Most people know that energy production caused considerable damage to the environment. In fact, energy production, distribution and use is very important, humans are responsible for the damage caused to the environment. Worldwide energy production generated a huge amount of air pollution, water pollution, habitat destruction, destruction of the landscape, wildlife deaths, and more.
But people often feel confused about is the relationship between the natural energy use and environmental damage as time goes on. Due to the time of Paul Ehrlich and the Population Bomb, not to mention Al Gore's "Earth balance environmentalists claim, there is a linear relationship between energy and the environment, this is a bad. formula, more humane, coupled with the use of more energy, automatically equated with a greater harm. Ehrlich once famously think about the infinite energy of the possibility of human, like a machine gun to an idiot child. "Jeremy Rifkin, another environmental activist, said," It is the worst thing possible happens our planet. '
Environmental Kuznets Curve
But the above point of view the relationship between energy and the environment is both naive and misleading. Economists have long observed, there is a better way to see the triad relationship, energy, and the environment, and is a more optimistic about how the energy impact of environmental change as countries go through the development observed. Than to show a linear relationship between energy use and environmental degradation, but the real relationship looks like an inverted letter U, this relationship is usually known as the environmental Kuznets curve, or the environment of the transition curve.
Figure 1 is a graphical representation of the Kuznets curve. The bottom axis is economic growth, and the vertical axis represents the natural resources, such as timber, water or soil environment. The vertical axis may also represent environmental services, in the air such as dilution of the waste product or service from the ability of the river, the damage falls between two stools person to decompose a certain amount of waste utilization.
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As shown, the resources for any given environment, the community, through a series of stages. With the development of the country, they take advantage of the natural resources and the environment, waste management services to the accumulation of wealth, people to meet their basic needs, housing, food, education, health care, liquidity, etc.. If a country becomes large enough, society tends to use more than the local environment can be maintained. This is the point indicated on the figures, and the point PO, the beginning of the excessive use of the resources. The horizontal line indicates the level of sustainable use of resources, which should be understood as a change with the passage of time, with the demographic changes and climate fluctuations dynamic capacity. Must be assessed on an ongoing basis. Point of view (PP), where it was discovered that they are a resource overutilizing followed, people take measures to reduce their excessive use, both as individuals and as a society. This is a jog, or PA. Finally, usually in a relatively short period of time, excessive use after the end of reducing the use of resources, people want to see the maximum sustainable level (PSUST). The driving environment resource utilization to zero Whether it's consumer given the nature of the fuel or use waste remediation capacity on behalf of a large amount of lost economic value, and can replace numerous good uses have been proposed, such as poverty alleviation and abroad in the last century, the United States has taken a lot of interest or payment.
Air pollution and the Kuznets curve
An example of the Kuznets curve, so that our air pollution - the production and use of fossil fuels is a major source of air pollutants around the world. From mining to refining, almost every step in energy production, conversion, distribution, and is usually the case, the emissions of various air pollutants. These pollutants include coarse and fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, ozone precursors, that some, and greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. Air pollution on human health, the need for a significant population sensitive charges caused by the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. In the early stages of our development, we are sure there is no air pollution. Who has not heard, notorious in the 1950s, the Los Angeles smog?
But in the United States, we are long past the consciousness, this point is about 1900. The clean-up work to begin shortly after. As researchers, students Indur M. Goklany environmental changes, pointed out, "the report to the Federal Bureau of Mines in 1912, 28 cities in 23 population of over 20 million people do some efforts to control tobacco." Air pollution levels continue to be a significant decline, because the combination of new technology and pollution control equipment, our annual clean energy production. Figure 2 shows the improvement of the level of air pollution in the United States, even though the amount of our energy use is increasing.
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But the situation now is far worse, in the developing world, the high price for the needs of outdoor pollution, indoor air pollution is still high. According to the World Health Organization (WHO):
More than half of the world's population rely on dung, wood, crop waste or coal to meet their most basic energy needs. With such solid fuels for cooking and heating in an open flame or stoves without chimneys leads to indoor air pollution. This indoor smoke contains a range of health-damaging pollutants, including the ability to penetrate deep into the lungs of small soot or dust particles. In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can exceed acceptable levels of small particles in outdoor air 100 times. Exposure is particularly high, who spent the most time in the the fireside women and children. Every year, indoor air pollution is responsible for 1.6 million deaths - a death every 20 seconds.
In addition, according to the WHO:
Indoor air pollution ... [] 8th most important risk factor is responsible for 2.7% of the global burden of disease. 1.6 million deaths worldwide due to pneumonia, chronic respiratory disease and lung cancer, the use of solid fuels, indoor air pollution is responsible for the total disease burden (in Disability-Adjusted Life Years and years of life lost is a combination of a measure of disability and death), five times more than outdoor air pollution burden. In high-mortality developing countries, indoor smoke is responsible for an estimated 3.7% of the total burden of disease, its most lethal killer after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe drinking water and sanitation.
Understand the importance of the Kuznets curve
Is obviously not environmentally sound energy - reduce our use of energy pollution of air and water, sea, land, and more. However, the understanding of environmental change curve shows that with the continuous development of the society, and its impact on the environment will be reduced over time. In fact, in the environment of the transition curve shows the single best thing we can do to minimize the energy of the impact on the environment, in order to maximize not only our own economic growth, but also to help developing countries improve them, and allow them to switch to cleaner, less polluting forms of energy.
Note applies, of course - some economists believe that the environment of the transition curve does not apply to all pollutants and all of society, although it is likely to pollutants and resource protection of the local area, it may not be able to work properly for the global pollutants, such as soot and other greenhouse gases. They are worried about pollution in other regions of the world, some rich countries may bring the business to remain competitive and are forced to move.
This is likely to be true, but it does not negate the idea of environmental changes, it just prolongs the time it takes to turn things around, some global pollutants, remediation becomes dependent on other countries conversion, through their own environment.
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