Most of us would like a better quality of life, but do we know where that comes from? I will explain in this blog.
Energy is where it all begins. Our quality of life is a direct result of our ability to capture and use energy. Notice that I said "capture", because we can not actually create energy. As pointed out in a prior blog, all energy actually comes from the Sun.
Back in the very beginning, us humans only had the energy within our bodies to create our quality of life. The source of that energy was our muscles and those muscles got their energy from the food we gathered. That food got its energy from the Sun. See how it worked? That was how we got our quality of life for thousands of years. Animals still do that today, but we have brains that allow us to capture other forms of energy and here is one of the first.
To move heavy objects us humans had to use our muscles as stated above, but with our brains we figured out that we could "float" objects on water and we could move them down stream with the energy that was in the stream. The Sun evaporated the water and it fell at higher altitude and then with the help of gravity, the water flowed down hill. This was a revolutionary development for us humans. We should thank the beavers for sharing this concept, It helped to significantly advance our quality of life. Notice where most of the major cities of the world are located? Where the rivers dump into the sea!
The next thing that us humans discovered was that we could get animals to use their muscles like we did to do many things that we had previously been doing. Think about it? We could get horses and oxen to do much of what our own muscles had to do. We even figured out how to get dogs to pull things for us. Think of growing food. We could get horses to pull our plows and wagons so that our poor muscles could get a rest. The Native Americans did not have the horse or the cow, so they had to do much of this work with their muscles. There quality of life thus suffered.
The next discovery was that we could harness the wind to help us move our floating boats rather than human muscle energy. This was a really big deal. This opened the whole world to us humans where we could then transport large stones to build things like the Pyramids in Egypt. Think of massive ships that could sail the oceans of the world transporting food and goods. Think of the impact that had on the quality of life for us humans?
With our human brains we figured out how to convert the flowing and falling water of rivers into mechanical work like our muscles were doing. Notice that water mills were located around the world at what is called the "fall line"? Factories sprung up around these water mills that could make all kinds of products that improved the quality of life for us humans. These mills built on the earlier principle where domestic animals were used to turn machines similar to the water mills.
Us humans figured out that there was more than just mechanical energy. We discovered that there was energy in wood, coal, oil and gas. We even found oil in animals like whales. Finally, us humans figured out ways that we could take energy from these fuels and convert it into doing work like our muscles had been having to do for thousands of years. At first is was vacuum created as steam condensed. That was one of the first motor. Then came along steam under pressure and the steam engine. Now we were on our way to a whole new area of ways to use energy to improve our qualify of life.
This whole new area opened up ways to convert energy from one form to another and thus expand the use of energy. Now we are talking about electricity that could be captured from hydro power in streams and dams along with engines that operated on these different forms of energy. Us humans found all kinds of ways that we could shift from using our own muscles to using energy from almost any source. We now had food, shelter, transportation and about anything else that contributed to our quality of life and it all came from energy.
Now that you have a clearer picture of how energy impacts our quality of life, you can start to look at the world around you a little differently. Look at countries where there is not much energy. The people who live in these places do not enjoy the same quality of life that those who live in places where they have an abundance of energy. You know this is true. Look at the USA. For the first time in many years we can supply 100% of our energy needs. We have the largest deposits of coal and oil of any country in the world and thus one of the highest qualities of life.
Why there is not more focus on energy as it relates to the quality of life is beyond me. It does not matter how much great farm land a country has if they don't have the energy to farm it. The only real down side is the fact that energy is limited and the only way to have a large share for each individual is to recognize that unlimited growth of population will mean a decline in quality of life for the human race. Once you understand the source of our quality of life you are in a better position to act responsibly to preserve it!
Energy is where it all begins. Our quality of life is a direct result of our ability to capture and use energy. Notice that I said "capture", because we can not actually create energy. As pointed out in a prior blog, all energy actually comes from the Sun.
Back in the very beginning, us humans only had the energy within our bodies to create our quality of life. The source of that energy was our muscles and those muscles got their energy from the food we gathered. That food got its energy from the Sun. See how it worked? That was how we got our quality of life for thousands of years. Animals still do that today, but we have brains that allow us to capture other forms of energy and here is one of the first.
To move heavy objects us humans had to use our muscles as stated above, but with our brains we figured out that we could "float" objects on water and we could move them down stream with the energy that was in the stream. The Sun evaporated the water and it fell at higher altitude and then with the help of gravity, the water flowed down hill. This was a revolutionary development for us humans. We should thank the beavers for sharing this concept, It helped to significantly advance our quality of life. Notice where most of the major cities of the world are located? Where the rivers dump into the sea!
The next thing that us humans discovered was that we could get animals to use their muscles like we did to do many things that we had previously been doing. Think about it? We could get horses and oxen to do much of what our own muscles had to do. We even figured out how to get dogs to pull things for us. Think of growing food. We could get horses to pull our plows and wagons so that our poor muscles could get a rest. The Native Americans did not have the horse or the cow, so they had to do much of this work with their muscles. There quality of life thus suffered.
The next discovery was that we could harness the wind to help us move our floating boats rather than human muscle energy. This was a really big deal. This opened the whole world to us humans where we could then transport large stones to build things like the Pyramids in Egypt. Think of massive ships that could sail the oceans of the world transporting food and goods. Think of the impact that had on the quality of life for us humans?
With our human brains we figured out how to convert the flowing and falling water of rivers into mechanical work like our muscles were doing. Notice that water mills were located around the world at what is called the "fall line"? Factories sprung up around these water mills that could make all kinds of products that improved the quality of life for us humans. These mills built on the earlier principle where domestic animals were used to turn machines similar to the water mills.
Us humans figured out that there was more than just mechanical energy. We discovered that there was energy in wood, coal, oil and gas. We even found oil in animals like whales. Finally, us humans figured out ways that we could take energy from these fuels and convert it into doing work like our muscles had been having to do for thousands of years. At first is was vacuum created as steam condensed. That was one of the first motor. Then came along steam under pressure and the steam engine. Now we were on our way to a whole new area of ways to use energy to improve our qualify of life.
This whole new area opened up ways to convert energy from one form to another and thus expand the use of energy. Now we are talking about electricity that could be captured from hydro power in streams and dams along with engines that operated on these different forms of energy. Us humans found all kinds of ways that we could shift from using our own muscles to using energy from almost any source. We now had food, shelter, transportation and about anything else that contributed to our quality of life and it all came from energy.
Now that you have a clearer picture of how energy impacts our quality of life, you can start to look at the world around you a little differently. Look at countries where there is not much energy. The people who live in these places do not enjoy the same quality of life that those who live in places where they have an abundance of energy. You know this is true. Look at the USA. For the first time in many years we can supply 100% of our energy needs. We have the largest deposits of coal and oil of any country in the world and thus one of the highest qualities of life.
Why there is not more focus on energy as it relates to the quality of life is beyond me. It does not matter how much great farm land a country has if they don't have the energy to farm it. The only real down side is the fact that energy is limited and the only way to have a large share for each individual is to recognize that unlimited growth of population will mean a decline in quality of life for the human race. Once you understand the source of our quality of life you are in a better position to act responsibly to preserve it!
