Socio-Technical and Cultural Approaches to Energy Consumption: An Introduction

• Author(s): Horta, Ana ; Wilhite, Harold ; Schmidt, Luísa, 1955- ; Bartiaux, Françoise
• Date: 2014
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/11612
• Origin: Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa
• Subject(s): Consumo de energia; Desenvolvimento sustentável
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Energy consumption inconspicuously bridges nature and culture. Modern societies and cultures depend on intensive energy use from the extraction of natural resources. In fact, the industrialization process required large amounts of energy, but main sources such as oil and coal, have been gradually depleted and found to be heavily polluting the environment. Despite their environmental impacts, these resources have provided cheap and abundant power to fuel technological progress and economic growth.