Tahuahua, Katie. “A Better Word of the Year for 2019: Energy Poverty.” RealClearEnergy, RealClearEnergy, 20 Dec. 2019, www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2019/12/20/a_better_word_of_the_year_for_2019_energy_poverty_110503.html.
Katie Tahuahua, "Energy Poverty ", contributed by Logan Young, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 29 April 2020, accessed 24 August 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/energy-poverty
Critical Commentary
This article took another approach at analyzing fuel poverty. Since that was the theme of this week's reading this gives another perspective. This addresses what fuel poverty around the world looks like and the effect on climate change.
This brought up that while the whole world is caught up in the climate change happening but oblivious of the fuel poverty situation and that they go hand in hand in a big way. While the reading spoke of energy poverty in the UK this article touched on the reality of the rest. While in the UK it can cause some health or financial problems in third world countries it can be the difference between life and death. It states that life expectancy can be 20 years shorter in communities with no or limited access to electricity. Fuel poverty in these areas causes millions of deaths and stagnates the opportunity and potential of the people. While creating infrastructure for energy use in these areas would only increase carbon emissions there is really no other option. While the world gets more worried about climate change the crazy casual amount of energy the world uses does not dissipate. With education on energy scarce this continues which only wastes more energy and is adding to the emissions in a very big way. Education along with working on efficiency and more importantly innovation can both decrease emissions and create a better system. The article explains the predicted results from the Paris Climate Accord and it is not impressive and that addressing fuel poverty is a much more pressing issue.
This article did a good job of expanding on energy poverty to the rest of the world. While the situation here and in the UK is far from favorable, people all over the world face more adversity in having no energy than being energy impoverished. This article also explains climate change and energy poverty in a way that connects them.