Social Value of Fuels - Essay Example

Running Head: Social Value of Fuels Social Value of Fuels [Institute’s Social Value of Fuels Since centuries, humans have endeavored to improve and enhance living standards that have resulted in huge number of advancements in various fields, as well as in different parts of the globe. In specific, discovery of fossil fuels and their utilization has been one of the greatest achievements of human race that enabled it to conquer many other aspects of the planet as well, and completely altered the concept of transportation globally. Until few years ago, fossil fuels were the only source of energy; however, today’s advancements have facilitated humans in discovering alternative forms of energy, such as solar energy, hydrogen energy, etc that seem to affect the social value of fossil fuels adversely (Foster & Witcher, pp. 39-51, 2009). However, fossil fuels continue to enjoy their economic importance despite of such adverse effects. In particular, this paper will focus on social value of the fossil fuels, as well as alternative fuels along with some light on the unleaded petrol that has becoming common in various countries around the globe due to its associated benefits. In order to evaluate social value of fuels, it is very important to understand the meaning of this notion. According to experts (OECD, pp. 10-13, 2006), social value is an entity that indicates a product or service’s benefit in line with the well-being of citizens of the society. In addition, social capital is one of the major aspects of social value that relates to the goodwill and trust that an organization or a product acquired during a period of various years. From this understanding, it will now be easier to evaluate social value of the fuels that seem evident from results of the different researches. In specific, fossil fuels are playing an imperative role in the human society; however, at the same time, its social value seems to diminish every day and every year due to a number of factors. According to the social value theory, that is the basic premise of evaluating social value, ‘everything is connected to everything else’ (Kramer & Bazerman, pp. 55-63, 2009), and these connections allow the organisms to identify some patterns that create the social value. From this principle, fossil fuels seem to be focusing on the necessity aspect of the human society; however, at the same time, they have been affecting the citizens with their increased costs and prospective adverse impacts associated with them that indicate lower social value of fossil fuels in the human society. One of the basic ways of evaluating social value of fossil fuels is to try to imagine the future without availability of any fossil fuel that will allow a true indication of the status of social value of fossil fuels in the society. Additionally, second law of thermodynamics is the most evident principle that has been the notion of anxiety for humans, which indicates constant increment of disorder in the universe, and that allows experts to identify and evaluate social value of other forms of energy, particularly alternative energy that has now begun to enjoy importance in the human society. From this law, the world is a closed ecosystem, and as the first law of thermodynamics indicates, ‘everything must go somewhere’ (Kramer & Bazerman, pp. 55-63, 2009), it is now important to understand the social value of energy itself. In other words, although fossil fuels have a higher social value until now, however, to remain in function in this world, it is very important to arrange transformation of fossil fuels in some alternative forms of energy that will enable the humans to waste less amount of energy, and conserve higher amount of energy. In social value perspective, conservation is an important notion that allows the humans to carry out a task with the utilization of least amount of energy, and until now, there have been no talks of conservation of fossil fuels but rather conservation of other sources of energy, indicating ill status of social value of fossil fuels globally. From this discussion, it seems that although fossil fuels continue to contribute in the energy production process around the world, however, they have lost their social value in the society. As although there has been no reduction in their utilization but still, when it comes to social capital or social value, alternative energy has been the conqueror due to various aspects, particularly environmental benefits and increased opportunities of conservation. In particular, social value theory considers, ‘nature knows best’ and from this stance, renewable or alternative energy is currently the best outcome of constant evolutionary process that has been facilitating humans in understanding the adaptive accommodation, and which explains that intervention of humans in the ecological systems is nothing but an act of ignorance that will lead to destruction. From the abovementioned stance of social value theory, fossil fuels now stand as the fabricated interruptions in the ecological systems due to the discovery of alternative energy, and it is a belief that this evolutionary process will continue to accept new things and reject the older ones (Fisher, pp. 23-25, 2009). However, at the same time, social value theory states, ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’ (Kramer & Bazerman, pp. 55-63, 2009), and thus, everything has some costs, some side effects, or some gains/reductions. In this regard, while focusing on the fossil fuels energy, it is an observation that the major reason of reduced social value of fossil fuels is due to higher amount of losses associated to them, and lower amount of gains or benefits from them. Environmental awareness (Hansen, pp. 11-14, 2010) has been the most important notion that has affected the social value of fossil fuels, and subsequently, has increased the same of alternative energy, as well as unleaded petrol globally that has somehow been able to acquire some social value due to its environmental benefits. Lastly, one of the major factors that have been the cause of lower social value of fossil fuels and higher for alternative energy is the outcome of fossil fuels has been always availability of non-renewable loss; however, at the same time, alternative energy’s outcome is currently availability of renewable form of energy. In other words, burning of fossil fuels although provides energy; however, its consumption always results in loss, and utilization of alternative energy always results in gains, hence evident. References Fisher, Donald C. (2009). Corporate Sustainability Planning Assessment Guide. New York: American Society for Quality. Foster, Robert & Witcher, James. (2009). Solar Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment. New York: CRC Press. Hansen, Amy. (2010). Solar Energy: Running on Sunshine. Chicago: The Rosen Publishing Group. Kramer, Roderick M., Bazerman, Max H. (2009). Social Decision Making. New York: CRC Press. OECD. (2006). Environmental and energy products. 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