How long will the lights stay on?
In the 21st century, energy is critical in modern society since everything revolves around it, If there is no energy there would be no lights, no action and most importantly no food. Canada, on the other hand, has plenty of energy sources including oil reserves, natural gas and hydroelectricity, but the question still remains: Can this energy last forever?
Canada has a population of 37.59 million people every single one of them using energy sources, as for oil reserves per year 7,603 kg’s of oil are used per capita out of the total of 24,300 billion kilos of oil (180 billion barrels) another example is hydroelectricity which is accounted for 25.7 percent of Canada’s total energy consumption as of 2018 so when you do the math. Canada has enough energy that could last us around 150+ years.
But that math does not include the export of energy or the population growth of Canada which would both play an important role in how much time the energy could actually last. As of 2013, Canada holds 1 percent of the natural gas reserves of the entire world which is barely anything. So you might be thinking that Canada is saving the amount of Natural gas they have but nope not even close, Canada exports 61 percent of the natural gas it has out of the 1 percent of the world’s reserves it has, so Canada is giving more than half of the natural gas it has to other countries leaving its own with barely anything.
Now on top of the export trouble, Canada has it’s own population growth to worry about which is predicted over 100 years to triple. Therefore, on top of the unreasonably high export rates oil would practically be draining out of reserves and 25.7 percent of Canada’s total hydro consumption would rise past the bars and practically blow through the capacity.
On the good side, though there is still plenty of time for us to take action to prevent this from happening, it needs to be done quickly before things get worse. We need a strategy to transition to renewable, low carbon energy. To make this happen we don’t have to rely on the government for everything since the youth of today are going to be the leaders of tomorrow, but that does not mean that we cannot start today. On a daily basis to prevent this from happening we can limit how much daily energy we are using. For example, using passive solar heat, use rooftop solar energy, use energy-efficient appliances etc. We should also encourage the government to look to decrease it’s exporting to different countries from an unreasonably high 61 percent to perhaps around 20 percent because in that case, Canada won’t ruin relations with allies or countries they trade with, this will still bring money into the country increasing its GDP just not as high as 61 percent and also Canada would have more energy saved for its own people, another thing that Canada can do is make more ways to store energy, this will work out very well since Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world with a lot of open lands desperate to be used, so in this way, Canada can make more hydroelectric and other renewable plants so that the capacity increases and there is enough for everyone, this would work out because renewable energy can regenerate, unlike fossil fuels. In addition, this way energy may even last more than 150 years which would help Canada thrive and continue being the great modern country it is today with no problems what so ever. In conclusion, Energy is a necessity in our generation, and without it, the world would come to a complete standstill, so people around Canada should keep in mind to use energy properly with knowing the actual value of energy in today’s society and what could happen without it, otherwise How long really would the lights stay on?
