vocabulary. New problems which arise .   energy

                                 ENERGY

Energy is the power or capability to do a required piece of work. Everything that we do requires energy and nothing can be done without it. So much that the existence of human life is impos­sible without it. The energy being used by man at present may be divided into animate and inanimate energy. The energy that is derived from non-living matter namely coal, oil, natural gas and electricity is known as inanimate energy, while the animate energy mostly comes from animals. The latest sources of energy available to man are atoms and the sun. A cursory look at the history of development of human civilisation will make it abundantly clear that energy forms the backbone of the world’s progress.
The early man used the energy of his own body to perform all types of work. Use of animal energy for carrying load was a later inno­vation. So animals were domesticated to help man in his work. The inanimate sources of energy such as wind, water, steam etc. which came to be known to man afterwards, proved of great utility in doing difficult work for him and thus relieving him to devote his time and energy to higher and nobler things. The invention of the steam engine in the eighteenth century marked the beginning of an unending age of newer inventions and discoveries which provided man with ample energy to attempt several things that were hardly thinkable before. The innumerable miracles that have been possible with the help of the new sources of energy have encouraged man to search for still newer sources of energy.
Fossil fuel (coal, gas and oil) has been the most popular source of inanimate energy during the last one century. But there has been a marked shift in the relative use, utility and importance of the various sources of energy. During the last three decades wood and coal supplied about eighty per cent of the total commercial energy of the world. But in the seventies the proportion of solid fuel has gone down to nearly half. Similarly there has been a marked rise in the share of liquid fuel like oil and natural gas which has increased almost three times. This shift in the use of and preference for liquid fuel is primarily due to fact that it is easier to obtain energy from oil than from coal. The increase in motor trans­port, dieselization of railways, and naphtha-based fertiliser plants has increased the world consumption of oil many times during the past decades. According to an estimate man has consumed more energy during the last three decades than in all his history before.
Nature’s treasure of fossil fuel is limited. The depletion of this limited natural source of energy at the present rate is likely to bring catastrophic conditions in the near future. Attention of the planners and scientists all over the world has been attracted to this threat. A simultaneous and dramatic spurt in the prices of oil and other petroleum products in the mid seventies made the situation still worse and hastened the search for alternative sources of energy.
Most of the oil producing and exporting countries joined hands and used the price spurt as a weapon of war, which created an unprece­dented energy crisis all over the world. Besides, it also brought chaos in the world monetary system. It resulted in a very heavy burden on the finances of even very rich and industrially advanced countries. This energy crisis is a big challenge to the scientists, technologists and planners of the world, especially of a country like Japan, which meets its 95 per cent energy requirements through imports.

Nuclear energy has great potentials. But the main difficulty is in regard to raw material. The quantity of uranium available is not only insufficient but also limited in geographical areas. Even the development of breeder reactors would not stretch the life span of nuclear fuel indefinitely. In many ways solar energy seems the near-perfect answer to the energy problem. This renewable, non-polluting energy source is so pervasive and diffusive that it can be harnessed most economically. Another very potential source of energy is gobar. For centuries man has criminally destroyed the precious natural manure, cow-dung, by burning it. In the wake of the energy crisis the recent discovery of gobar gas technology will not only produce many times more energy but also leave a residue of far richer manure.

In view of the limited sources of energy available, the immediate solution of the problem is the optimum and most economical use of available energy and energy resources. “Save energy now or perish” is the slogan of the day. A careful analysis of the problem of energy requirements of various factors of economy favours an intelligent combination of belt-tightening and reduction of wastage caused by negligence and inefficient uses.

 Reduction of demand for energy by price rise or stepping up produc­tion of energy are other two methods of tackling this chronic shortage problem. But these methods will, in the first place, adversely affect industrial production and public transport system. Secondly, it is not possible to step up energy production greatly as we already face a shortage of capital and it will also upset the plan allocations and priorities. This demand must be decreased through reduction in wastage of energy. The key to the solution of this problem is maximum energy conservation in different sectors of the economy. We live in the mist of energy waste. Light and fans are not switched off, especially in the offices, public institutions and State-owned facilities. Effective steps for preventing wastage of power are essential, besides better utilisation of installed capacity of power generation in the countries. Ultimately we shall have to develop technology to use solar energy in a big way in the days to come.