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The Scarcity Of Fossil Fuels

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The purpose of this paper is to provide an environmental scan and explore issues pertaining to the scarcity of fossil fuels. It will briefly explore the transition from historical energy sources to the primary use fossil fuels. Why is this a dangerous global issue? What are the effects of said issue as it pertains to the social, economic, and political landscapes? It will also assert how Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) is impacted by fossil fuel depletion. Finally, some recommendations will be offered regarding fossil fuels and future exploration, implementation, and utilization of more renewable energy resources.
Discussion of Global Issue
From the dawn of civilization, mankind has sought after some sort of power source to …show more content…

As technologies advanced and more inventions became widely available, societies began to move away from use of those sources and towards fossil fuels for a variety of reasons. In England, for example. even prior to the Industrial Revolution, demand was so great and coal so much more efficient than traditional energy sources, it quickly replaced the use of biomass (wood) as the primary energy source (Allen, 2012). In addition, building upon what was already known about combustion energy and coupling that with new discoveries such as the steam engine, fossil fuels were a ticket towards progress all over the world (Mumford, 1935, p. 156). As these processes were streamlined, the 18th century saw a huge growth in transportation initiatives, urbanization and population, and the physiological needs of food, water, and shelter, all on the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid (1943), were met with greater ease. An example of this growth can be found in the United States westward expansion. The United States, still a relatively young independent country in the 19th century, would not have experienced such swift westward development without the steam engine. Although groups of people attempted to take advantage of available land out West, it was not until the first coal powered transcontinental railroads were established that the largest

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