Author: Bülent GÜRAKIN / Greenginnovation Co. Manager
We need to give up our efforts to heat or cool the atmosphere quickly. Because that’s not possible. If insisting on the ecological consequences of insisting on this endeavor cannot tell us anything in recent years, we have to be prepared for new and more destructive experiences. Another dimension of this insistence is experienced in the sociological sense. But for now, no one knows. The rapid population growth especially in developing countries brings interesting sociological phenomena with these countries because of their economic weakness. Technology that creates high added value, financial resources, trained and manpower with above-average socio-economic opportunities are the concepts that balance the population in general and economic data define healthy countries. On the contrary, the concepts such as low value-added, low labor-based use of technology, insufficient financial resources, very rapid population growth and the low standard of living that it brings, on the contrary, define unhealthy countries.
As a result, while the economically viable and well-balanced population has the opportunity to pay for comfort in money and experience all kinds of vital comfort (which constitutes a very small proportion of the world’s total population), the other gigantic group is only able to watch this comfortable life remotely and to a much lower standard. life sustain falls.
As in all spheres of life, energy consumption, which has become the biggest problem, is the same. Even on a global scale, despite the high energy consumption of the economically strong sector mentioned above, this consumption is stable and balanced. In other words, this group, whose population is in equilibrium (even decreasing), is able to pay for heating, cooling, personal and industrial, and how much energy they need and can consume this energy with pleasure. However, when the statistics are examined, it is observed that the energy demand of this group does not show traumatic increases and is stable. It is also seen that this group is much more sensitive about the production stages of energy than other sectors and rapidly converts production resources to sustainable and renewable sources.
In this ongoing system, this picture has been sustained until the last years and production and consumption have been balanced with increasing energy supply. But the enormous increase in production brings with it the environmental collapse that the world does not really dare to confront, and its return is extremely difficult. Plastic and industrial wastes that cannot be destroyed and reached enormous dimensions, carbon emissions that negatively affect the climate emitted by energy production show that this picture is not sustainable.
So far, scientific figures showed us something, told. Environmental disasters continue to explain. But the real problem starts now. If the whole world does not take the necessary lessons from these experiences and does not take precautions very quickly, all the environmental disasters and scenarios will remain as a trailer of a certain film and we will experience these disasters as a whole humanity and experience them together.
Let us try to explain the above depressing picture and the inevitable scenario awaiting us in scientific figures:
“Outlook for Energy” is a report in which ExxonMobil evaluates its energy supply and demand expectations by 2040. (https://www.dunyaenerji.org.tr/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ExxonMobil.pdf) The full report can be found at this link.
The report examined the factors affecting this process in the energy sector, which is undergoing a radical change process, while keeping the Paris Climate Agreement, the national declarations of contribution (NDCs) made by the governments and the efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions targeted by these initiatives at the center of the report.
In the following sections of the report it is particularly noteworthy that the following depressing picture thoroughly obscures the following:
Global energy demand will increase by 25% due to the influence of non-OECD countries.
By 2030, the global middle class will grow by 80% to reach a population of 5 billion, and the improvement in living standards that will accompany this growth in developing economies will lead to dramatic increases in energy consumption in these countries. Economic growth in these countries, with the expansion of the middle class will cause more people to personal vehicles, air conditioning and so on. and the economic growth in energy demand.
The expected 40% increase in energy demand in non-OECD countries will continue to push up global energy demand despite the successful steps taken in energy efficiency.
ble energy resources will have to be used.
When the report is examined in its entirety, it is necessary to bear in mind that this report is a report of a large energy company that has made tremendous gains from this sector, although it is stated in the following chapters that the worrying picture put forward in the first article may be subject to some improvements and optimistic predictions.
In this report, the part that should be emphasized and which will become a problem in the near future is the section quoted above.
Environmental disasters are not things that can be avoided by paying the economic power. So there is a huge problem that needs to be solved urgently in terms of this segment.
So what can be done ..?
At first glance, the two most practical answers to this question come to mind;
1 – We can consume less energy.
The uncontrolled population growth, the vital expectations of this population, and the rapid spread of incredible energy-consuming technology globally make this substance unappealable.
2 – We can use the energy we consume efficiently.
This is the most rational solution that will not obstruct, restrict or restrict all segments, and that each segment will be able to do it voluntarily and as a result will provide financial gain. Rational and standardized design of the buildings to be produced, rehabilitation of the buildings that were produced in the past in terms of isolation, creation of a global standard and implementation of incentives to implement and encourage it, voluntary financing of these works, raising awareness in the global sense and education. It is possible to reduce the consumed energy with very serious dimensions. The main problem here is whether global capital can give up some of its huge profits from the excessive consumption in the energy sector.
Considering that global disasters behave equally to every segment without questioning the economic power of anyone, it seems inevitable that all parties will eventually come to the same line.
Here, as a company, it is the right approach to approach the problem from a narrower window, in terms of the material we are working on.
Considering that almost 1/3 of the energy produced in our country and in the world is used in the heating and cooling of buildings and 95% of the buildings in our country are uninsulated, the importance and reason of our project which you can examine the details on our website (www.greenginnovation.com) emerges automatically. Because our country consumes a large portion of the energy consumed by being dependent on the external budget and allocating a significant share from the general budget to the oil and natural gas required for the production of this energy. Another important issue in this respect is the use of polystyrene, polyurethane, etc., which are currently used substantially in the field of insulation. the raw material of the materials is also petroleum. And, unfortunately, our country is also dependent on this issue.
In addition to economic reasons, another reason that will come to the forefront in the near future is the environmental issue. In our rapidly developing country, energy consumption is increasing in parallel. In order to meet this increasing energy demand, the physical damages caused by the energy production facilities such as thermal power plants, hydro power plants and geo thermal power plants, which are newly created and to be created, and especially the carbon emission released by thermal power plants to the atmosphere constitute a serious threat to the environment.
Apart from our country, the situation is not different on a global scale. Although huge technological and scientific steps have been taken, the lack of a new material that contains all the components demanded by the market in the insulation deepens this problem and makes life threatening in terms of ecological balance.
In addition, the enormous amount of waste generated by the transformation of global industrial production into consumption produced from petroleum-based synthetics in almost all sectors seriously threatens the ecological balance. In particular, the fact that petroleum-based wastes are extremely resistant to extinction in nature and become toxic in this process makes the development of new alternatives inevitable. This is no different in the field of insulation materials.
Thanks to the new construction technologies that are created by using our material and will be created in the future, insulation and construction materials that can be produced much lighter, more stylish, economical, consuming less energy, very low carbon footprint, waste, production of which does not create any harm in terms of environment can be produced. our materials and and comfortable buildings, structures can be produced. In this way, much more comfortable, low cost, stylish and nature-compatible buildings, cities can be built. Our material and similar materials to be developed can be used alternatively in many other fields of industry.
As we mentioned at the beginning of our article, when natural disasters are coming, they do not ask any questions such as address, location, age, gender, economic situation and they cover every segment without saying rich or poor. Since we cannot escape these disasters, what is to be done is very simple. If we cannot avoid this; we can prevent them by trying together…