Pacing economy vs. energy needs

Who does not want better economy? Surely all people wish to. With better income, we can have a better quality of life. In the 1950s or maybe even in 1980s, it was an individual dream to own a car. Now it's possible. For a family to purchase a microwave, toaster, LCD TV is credenced as a must have goods. Thanks to tighter competition, better technology and pervasive marketing.

In the world of digital era, our life has become so dependent on electronic equipments, that we would freak out if these are out of our sight. We don't use our fix line telephone anymore. Instead, our mobile phone always stays near our pocket. The car we drive has been equipped with all those frontier technology and of course iPod connection. The laptop we use is geared with wifi that makes us easier to connect to the internet. 

Yet the more we enjoy the progress of these stuffs, the easier we consume energy. It seems that right now there is no way to live without electricity. It powers every gadget we need for our work and life. We now write letters with email. We browse the internet for various information: news, journal, magazines, etc. Some of us listen to streaming radio. Others prefer youtoube. Like it or not, those stuffs need power.

On the one hand, producers are aware that the energy to power gadgets is contested for efficiency. Living in this digital world where a needle hole could contain millions of processor would do. What may have been missing is that through the Moore's law, the price of electronic gadgets plumments sharply for every eighteen months that intrigues costumer to buy more gadgets. Translating this into the energy needs means that the more consumer electronics are purchased, the more the energy needs to be supplied.

The aggregate energy source is increasingly threatening countries to secure their power supply. With the creation of new jobs, new business and new modes of supplying goods, the country economy is heating up. More middle classes  are created. Wealthier people are booming. Consequently, the demand for house, cars, consumer goods, better services, good education, and so on is skyrocketing.

It is now becoming an unsurprising fact that the economic growth of five percent, could trigger over ten percent growth of energy demand. What makes it complex is when the country is not prepared enough to supply their energy. On the other side, the good news is we can still act through rebalancing our daily energy consumption. So, it's not that late.