#energytransition

Everybody is talking about it. Many consider it the #1 topic of our generation. Some call it a duty and remind us about our responsibility for the generations to come. Others ignore or even deny it:

THE ENERGYTRANSITION.

I am convinced about the priority of the topic. I am a firm believer that we humans are together responsible for our planet and for Earth remaining a wonderful place to live for all future generations. I am also convinced that humans did not treat our planet and all nature on its surface and in its oceans with enough respect. We mainly focused on ourselves - and we still do. 

Many of the decisions that led to the climate crisis we experience today were certainly not done with bad intentions. They were done for the good of people, progress of the human race and for the creation of wealth. But many decisions were taken with full awareness and understanding of the damage - or at least collateral damage - they caused to our planet. 

However - history is what it is and without these many problematic decisions, we probably would not be here, exchanging ourselves in real-time, digitally over the internet.

Data, servers, energy. Our world is powerful, connected - fantastic.

A major critical topic is where we got all the energy from, which brought us here. Before the industrial revolution the answer to that was easy - and most of it was climate-friendly. We did use very little amounts of fossil fuels and for a long time in the history of humans none at all - not even coal. We used fuelwood as well as human and animal muscle energy. (Germany, year 1820: 50% fuelwood, 40% animal and human muscle, 10% coal)

Then the first #energytransition started and in 1850 in Germany already around 30% of energy was based on coal. (Same year in the UK, it was already 90%) And it brought great progress to humanity in so many ways.

Another 100 years later - in Germany in 1950 - 90% of the energy came from coal. The overall energy demand on our planet was 30,000 TWh in 1950.

70 years later, in 2019, the global energy demand was 173,500 TWh. That is almost 6-fold. During the same time (1950 - 2019), the world’s population increased 3-fold, from 2,5 billion to 7,7 billion people.

All of that wouldn’t be any problem at all. Wouldn’t there be environmental damage and CO2. 

So let’s have a look how global annual CO2 emissions changed over the years:

• 1820: 50 million t
• 1850: 200 million t (4-fold)
• 1950: 6.000 million t (120-fold)
• 2019: 36.700 million t (734-fold compared to before the industrial revolution)

Our global demand for energy exploded. Our hunger was satisfied with an incredible #energytransition towards fossil fuels, mainly oil (33,1% in 2019), coal (27% in 2019) and gas (24,3% in 2019). Mind-blowing 85% of all energy we consume today as humanity is based on fossil fuels. Only 11.4% is based on renewables.

THAT IS THE PROBLEM. A real problem. A huge problem.

In other words: 

What these #energytransitions since the 19th century brought, is something that can be considered the biggest chemical experiment ever done. 

If extraterrestrials would observe from the distance (without any understanding about the context) what we are doing on our planet, they would see earthlings burning an unprecedented amount of organic material, which the Earth has stored over millions of years underneath its crust. We burn it in plants, in cars, at home. We even create material and products from fossils that we burn after using them - very often after using them only once or not at all. 

These ETs might wonder why we transfer all that carbon as CO2 back in the atmosphere where it originally came from? They might find that strange, as that process - that could be considered a huge climate experiment - heats up the atmosphere that protects the Earth and ensures climate stability.

They might conclude that we must be absolutely insane. 

Long story short: We have to change that. 

We need to change how we create and use energy. We need to find ways to reduce the demand for energy and at the same time how we produce it. 

We need to enable and boost another transition. And this is it:

THE ENERGYTRANSITION

It is a complicated topic. Where does it start and where does it end? Which initiatives do really have an impact and which ones just make us feel better?

It is a topic with loads of information, objective data but also misinformation, bias and fake. Also a lot of fake news due to many different interests. 

That‘s why I will try to give a good overview here on where we stand and what we can do. I will write about different topics that are all related to the necessary transition. In an objective, independent and neutral way. And I will publish the outcome here.

Knowledge is power. 

(Christoph Knogler, August 2022)