Energy and the Environment Oliver Streett Federman Global Issues
South and Latin America The Amazon Rainforest is made up of seven million square miles of land in South America and takes up 40% of land. Rainforests are important because they produce around 40% of oxygen in the world and half the worlds animal species live in the Rainforests, also a large number of medication comes from plants that grown in Rainforests. The biggest problem for Rainforests is deforestation. With an increasing population rate, there needs to be more room, so the governments are cutting down the Rainforests to build houses and urban areas. With deforestation comes massive carbon release into the atmosphere, losing plants to make medicine, and hurting the biodiversity. Since most of South
and Latin America has not been modernized, there infrastructure and road systems are lacking, so most everyone trades via waterways and planes. Because not everyone has their own car, the reliance on fossil fuels is significantly lower in South and Latin America than the rest of the world; wood burning is still the primary energy source. Although the countries don’t use a lot of oil themselves, they are in the top ten worldwide as oil exporters. The only problem is when the rest of the world finds new and efficient alternate sources of energy, and the South and Latin countries are still trying to export oil, there economies are going to fail because they rely on their oil exports as a large part of their economy. Their solution is too invest more time and money into alternate clean energy, like Brazil has started to do with wind turbines. The governments need to focus more on solving their energy problem rather than keeping power.
Middle East Just like most of the world, the Middle East is facing environmental issues such as biodiversity, pollution, air and water quality, and climate change. The Middle East has many rapidly growing cities, so with the increasing population, there is increasing pollution and trash. With the increasing pollution comes decreasing quality in air and in the water. With more people there is more of a need of clean water, but there isn’t enough clean water so people drink the dirty water. 24% of fish in the Middle East are in danger of extinction, mainly due to over fishing. With all of the recent pollution, over fishing, and decline in biodiversity, Middle Easterners are consuming goods at a higher rate than being produced, so goods are in short supply. It’s well known that the Middle East exports oil to most of the world, seeing that they have over half the worlds oil reserves. But the Middle East is also consuming a lot more oil with their increasing
population. Along with oil the Middle East also produces and exports nuclear energy and alternate energy sources. Because of the worlds oil addiction and the quantity of oil the Middle East has, oil exports makes up most of the Middle East’s economy. Nuclear energy is a developing alternate energy in the Middle East, but they are one of the leaders in developing it, despite all of the safety risks.
Asia Japan has very little natural resources, so it has to import the majority of its energy. Japanese companies produced the machines that help other countries get the energy sources, so Japan is involved in the energy market. Japan mainly uses oil, and seldom uses renewable energies,
which could be a problem in the near future. China is a leader in hydropower, between 1991 ad 2001 the hydropower uses went up by 106%. The Three Gorges Dam is a large project that is expected to produce 50% of China’s electric power. The only problem is the Three Gorges Dam will destroy many little towns and villages, and will harm the Yangtze River. There will be a reservoir created that will trap waste and pollution over 400 miles long. The Chinese air quality is terrible, all of the factories emitting all of the smog is dangerous to the humans and the environment. Around 400,000 of Chinese people die prematurely each year from the bad air causing heat and lung problems. Cleaning the air will cost around 15% of the GDP per year, so the Chinese government rarely cleans the air.
In India the water quality is very bad. None of the cities have
proper water waste treatment facilities so sewage spills everywhere and sitting sewage in one’s house can be very hazardous to one’s health. The air quality in India causes the most deaths worldwide from air pollution. The two main causes of air pollution are cars and industrial smoke. Air pollution in peoples homes are also very deadly, around 500,000 people die per year from poor air quality in their homes due to bad ventilation. Europe Europe is an energy importer, using mostly oil. About 50% of their energy is imported and in twenty years the number is suppose to reach 70%. Oil imports in 2005 were 87%. Russia is the prime energy export to Europe. The oil usage has decline in the past few years and natural gas use has gone up. A report predicts that in 2030 83% of natural gas will be imported compared to the 59% imported in 2005. Greenhouse gas emissions are very high, mainly due to electricity and heat production. Air pollution is still semi
high with all of the coal use for heating. In Denmark there are plants that burn trash to cleanly convert it to heat energy, while reducing the need for landfills. In 2009 there were 165 nuclear reactors in use. France uses the most nuclear energy, 77% of their electricity. Many countries use nuclear power and it is still increasing because it’s a great alternate to oil. Germany is a leader in solar power. Germany has around five times more solar panels than in America. Solar energy is very clean and efficient, not harmful to the environment or people like fossil fuels.
Africa Africa is the poorest nation in the world, so they don’t have luxuries like Americans do. Since they still burn wood as their main form of energy, disforestation is a large problem. Africans need wood for energy so they continually chop down
trees in the forests. The Africa governments are buying the land from the tribes to prevent further deforestation. Pollution is a large problem for all of Africa. Many dumps are located right in the city; so many people are negatively affected from it. In Nairobi a dump is located right next to a river where people bath, so many people get sick from the dumps pollution. In South Africa coal is the main form of energy so burning coal is very hazardous to the environment and the people. Its reported that 93% of Africa’s potential hydropower is still intact. Many small scale hydropower plants have been constructed recently, but many of them had to be closed down due to drought. Hydropower is a great alternate energy source because its energy on the spot where its needed.