Is the world running out of energy?
Introduction
Energy is a source of usable power, such as petroleum or coal. Energy lights cities, powers our vehicles, warms homes, cooks food, plays music and powers machinery in factories. We use energy to do nearly everything that we do in our lives. China uses the most energy but has a very large population. The majority of the electricity we use is made from fossil fuels- coal, natural gas and oil. Some of the electricity we use is from nuclear fission power plants. The rest of the electricity comes from renewable sources such as hydroelectric plants, wind turbines and solar panels. An average person in the USA uses 600 times more energy than an average Ethiopian. The USA uses 80% of the energy China does but has a population a quarter of their size. The wealthier parts of the world generally use more energy than the poorer parts of the world. 1/3 of the world has no electricity.
The situation in LEDCs
Peru is located in the north west of South America on the coast. It has a tropical climate and is bordered by Bolivia, Brazil and Chile to the east and south, and Colombia and Ecuador to the north. It has a population of 29 million. The majority of rural people in Peru get their energy from wood. They collect branches and twigs that have fallen off trees and use it as firewood. They try to avoid cutting down trees to make sure there is always a source of fuel for their fires. The problem with using wood as fuel is the smoke it produces damages peoples skin, stains walls and is bad for your health. You can only use wood to cook food and heat up things. People have to go to bed at 6:30-7:00 because they do not have any electricity for lights. If people in rural Peru had electricity they could use lights at night and stop having to go to bed early. They could use electric tools to make objects like furniture faster which would mean they could make more money and break the poverty cycle. In La Pecka a charity has built a micro hydroelectric dam to produce energy for the village. It works by dropping water down a pipe which turns a turbine and produces electricity. It is a sustainable source of electricity. If it rains they can have electricity in the day for a short period of time. The water used is also used for rice paddies so they can only use the water for electricity at night. The electricity is used at night for lights and has allowed the women in the village to learn how to read and write at night classes. The teachers want electricity in the day so that they can use projectors and lights to help students learn. If they have electricity in the day they could use it for electric tools in school to do more work in their woodwork lessons.
