FOSSIL FUEL & OTHERS: THE BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY

 

The story of known energy sources available on Earth cannot be properly told without diving into the time-lines of Earth and the dawn of men; it will be impossible. It is like trying to speak of flowing rivers without mentioning the roaring mountains. As men grew from the cradle and advanced in their civilizations, they made use of many resources they could find just to survive.

The long struggle of Fossil Fuels with other energy sources quietly began when the Cavemen stumbled on how to make the first sparks from stones, and ultimately fire. Then, they were so ecstatic! They thought they now possessed power to replicate the same end product which the Sun gave them during the day at night in their caves. But as time passed, they will later realize that this new energy was totally different from the burning Sun; it must be continually fed with some materials to survive and expand.

As human communities grew, they saw the dire need of increasing their sustenance as their villages matured into bigger communities. The expansion bore the need for questing for new ways to generate more food for the growing population; making new tools and farming methods to increase the yield in Agriculture. And after many centuries of suffering from manual labour, men learned to build carts and wheels using large animals to till the ground; flowing streams were also channelled for irrigation, and even rushing winds used to harness some water from stream to wet their farmlands. This was the start of the race of Energies for the centuries to come. Then slowly, after Iron was discovered, smoked and beaten into farming tools. Many other machines started coming up. Experts will later chart this period and call it start of the First Industrial Revolution in Britain between 1750s and 1850s.

When the First Industrial Revolution began, Britain was the world's leading commercial nation, controlling a global trading empire with colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and with major military and political hegemony on the Indian subcontinent, particularly with the proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal, through the activities of the East India Company. The development of trade and the rise of business were among the major causes of the First Industrial Revolution. This Revolution marked a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists have said the most important effect of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population in the western world began to increase consistently for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries.

As more machines were invented, humans went from top Energy Source to the underground as coal was discovered. And since then, we have never looked back into building the fabric of all our human existence around this seemingly most efficient source of Energy. From Coals, man developed Steam Engines, later dug deeper to find other fossil fuels, and that bore petrol engines. From new skills of digging, men found other metals asides Iron, making diverse machines which fed on this ‘black gold’ called oil to be running our lives; this was how slowly oil got deeply woven into the fabric of our energy lives. It will not be until some 300 years later before we begin to fully realize that the gift of Fossil Fuel, like the Greek’s, was not all shiny — it has slowly, but gradually done some damages to our environment than we could ever imagine.

It was in the 19th century that scientists understood that gases—such as CO2—found within the atmosphere cause a "greenhouse effect" that regulates the atmosphere's temperature. Ironically, the discovery of the greenhouse effect did not happen because scientists were trying to understand global warming; it happened because they were searching for the mechanism that triggered ice ages. The discovery process began with Joseph Fourier in the 1820s. During this time period, scientists were beginning to understand that the gases that composed the atmosphere may trap the heat received in the atmosphere from the Sun. Also at this time, John Tyndall, a natural philosopher, was interested in finding out whether any gases in the atmosphere could actually trap heat rays. In 1859, through a series of lab analyses, he was able to identify several gases that were able to trap and hold heat. The most important of these gases were water vapor (H2O) and CO2. Later, in 1896, Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist/physicist, who was working with data on the prehistoric ice ages, was able to determine in his laboratory that by cutting the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by half, it could lower the temperature over Europe about 7-9°F (4-5°C)— roughly the equivalent of what would trigger another ice age. In order for this to happen, however, the effect would have to be global. From this point, Arrhenius turned to Arvid Hogbom, who added a modern twist to the analysis. He discovered that various human activities were adding CO2 to the atmosphere at a rapid rate. At that time, he thought that the addition was not serious enough for alarm—it was not much different from other natural processes like erupting volcanoes. What he was concerned about, however, was that if the volumes continued being released into the atmosphere, it would not be long before they did start to negatively affect its quality. Arrhenius suggested that at the current rate of coal burning, the atmosphere could begin to start warming in a few centuries. About that time, Thomas C. Chamberlin, an American geologist, became interested in atmospheric CO2 levels, and the Swedish scientist Knut Angstrom discovered that greenhouse gases do cause temperature to rise by retaining the heat instead of letting it escape to space. This added additional enlightenment to the beginning of the global warming theory.

Many other alternative Energy sources have been discovered and tried over the years just so we can be free from the shackles of Fossil Fuels, but they just seem not sustainable enough for a long period of time. Hydro-Power Station provides wonderful and clean electricity for many cities via the Dams, but the volume of the water in the rivers are greatly affected by the seasonal changes and their efficiency just cant match the gas turbines (Fossil Fuel wins again!) Radioactive elements like Uranium and others have been found to be very efficient in generating electricity, and even used to power some huge sub-stations around the world with zero CO2 released, but the current society are very scared of the little amount of wastes that they leave behind, which can be very toxic for humans and even affect unborn generations. Then there is the development of Solar Panels and Wind Turbines over the years to trap the ever blazing rays of sunlight from the sky and the sheer wind kinetic energy respectively to turn them into electrical energy for other end devices. These two are actually by far the cleanest alternative sources that we have been able to discover so far, and many Advanced Nation's government are working tirelessly, funding more researches to make these sustainable as fast as possible. 

Today, it is no longer new that the world is now trying as much as possible to drastically reduce our full dependence on Fossil Fuels which is the major culprit of producing the gigantic share of the CO2 responsible for the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere. In 2015, the United Nations out of the Major 15 Sustainable Development Goals, talked about Climate Change and how to reduce the release of CO2 and other gases. But how far have we gone now?

As at today in 2021, not so much has been achieved. Yet, we have been struggling with it. Many huge production manufacturers are trying as much as possible to focus on other sources of energy seen as “clean”. China, the major emitter of the World’s Co2 (produces 41% of World’s CO2) have been mandated by the G20 to reduce her share of this from her dependence on Coal. A Company in Finland called SolarFoods has developed and still working on a revolutionary product called “SoleIn®”, which is a protein food ingredient produced from absorbing the Co2 in the air and mixed with Nitrogen obtain from Water via Electrolysis. United States and United Kingdom are trying to phase out petrol engines automobiles and pushing more on Electric cars via there giant Automibile Manufacturers. But still, it seems the Climate change keeps biting harder into the World Climate; the recent 50 degrees heat wave experienced in city of Karachi, Pakistan in 2015 is a glaring example.

The dominance of Fossil Fuel is so much seen, and felt, to an extent that the G-20 World Leaders are currently meeting in Glasgow called in a summit COP 26 to limit the global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century. Here, Delegates are mandated to say how they plan to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This is to show that the World Economy as we know it is too dependent on Fossil Fuels that we can only reduce our dependence on it in a slow seething manner and may never fully phase it out. 

How will the Climate of the next century look like? Only the actions of these World Leaders now and the generations coming behind us shall tell.