Editorial

, Volume: 14( 6)

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Are We Really Developing Towards an Energy Conserving, Energy Efficient, and Sustainably Developed World?

*Correspondence:

Bagla Anup , Energy and Sustainability Specialist Institution of Engineers and Chartered Engineer; E-Mail: anup.bagla@gmail.com

Abstract

In today's scenario in a large measure, when one sees that environment, society is taking a beating /toll in terms of health, harmony, natural degradation, decreasing wildlife-forest cover, lowering human and social indices, one is quite justified in asking whether we as human society, people and world/nations is really growing into/towards an environmentally secured future, which takes into consideration or considers energy conservation (energy efficient applications) and all the other parameters of sustainable development actively or not ? This is a very pertinent question with related issues and points.They need careful and sensible analysis to answer.

Introduction

In today’s scenario in a large measure, when one sees that environment, society is taking a beating /toll in terms of health, harmony, natural degradation, decreasing wildlife-forest cover, lowering human and social indices, one is quite justified in asking whether we as human society, people and world/nations is really growing into/towards an environmentally secured future, which takes into consideration or considers energy conservation (energy efficient applications) and all the other parameters of sustainable development actively or not ?

This is a very pertinent question with related issues and points.They need careful and sensible analysis to answer.

We as human society, people and world/nations are really growing towards an environmentally secured future, which takes into consideration or considers energy conservation (energy efficient applications) and all the other parameters of sustainable development actively. There is no hesitation in saying that our understanding and efforts are half-hearted (even less) and haphazard and along with lack of scientific unity/creditability, there is no political will and public awareness which can make things happen as a mass movement

The major issue is a population of any/every kind including people and automobiles etc. The age of automobiles is over. People have to take up mass transit system and travel collectively except the top brass/management; the office network/complex has to shift towards working from home in rural and/or suburban locations so that concentration of people do not happen in crowded city locations through wireless-communication-networking-which is already in place; People have to switch to bicycles for short distance and fueling of automobiles or mass transit vehicles (like overhead or underground bullet trains, electric-buses, trams-cars etc. have to be powered by solar/electric and or hydrogen and similar other bio-fuel options and all this will take time as research-development is way behind at least in India where R and D investment is meager (3%-5% compared to US's above 20%) and bright-creative talent is pushed down/behind instead of nurturing by caste and community factors etc.

To succeed in sustainability (Sustainable development) requires the energy and the endurance required to deal with ‘long emergencies’ like climate due to various environmental degradations like global warming, ozone depletion, acid rains/forest depletion, forest fires, overpopulation, and organizational stress and under capacity. The disparate list of poetically freely associated issues/solutions above is not reassuring in terms of fractured solutions scientific/professional community world and people are trying to address and find solutions as mentioned above and in general, because it is not rooted in a consistent and coherent larger framework, sometimes called the big picture.

Renewable energy (Solar, Wind, Bio-mass/fuels, wave, hydropower, any potential waste, kinetic energy) can be tapped as in road bumpers or any vertical-linear movement or falls etc. is the sector that gets the most attention when we talk about a sustainable economy, but it is not the only one likely to grow. Civil engineering, conservation, and efficient technologies, mass transit and the manufacturing technologies, local agriculture, design and manufacturing for durability, and distributed health care services are a few of the sectors that could show dramatic job growth in a sustainable economy.

Therefore sustainable economy/development does produce good business and jobs opportunity. However, a sustainable, non-material-intensive, non-energy-intensive economy is a radically different model than we have, or that many of us can imagine. It would mean the loss of vast numbers of jobs, in trucking, mining, highway construction, and others that sustain the current model and for people to accept this, much less welcome it, they would have to first see offsetting this loss of jobs by creating opportunities and corresponding number or more increase in job opportunity that provide equal or better real incomes.

In other words, the positive vision, and the business opportunities that a sustainable economy offers are very real, but it will be a lot harder to achieve and cause a lot more disruption by self-interest-groups, than most of its advocates may realize, unless organized by/under a pragmatic and wise scientific and political leadership!