Sustainable Energy

In recent times, the debate surrounding sustainability has been carried on with increasing urgency due to widespread concern about the problem of ensuring the long-lasting prosperity of human society. A prosperous society is a highly developed one in which every member of the community derives benefits from a stable and wealthy economy with basic social services, effective core infrastructures, high standards of education and many practical applications of advanced technology. In order to achieve and maintain affluence, mankind has taken a great deal from nature and caused damage which is threatening not only the current generation but also the life of humankind in the future. Given the rapid increase in global population and its consequences in the last century, some hold that sustainable population growth is the only key to a thriving civilization hereafter. However, sustainable energy is argued to have an important part in that progress. With regard to the inextricable relationships between energy and the economy on the one hand and energy and the environment on the other hand, the essential role of sustainable energy in ensuring the future of our society will be examined in this essay.

Firstly, sustainable energy is likely to be the backbone of the future world. Generally, almost every economic activity needs energy in order to maintain healthy conditions and thus be able to gain more profits. In particular, energy is derived from various kinds of sources to provide for the fundamental needs of the civilization, e.g. lighting, heating, cooking, manufacturing and sustaining transportation (Hodgson 2010, p1). Moreover, Glover and Economides (2010, p5) highlight that the material affluence of the community is encouraged and created by the act of using energy. Throughout history, the discovery of new sources from wood, coal to oil, together with the development of advanced technology for deriving and delivering energy, have fostered the world’s economy and...