Mankind has been spending and will continue to spend (for the foreseeable future) a considerable amount of its blood and treasure for the sole purpose of producing,storing, distributing and using energy. Nothing has caused more transformation in our lives than in the way we use energy. Yet the sad fact is that for a large chunk of earth's population, access to energy is still limited. Worse still is the condition of people who have been adversely affected by the others need (or greed) for energy.
There are only two know sources of energy on earth. One is the Sun and the other is Geothermal.The former contributes roughly 99% of energy used by man. All the energy resources whether it be fossil fuels, hydel power, or even fire wood is nothing but sun's energy stored on earth through some natural process. An the sun has been bathing the earth with its energy free of charge for millions of years.
If you look at the larger picture it would seem strange that we pay such a heavy price for something that is given free. But then again we cannot use what is available as such. It needs to be converted to a usable form like electricity or gasoline. So it is only reasonable to pay the energy seller for all the trouble they took to convert the energy resource into a usable form.
But are we paying a reasonable price for the energy we use or is energy being used as an instrument to enforce control by the few that have access to energy resources. Is the price demanded by the energy seller, the government and the middle men in terms of money, human rights and freedom fair to the individual and his family.
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