Energy availability and energy sources as determinants of societal development in a long-term perspective
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REVIEW Energy availability and energy sources as determinants of societal development in a long-term perspective
Marina Fischer-Kowalski and Anke Schaffartzik, Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies, Institute of Social Ecology (SEC), Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt-Wien-Graz, A1070 Vienna, Austria Address all correspondence to Marina Fischer-Kowalski at [email protected] Current address: Klagenfurt University (Received 28 October 2014; accepted 9 March 2015)
ABSTRACT The dominant energy sources used by human societies and the transitions from one energy source to another have fundamental implications for societal development. A future energy transition is pending but it remains unclear what its socioeconomic corollaries will be. The history of the dominant energy sources used by human societies and their implications for societal development are traced in this review. “Passive solar energy utilization” in the hunting and gathering mode requires mobility of societies following the biomass that is their sole energy input. Fertility is constrained both by the available nutrition and by the need to migrate: population density is low. The agrarian mode relies on “active solar energy utilization”. Solar energy is harnessed through cultivated crops providing energy to humans. This mode requires a sedentary way of life and allows for much higher population density; progress in raising yields is achieved by additional labor-inputs and drives population growth. The industrial mode relies largely on fossil energy carriers supplying human societies with an amount of energy never accessible before, and with new materials. It relieves human societies of their dependence on land, fosters urban growth, and decreases fertility. At the same time, the industrial mode is based on a dominant energy source that will not be available indefinitely and that is associated with severe impacts on the environment. A future energy transition seems unavoidable and historical evidence suggests that it will be associated with fundamental socioeconomic change. Keyword: energy storage
DISCUSSION POINTS • Is it justified to identify the take-off of fossil fuel use as the tipping point toward “modernity” rather than – as is more common – the onset of industrial technology? • The vicious cycle of increasing area productivity at the expense of labor productivity as the key driver of population growth in agrarian regimes – overstated? • Is the stagnating/declining materials and energy use in highincome industrial countries an indication of a pending regime change or a result of globalization? • Does a conceptualization of history as coexistence of and transition between energy regimes provide a benefit for understanding the challenges ahead?
Introduction: Energy use and societal development Climate change and looming supply shortages of fossil energy carriers have recently brought the role of energy in
societal development to the forefront of academic and public interest. Social theory on the mutual influence of societal development and
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