Economy and Sociology (Jun 2013)
EVOLUTION OF THE DEMAND AND SUPPLY IN ENERGY RESOURCES
Abstract
Economic, social and political development of human society in recent decades put to the fore the issue of natural resources available to the earth; scientists are asking ever more seriously the question to what extent these resources can support the economic development in the future, can provide food and survival of a growing population and will be able to contribute to the eradication of underdevelopment. The emphasis of major events – the population explosion, the trend of depletion of natural resources, environmental deterioration, underdevelopment etc. – was and it is still discussed with increasing responsibility by specialists, being drafted a large number of forecasts for a variable duration perspective. The trend of depletion of natural resources is another phenomenon of the contemporary world and that will become, certainly, even more pronounced in the near future. Harnessing the increasing exhaustible natural resources with low reserves and a slow recovery of renewable resources raises acutely the issue regarding the conservation of these resources. In recent decades, there is a tendency to waste energy and raw materials in the society. There are produced goods without an absolute utility, being imposed artificially by advertising or fashion swings and many products are designed in such a way that it takes little to compel the buyer to replace them. The "consumption" civilization is characterized as a "society that throws" the population of developed countries (18% of world population) dispelling waste form 20 to 25% of the material production of the world. Excessive consumption of raw materials and fuel was favoured by their relatively low prices, maintained under the pressure of interests of transnational companies, prices that disfavoured, however, the developing countries. Consequently, consumption of raw materials and fuel turned to the easily accessible resources that have been heavily exploited, partially abandoning some less accessible resources that can be exploited only at a relatively higher price (e.g. coal from Western Europe). A good example of a resource exhaustion which regenerates hard and for a long time is the irrational exploitation of oil and wood from forests of the earth. Wood exploitation has increased especially in recent decades, with the increase in industrial consumption and in other sectors of the economy, reaching over 3 billion m3 and overtaking in a worrying manner the natural regeneration capacity (2.7 billion m3/year).
