I have travelled extensively for both leisure and work across the continents of Asia, Europe and North America. So, it has become a habit to compare habits, perspectives, lifestyles and all possible issues across the countries I have visited. This not only makes my trip exciting but also helps me broaden my outlook that every coin actually has more than two sides. Till I took this class, energy usage / vulnerability was never in my list of comparable items. Now, I have added it to my list and this article gives me a good start to my intention.
This article is very relevant to the final class project which I propose to complete for this course entitled, “Comparison of consumer perceptions about energy across geographies of Asia, North America and Europe”. This paper states that the five largest economies of the world, the United States, the EU-27, China, India, Japan, and Russia are also the top five emitters of Greenhouse Gases. This is expected as correlation between economic progress and energy needs / usage is understandably high. However, I found it very interesting to read the comparisons of the varied sources of energy being used by these countries. The forced selection of these choices is linked to the availability of the source at a domestic level as well as the import-export agreements for energy between countries. Such varied inter-linking of causes and effects makes this a vast topic to explore. This paper has done a tidy task of introducing the subject and the references, I have to now wrestle with the questions I have and define the peripheries to know where to stop.
This paper also made me think about the inequalities of the capitalist society. A bustling capitalist economy benefits all, but it can’t be denied that the rich get richer and though the poor benefits too, the incremental ratio is skewed. Energy needs of the rich are also higher, however the ill-effects of this high energy usage has to be faced by all, be it environmental hazards, depletion of natural resources, climate change to mention a few. This unfair inequality will not change anytime soon.
I have always known about Europe being the most conscious and concerned continent towards the environment. This article gave me actual evidence to compare with the rest of the world. I was also surprised to see how closely Japan is following in the footsteps of Europe with respect to energy usage and emission control. This makes me optimistic that if Europe and Japan are energy efficient and environment friendly and still rank among the top 5 economies of the world, all’s not lost. The other countries can learn from these two economies and accordingly draw up realistic action plans to optimize energy usage versus emissions.
I would have liked the article to be a bit longer, as I wanted to understand the situation with more specificity towards Russia, other European countries (Yes, I know that Germany is the biggest economy for Europe, but EU-27 has 26 other member states too, which can’t be ignored totally), other Asian countries (Yes, the author mentions that Saudi Arabia has been toppled by USA as the top producer of crude oil, but then Saudi Arabia is also a consumer of energy too) Canada, and Mexico. So, I am left with many questions like: Was Russia included in Europe or in Asia? What about the entire Middle East of Asia? Canada and Mexico may not be as large as USA but they can’t be insignificant to be ignored totally. I agree that the topic is huge, but to justify the title of this article, I feel that some of the countries of the three continents should have been included.
Farhad Huq, "Changing Energy Usage Trends in North America, Europe, and Asia", contributed by Lopamudra Bhattacharyya, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 21 April 2020, accessed 23 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/changing-energy-usage-trends-north-america-europe-and-asia
Critical Commentary
I have travelled extensively for both leisure and work across the continents of Asia, Europe and North America. So, it has become a habit to compare habits, perspectives, lifestyles and all possible issues across the countries I have visited. This not only makes my trip exciting but also helps me broaden my outlook that every coin actually has more than two sides. Till I took this class, energy usage / vulnerability was never in my list of comparable items. Now, I have added it to my list and this article gives me a good start to my intention.
This article is very relevant to the final class project which I propose to complete for this course entitled, “Comparison of consumer perceptions about energy across geographies of Asia, North America and Europe”. This paper states that the five largest economies of the world, the United States, the EU-27, China, India, Japan, and Russia are also the top five emitters of Greenhouse Gases. This is expected as correlation between economic progress and energy needs / usage is understandably high. However, I found it very interesting to read the comparisons of the varied sources of energy being used by these countries. The forced selection of these choices is linked to the availability of the source at a domestic level as well as the import-export agreements for energy between countries. Such varied inter-linking of causes and effects makes this a vast topic to explore. This paper has done a tidy task of introducing the subject and the references, I have to now wrestle with the questions I have and define the peripheries to know where to stop.
This paper also made me think about the inequalities of the capitalist society. A bustling capitalist economy benefits all, but it can’t be denied that the rich get richer and though the poor benefits too, the incremental ratio is skewed. Energy needs of the rich are also higher, however the ill-effects of this high energy usage has to be faced by all, be it environmental hazards, depletion of natural resources, climate change to mention a few. This unfair inequality will not change anytime soon.
I have always known about Europe being the most conscious and concerned continent towards the environment. This article gave me actual evidence to compare with the rest of the world. I was also surprised to see how closely Japan is following in the footsteps of Europe with respect to energy usage and emission control. This makes me optimistic that if Europe and Japan are energy efficient and environment friendly and still rank among the top 5 economies of the world, all’s not lost. The other countries can learn from these two economies and accordingly draw up realistic action plans to optimize energy usage versus emissions.
I would have liked the article to be a bit longer, as I wanted to understand the situation with more specificity towards Russia, other European countries (Yes, I know that Germany is the biggest economy for Europe, but EU-27 has 26 other member states too, which can’t be ignored totally), other Asian countries (Yes, the author mentions that Saudi Arabia has been toppled by USA as the top producer of crude oil, but then Saudi Arabia is also a consumer of energy too) Canada, and Mexico. So, I am left with many questions like: Was Russia included in Europe or in Asia? What about the entire Middle East of Asia? Canada and Mexico may not be as large as USA but they can’t be insignificant to be ignored totally. I agree that the topic is huge, but to justify the title of this article, I feel that some of the countries of the three continents should have been included.