The Energy Security Paradox

Author(s):  
Jonna Nyman

The decisions we make about energy shape our present and our future. From geopolitical tension to environmental degradation and an increasingly unstable climate, these choices infiltrate the very air we breathe. Energy security politics has direct impact on the continued survival of human life as we know it, and the earth cannot survive if we continue consuming fossil energy at current rates. The low carbon transition is simply not happening fast enough, and change is unlikely without a radical change in how we approach energy security. But thinking on energy security has failed to keep up with these changing realities. Energy security is primarily considered to be about the availability of reliable and affordable energy supplies—having enough energy—and it remains closely linked to national security. The Energy Security Paradox looks at contemporary energy security politics in the United States and China, demonstrating that current energy security practices actually lead to a security paradox: they produce insecurity. Based on in-depth empirical analysis, it develops the ‘energy security paradox’ as a framework for understanding the interconnected insecurities produced by current practices. However, it also goes beyond this, examining resistance to current practices to highlight that we not only can do energy security differently: this is already happening. In the process, it demonstrates that the value of security depends on the context. Based on this, it proposes a radical reconsideration of how we approach and practice energy security.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 772-784
Author(s):  
Yury V. Borovsky

In the early 2020s the worlds transition from carbon-intensive to climate-neutral energy use has already become a discernible and a difficult-to-reverse process. With Joe Bidens election as US president, the United States have returned to the Paris Climate Agreement and have become a key driver of this process (along with the EU and China). As a result, the international community has reached a consensus on the ongoing energy transition. This process will require considerable effort and may take several decades. Nevertheless, the impact of energy transition on traditional approaches to energy security, which emerged largely as a result of the global oil crises of the 1970s and 1980s and are centered around the supply of fossil fuels, is already a relevant research topic. This problem is examined relying on the relevant terminological, theoretical and factual material. The article concludes that energy transition will ultimately undermine the carbon paradigm that has underpinned energy security policies since the 1970s. Rapid development of renewable and other low-carbon energy sources will certainly remove key energy security risks of energy importers and, possibly, allow them to achieve energy independence. However, a post-carbon era may also generate new risks. For countries that rely heavily on oil, gas and coal exports, energy transition will result in the loss of markets and revenues. It may present an energy security threat for them as well as it will require a costly and technologically complex process of the energy sector decarbonization. Some exporters, especially those with high fuel rents and insufficient financial reserves, may face serious economic and social upheavals as a result of energy transition. The EU and the US energy transition policies reflect provisions of all three fundamental international relations theoretical paradigms, including realism. This means that the EU and the US policy, aimed at promoting climate agenda, may be expected to be rather tough and aggressive. China as the third key player in energy transition is still following a liberal course; however, it may change in the future.


Ensuring sustainable and sustainable development of the modern economy cannot be imagined without sufficient energy resources. Energy development is important both to form the basis of the economy and to strengthen its defense capabilities. For more than 150 years, the energy balance has been based on traditional energy sources and above all oil and natural gas. The first decade of the 21st century can be seen as the beginning of a radical change called the energy revolution. The article looks at the reasons for the emergence and development of this energy revolution, its long-term development scenarios, its impact on the development of the economy and the environment, and the author tries to define the concept of energy security. The development of the modern economy is closely linked to energy sources. The critical role is played by primary traditional energy sources such as oil, gas, coal and other flammable substances, which are essential for technological transformation and activation of the vast majority of modern machinery and mechanisms. It provides both electrical and mechanical energy to create warm conditions for human life. Keywords: energy sources, energy revolution, development scenarios, concept, energy security.


Author(s):  
Jonna Nyman

Chapter 4 challenges these common sense energy security practices by looking at the space for contestation. It reverses the focus to examine the role of power and vested interests in establishing the common sense in the United States. It then looks at how, despite this, energy security remains contested, surveying alternative visions of energy security forwarded. It highlights the range of actors and organizations which speak energy security differently, including, at times, voices within the establishment. This is used to destabilize the common sense by illustrating that energy security not only can be done differently, but that a wide range of actors already present a range of alternatives.


Author(s):  
Jonna Nyman

Chapter 3 examines ‘common sense’ energy security practices in the US. It discusses the role and history of energy and energy policy-making, before looking directly at how energy security has been practised in US policy since 2004. It then analyses how energy security was constructed in official discourse in the same time period, drawing out four key themes and the centrality of continued and increased domestic fossil fuel production to these themes. Together, it suggests, these practices create a ‘common sense’ understanding of energy security which has become accepted and difficult to challenge. The chapter concludes by showing some of the implications of this ‘common sense’, demonstrating that it produces an energy security paradox.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb Wellum

Abstract This article examines the popularity of the “energy conservation ethic” in the United States during the 1970s, which environmentalists, politicians, and oil companies endorsed as a solution to the energy crisis. It demonstrates that broad support for an energy conservation ethic contained two competing paradigms: one “ecological” and the other “nationalist.” The former advocated conservation as a means to a sustainable low-carbon future, while the latter viewed the conservation ethic as a tool to eliminate dependence on foreign oil in order to reestablish the economic and geopolitical strength of the United States. Thus, in contrast to a view that traces a relatively linear transition from the utilitarian and nationalist ethos of early twentieth-century conservationism to the more holistic concern with “the environment” of the postwar environmental movement, this article underscores the persistence of utilitarian conservationist conceptions of resource stewardship in the middle of the “environmental decade.” These competing paradigms contributed to the argument for energy price deregulation as the most effective way to discipline US energy consumers. In this way, the energy crisis and the conservation debates that it evoked reflected the rightward turn of the United States in the 1980s. Current energy history tends to focus on the political, environmental, and socioeconomic histories of energy production and consumption rather than efforts to reduce demand but, as this article demonstrates, discourses of conservation can also shape political trajectories in unexpected ways.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-227
Author(s):  
Nor Hasan ◽  
Edi Susanto

