2.1.1

Increasing Energy Consumption

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Why is Energy Consumption Rising?

The global demand for energy is increasing for 4 main reasons:

Economic development and industrialisation

Economic development and industrialisation

  • As countries develop, people's standard of living rises and they demand more goods and services.
  • The USA consumes 17% of the world's energy despite having only 5% of the world's population.
  • More countries becoming more economically developed will increase the demand for energy and electricity.
  • Manufacturing new products normally uses lots of energy and lots of water.
Increasing global population size

Increasing global population size

  • The global population was 2.6 billion people in 1950.
  • The global population was 6.1 billion people in 2000.
  • The global population was 7.8 billion people in 2020.
    • The world contains 5.2 billion more people than 70 years ago.
  • More people will consume more energy.
  • Population projections try to forecast the future population size. The global population is expected to be 9.8 billion by 2050.
Advances in technology

Advances in technology

  • Technology like cars, computers, smartphones, lighting, and smart TVs have increased people's quality of life. However, all of these things need energy or electricity to run.
  • Although technology encourages the consumption of more energy, some innovations, like Tesla's electric cars can be more energy-efficient and save energy.
Urbanisation

Urbanisation

  • Urbanisation generally happens at the same time as development, so it can be hard to tell if urbanisation or development is the cause.
  • Lots of people living in the same place means that public transport works better. Public transport is more energy efficient.
  • However, incomes are generally higher in cities, so people consume more and use more energy.
Jump to other topics
1

Physical Geography

1.1

River Environments

1.2

Coastal Environments

1.3

Hazardous Environments - Tropical Cyclones

1.4

Hazardous Environments - Earthquakes & Volcanoes

2

Human Geography

3

Global Issues

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