"Energy resources and our future"
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 @ 12:27:05 UTC by vlad
|
|
Published on 2 Dec 2006 by Energy Bulletin. Archived on 2 Dec 2006.
"Energy resources and our future" - remarks by Admiral Hyman Rickover delivered in 1957
by Rear Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, U.S. Navy
FOR RELEASE AT 7:00 P.M. TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1957
Remarks Prepared by Rear Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, USN
Chief, Naval Reactors Branch/ Division of Reactor Development/ U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Ships for Nuclear Propulsion Navy Department
For Delivery at a Banquet of the Annual Scientific Assembly of the Minnesota State Medical Association St. Paul, Minnesota/ May 14, 1957
Energy Resources and Our Future (extract from the article)
I am honored to be here tonight, though it is no easy thing, I assure
you, for a layman to face up to an audience of physicians. A single one
of you, sitting behind his desk, can be quite formidable.
My speech has no medical connotations. This may be a relief to you
after the solid professional fare you have been absorbing. I should
like to discuss a matter which will, I hope, be of interest to you as
responsible citizens: the significance of energy resources in the
shaping of our future.
We live in what historians may some day call the Fossil Fuel Age. Today
coal, oil, and natural gas supply 93% of the world's energy; water
power accounts for only 1%; and the labor of men and domestic animals
the remaining 6%. This is a startling reversal of corresponding figures
for 1850 - only a century ago. Then fossil fuels supplied 5% of the
world's energy, and men and animals 94%. Five sixths of all the coal,
oil, and gas consumed since the beginning of the Fossil Fuel Age has
been burned up in the last 55 years.
These fuels have been known to man for more than 3,000 years. In parts
of China, coal was used for domestic heating and cooking, and natural
gas for lighting as early as 1000 B.C. The Babylonians burned asphalt a
thousand years earlier. But these early uses were sporadic and of no
economic significance. Fossil fuels did not become a major source of
energy until machines running on coal, gas, or oil were invented. Wood,
for example, was the most important fuel until 1880 when it was
replaced by coal; coal, in turn, has only recently been surpassed by
oil in this country.
Once in full swing, fossil fuel consumption has accelerated at
phenomenal rates. All the fossil fuels used before 1900 would not last
five years at today's rates of consumption.
Nowhere are these rates higher and growing faster than in the United
States. Our country, with only 6% of the world's population, uses one
third of the world's total energy input; this proportion would be even
greater except that we use energy more efficiently than other
countries. Each American has at his disposal, each year, energy
equivalent to that obtainable from eight tons of coal. This is six
times the world's per capita energy consumption. Though not quite so
spectacular, corresponding figures for other highly industrialized
countries also show above average consumption figures. The United
Kingdom, for example, uses more than three times as much energy as the
world average.
With high energy consumption goes a high standard of living. Thus the
enormous fossil energy which we in this country control feeds machines
which make each of us master of an army of mechanical slaves. Man's
muscle power is rated at 35 watts continuously, or one-twentieth
horsepower. Machines therefore furnish every American industrial worker
with energy equivalent to that of 244 men, while at least 2,000 men
push his automobile along the road, and his family is supplied with 33
faithful household helpers. Each locomotive engineer controls energy
equivalent to that of 100,000 men; each jet pilot of 700,000 men.
Truly, the humblest American enjoys the services of more slaves than
were once owned by the richest nobles, and lives better than most
ancient kings. In retrospect, and despite wars, revolutions, and
disasters, the hundred years just gone by may well seem like a Golden
Age.
Whether this Golden Age will continue depends entirely upon our ability
to keep energy supplies in balance with the needs of our growing
population. Before I go into this question, let me review briefly the
role of energy resources in the rise and fall of civilizations.
....
I suggest that this is a good time to think soberly about our
responsibilities to our descendents - those who will ring out the
Fossil Fuel Age. Our greatest responsibility, as parents and as
citizens, is to give America's youngsters the best possible education.
We need the best teachers and enough of them to prepare our young
people for a future immeasurably more complex than the present, and
calling for ever larger numbers of competent and highly trained men and
women. This means that we must not delay building more schools,
colleges, and playgrounds. It means that we must reconcile ourselves to
continuing higher taxes to build up and maintain at decent salaries a
greatly enlarged corps of much better trained teachers, even at the
cost of denying ourselves such momentary pleasures as buying a bigger
new car, or a TV set, or household gadget. We should find - I believe -
that these small self-denials would be far more than offset by the
benefits they would buy for tomorrow's America. We might even - if we
wanted - give a break to these youngsters by cutting fuel and metal
consumption a little here and there so as to provide a safer margin for
the necessary adjustments which eventually must be made in a world
without fossil fuels.
One final thought I should like to leave with you. High-energy
consumption has always been a prerequisite of political power. The
tendency is for political power to be concentrated in an ever-smaller
number of countries. Ultimately, the nation which control - the largest
energy resources will become dominant. If we give thought to the
problem of energy resources, if we act wisely and in time to conserve
what we have and prepare well for necessary future changes, we shall
insure this dominant position for our own country.
Source: http://www.energybulletin.net/23151.html
|
| |
|
Don't have an account yet? You can create one. As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, comments configuration and post comments with your name.
| |
|
