Purdue Energy Forum

Being amidst the wake of the technological revolution, we are faced with an ever increasing demand of energy resources on a worldwide scale, finding ourselves globally in an impending energy crisis. Industrialized nations, comprising the developed world, such as those of the United States of America and other European nations making up a mere 20% of the entire global populous, require close to about 53% of the global energy output, leaving the developing world with negligible resources to promote growth and development of their own. As remarked by Maria Trimarchi (2008), “Energy consumption is reportedly higher in countries where less than 5 percent of the population lives below the poverty line than it is in countries where most people live in poverty -- four times higher.” (p.1)

For instance, Americans make up less than 5 percent of the world’s population and yet consume 26 percent of the world’s energy. Together, the United States and Canada account for 50 percent of energy consumed by the world’s richest industrialized countries; Europe, 33 percent. Currently, the world’s population is responsible for the consumption of 15 terawatts of power from a combination of various energy sources. These sources include, but are not limited to oil, coal, natural gas and a few other renewable energy resources. At the predicted rate at which this energy consumption trend is increasing, scientists estimate that the entire planet will run out of sustainable energy resources in the next few decades or so. Also, it almost goes without mentioning, that the consumption of these energy sources emit unwanted products into the atmosphere and degrade the very environment that we live in. In order to make our planet self-sustaining from an energy per...

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...generations. This may be done by means of holding such events, or participating in them, in the very least. To further tackle and solve the issue that we as a society are faced with, the Purdue Energy Forum has proposed future projects in order to tackle the energy consumption issue, few of which are already in progress and/or are on the verge of completion and implementation. These projects include those of the “Ross Reserve” living lab, “The Lafayette High School Energy Clubs”, “eV Grand Prix Team” and “Campus Impact”, all of which intend to and are designed to address the energy problem at hand.

Being a fellow future technologist, I deem the goal of energy conservation as a noble cause, and therein lies my interest.

Works Cited

• http://www.purdueenergyforum.org/

• http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id

• http://www.worldwatch.org/node/808