The nexus of energy and environment.

Environment

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, environment can be defined as the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (Climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival. Simply put, the environment is everything around us, from the atmosphere, water bodies, and land, to the flora and fauna and all living organisms. The importance of the environment cannot be overemphasis as we simply cannot exist without our environment. Yet, the existence and sustainability of our environment is being threatened by natural and anthropogenic (this takes up the larger percentage of the blame) activities.

Energy

There is no clear definition for energy; however, the most common definition in use is “the capacity to do work”. Vaclav Smil in his book – Energy: A Beginner’s Guide provides an alternate definition of energy to be“energy is any process that produces a change of location, speed, temperature, composition) in an affected system (an organism, a machine, a planet)”.The most common forms of energy are: thermal (heat), kinetic, potential, light, chemical, and electrical energy. Also, energy has been divided into different categories, which are: primary and secondary, renewable and non-renewable, commercial and non-commercial, and conventional and non-conventional energy. It is important to note that – energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can be converted from one form to another – which is the first Law of Thermodynamics.

The Nexus

Energy and environment have always been interconnected. This is so because most sources of energy are gotten from the environment (wind, solar, geo-thermal, coal, oil, natural gas, etc.). Also, it is impossible to imagine how the environment will be without energy. The majority of the activities (such as transportation, production, cooking, technology, etc.) of humans depend largely on the use of energy. Where the environment hardly or if ever affects energy and its sources (this is subject to questioning though), the extraction, processing and usage of some sources of energy (mostly the non-renewable sources of energy) affect the environment in the long run either positively or negatively. While the renewable energy sources have little or no harmful impact on the environment, the non-renewable energy sources (Fossil fuels – coal, oil, and natural gas) have harmful impacts on the environment. Fossil fuels are one of the most commonly used sources of energy in the world right now (which has been estimated to run out in the nearest future hence the need to diversify to sustainable, clean and renewable source of energy). The extraction, processing, and usage of fossil fuels have resulted in adverse effects on the environment e.g. emission of greenhouse gases, global warming, ozone layer obliteration, climate change etc.  As a result of these issues, academicians, environment specialists, advocates, governments, institutions, organizations, and individuals are looking for solutions and mitigation methods to reduce the carbon footprint, combat the effects caused by climate change, switch to alternative sources of energy, and find sustainable production, consumption, and economic pathways.