How energy drives & impacts our lives

In the 1970s energy issues were dominated by the oil crisis and the threats to energy security. At that time environmental issues associated with the production and consumption of energy were yet to gain widespread attention.

Nowadays, environmental issues are among top priority in private, public and government circle. Excessive energy use and growing exploitation of natural resources have adversely affected our environment.

To reduce the adverse impacts of growing use of energy on the environment, it is important to improve energy use efficiency and switch to environment friendly energy sources.

Improved energy efficiency and better energy management will help in preventing environmental damage and help in financial saving.

Impact of energy use on environment

Energy use and supply is of fundamental importance to society which has made the greatest impact on the environment of any human activity although energy and environment concernswere originally local in character – for example, problems associated with extraction,transport or noxious emissions – they have now widened to cover regional and globalissues such as acid rain and the “greenhouse effect”.

Such problems have now becomemajor political issues and the subject of international debate and regulation.Apart from depletion of energy resources, use of energy especially burning of fossil fuels cause environmental pollution. Burning of fossil fuels emit greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The changing weather patterns due to global warming are now a reality.

The impact of global warming has already created an alarming situation and will soon become distratous for the entire earth including the living creatures that have made this earth their home. We should better be cautious and aware to this to save our planet earth. To sum up, therefore, the impact of energy use on the environment has been two fold.

• Depletion of energy resources.
• Pollution of environment from emission of greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels.
  

Importance of energy in daily life

In an average home for almost all types of activities like lighting, cooling and heating the house, for cooking, for running televisions, computers and other electrical gadgets energy is used. From the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep at night, energy has affected your life.

Energy is important in everyone’s life, whether you notice it or not. Without it people would have a hard time waking up and an even harder time getting anywhere. Energy is important whether its solar energy, mechanical energy, nuclear power, or the energy your body makes that allows you to talk, move, and walk.

These are the tasks that we normally do that involve energy, and that we couldn’t do without it.You will probably pass a traffic light on your way to school or work place and that is powered by electricity. Without the traffic light, cars would be going all over the place and crashing all the time. Traffic lights help to manage the chaos.

If you walked to school you used the energy your body made from converting calories from food to energy. You might turn on lights in your house, when it gets dark. Electricity allows you to light up the room and makes it bright.In the transport sector, buses, trucks, trains, aeroplanes, ships, automobiles are powered by coal, gasoline, diesel and gas.

These are fossil fuels and their over exploitation is causing scarcity. In the agricultural sectors, pumps for irrigation run on diesel (a fossil fuel) or electricityTractors, threshers, combined harvesters are all fuel-intensive. In the industrial sectors, energy is required in huge amount at various stages in the manufacturing of goods.

Energy has been universally recognized as one of the most important inputs for economic growth and human development. The energy sector in India has been receiving high priority in the planning process.

Energy and economic development

Energy development is an integral part of economic development. Economically developed countries use more energy per unit of economic output and have much more per capita energy consumption as compared to developing countries. Energy has been universally recognized as one of the most important inputs for economic growth and human development.

Growth of economy will stand global competitiveness withstand only when it will depend on cost effective or cheaper and environment friendly energy sources.

Energy intensity is an indicator to show how efficiently energy is used in the economy. India’s energy intensity is much higher than the emerging economies of other Asian countries.

Energy sector in India has been receiving high priority in the planning process. Government of India has recognized the fact that the energy sector can become a major constraint or hurdle in the achievement of a high growth rate or Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It has therefore called for an increase in the reform process and adoption of an integrated energy policy.