This article attempted to trace the existence of Dhâmmong tradition in the following scopes, namely: (1) Madurese perception against Dhâmmong , (2) the function and symbolic meaning of Dhâmmong in human life, and (3) the efforts of the Madurese community to preserve the Dhâmmong tradition. Through a descriptive phenomenological analysis, this study revealed that Dhâmmong is a hereditary tradition carried out by the Madurese community, it is urged by the community’s anxiety caused by the long dry season (némor lanjheng). Dhâmmong functionsas a means for salametan, paying respect for the ancestors, strengthening human relations (silaturrahim ), Bhek Rembhek, and nguri berkah (the fertility of the earth). The offerings and mouth-music by imitating the sounds of animals represent a strong desire and wishof the community for the immediate rainfall that could pour out blessings for the community. Hence, the community’s efforts to preserve Dhâmmong are: (1) introducing and involving the younger generation in the ritual, and (2) setting and changing the time sequence of Dhâmmong implementation from night to daytime.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-265
Author(s):  
Dr.Navdeep Kaur

Since its evolution environment has remained both a matter of awe and concern to man. The frontier attitude of the industrialized society towards nature has not only endangered the survival of all other life forms but also threatened the very existence of human life. The realization of such potential danger has necessitated the dissemination of knowledge and skill vis-a-vis environment protection at all stages of learning. Therefore, learners of all stages of learning need to be sensitized with a missionary zeal. This may ensure transformation of students into committed citizens for averting global environment crisis. The advancement of science and technology made the life more and more relaxed and man also became more and more ambitious. With such development, human dependence on environment increased. He consumed more resources and the effect of his activities on the environment became more and more detectable. Environment covers all the things present around the living beings and above the land, on the surface of the earth and under the earth. Environment indicates, in total, all of peripheral forces, pressures and circumstances, which affect the life, nature, behaviour, growth, development and maturation of living beings. Irrational exploitation (not utilization) of natural resources for our greed (not need) has endangered our survival, and incurred incalculable harm. Environmental Education is a science, a well-thought, permanent, lasting and integrated process of equipping learning experiences for getting awareness, knowledge, understanding, skills, values, technical expertise and involvement of learners with desirable attitudinal changes about their relationship with their natural and biophysical environment. Environmental Education is an organized effort to educate the masses about environment, its functions, need, importance, and especially how human beings can manage their behaviour in order to live in a sustainable manner.  The term 'environmental awareness' refers to creating general awareness of environmental issues, their causes by bringing about changes in perception, attitude, values and necessary skills to solve environment related problems. Moreover, it is the first step leading to the formation of responsible environmental behaviour (Stern, 2000). With the ever increasing development by modern man, large scale degradation of natural resources have been occurred, the public has to be educated about the fact that if we are degrading our environment we are actually harming ourselves. To encourage meaningful public participation and environment, it is necessary to create awareness about environment pollution and related adverse effects. This is the crucial time that environmental awareness and environmental sensitivity should be cultivated among the masses particularly among youths. For the awareness of society it is essential to work at a gross root level. So the whole society can work to save the environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kivatsi Kavusa

This article explores the ecological potential in Job 14:7–12. The metaphor in Job 14 praises the life-giving potential of water to revive a dead tree before presenting its transient character, similar to human life. The article investigates the question of why the author of Job finds it appropriate to use water and water-related images to contrast the potential of water to revive a dead tree with the transient mortals who disappear at death like great bodies of water in times of drought. Using elements of historical, critical, and literary approaches, as well as metaphor theory, and applying the Earth Bible Principle of intrinsic worth, this article argues that water should not be viewed as a limitlessly renewable resource, but a precious gift requiring responsible management.


2013 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 40-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Young ◽  
Philip Davignon ◽  
Margaret B. Hansen ◽  
Mark A. Eggen

ABSTRACT Recent media coverage has focused on the supply of physicians in the United States, especially with the impact of a growing physician shortage and the Affordable Care Act. State medical boards and other entities maintain data on physician licensure and discipline, as well as some biographical data describing their physician populations. However, there are gaps of workforce information in these sources. The Federation of State Medical Boards' (FSMB) Census of Licensed Physicians and the AMA Masterfile, for example, offer valuable information, but they provide a limited picture of the physician workforce. Furthermore, they are unable to shed light on some of the nuances in physician availability, such as how much time physicians spend providing direct patient care. In response to these gaps, policymakers and regulators have in recent years discussed the creation of a physician minimum data set (MDS), which would be gathered periodically and would provide key physician workforce information. While proponents of an MDS believe it would provide benefits to a variety of stakeholders, an effort has not been attempted to determine whether state medical boards think it is important to collect physician workforce data and if they currently collect workforce information from licensed physicians. To learn more, the FSMB sent surveys to the executive directors at state medical boards to determine their perceptions of collecting workforce data and current practices regarding their collection of such data. The purpose of this article is to convey results from this effort. Survey findings indicate that the vast majority of boards view physician workforce information as valuable in the determination of health care needs within their state, and that various boards are already collecting some data elements. Analysis of the data confirms the potential benefits of a physician minimum data set (MDS) and why state medical boards are in a unique position to collect MDS information from physicians.


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