conflict between the natives of Borneo and Perseroan Terbatas Ledo Lestari, the company undertaking the project. The residents who feel that the company has seized and destroyed their ancestral land on which their lives depend on have tried resolving the issue through both legal and violent means. Since the legal process did not work, they took to raiding the logging camps and confiscating chain saws and commandeering equipment, which has resulted in some of them serving time. They have even threatened to take up machetes. Clearly the project is the cause of the conflict. This correlates to the other article which claims the energy centred civilization will be the cause of conflicts if things do not change (Hunter 35). Conclusion The two core readings focused in this paper discuss topic pertaining to different fields of the energy sector. However, the arguments posed by the authors display similar attributes in the message communicated. Both argue that the exploration of energy sources in the different fields will lead to an irreversible damage to the environment. They are also against the exploitation of the sources as they will result in conflicts of different scales. As such the paper is successful in outlining the similarities of the two articles. Work cited Hunter, Nick. Off-Shore Oil Drilling. 1st ed. Raintree, 2012. Print. Klare, Michael. The Coming Era Of Energy Disasters | The Nation. Thenation.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. Rogers, Heather. Slash And Burn | Environment & Health | The Investigative Fund.Theinvestigativefund.org. N.p., 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. Read More