Oil Crisis

Author(s):  
Steven Kettel
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Thomas Borstelmann

This book looks at an iconic decade when the cultural left and economic right came to the fore in American society and the world at large. While many have seen the 1970s as simply a period of failures epitomized by Watergate, inflation, the oil crisis, global unrest, and disillusionment with military efforts in Vietnam, this book creates a new framework for understanding the period and its legacy. It demonstrates how the 1970s increased social inclusiveness and, at the same time, encouraged commitments to the free market and wariness of government. As a result, American culture and much of the rest of the world became more—and less—equal. This book explores how the 1970s forged the contours of contemporary America. Military, political, and economic crises undercut citizens' confidence in government. Free market enthusiasm led to lower taxes, a volunteer army, individual 401(k) retirement plans, free agency in sports, deregulated airlines, and expansions in gambling and pornography. At the same time, the movement for civil rights grew, promoting changes for women, gays, immigrants, and the disabled. And developments were not limited to the United States. Many countries gave up colonial and racial hierarchies to develop a new formal commitment to human rights, while economic deregulation spread to other parts of the world, from Chile and the United Kingdom to China. Placing a tempestuous political culture within a global perspective, this book shows that the decade wrought irrevocable transformations upon American society and the broader world that continue to resonate today.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Nur Huzeima Mohd Hussain ◽  
Hugh Byrd ◽  
Nur Azfahani Ahmad

Globalisation combined with resources of oil and gas has led to an industrial society in Malaysia.  For the past 30 years, rapid urban growth has shifted from 73% rural to 73% urban population. However, the peak oil crisis and economic issues are threatening the growth of urbanisation and influencing the trends of population mobility. This paper documents the beginnings of a reverse migration (urban-to-rural) in Malaysia.  The method adopted case study that involves questionnaires with the urban migrants to establish the desires, definite intentions and reasons for future migration. Based on this data, it predicts a trend and rate of reverse migration in Malaysia. 


Author(s):  
Kathleen Araújo

The world is at a pivotal crossroad in energy choices. There is a strong sense that our use of energy must be more sustainable. Moreover, many also broadly agree that a way must be found to rely increasingly on lower carbon energy sources. However, no single or clear solution exists on the means to carry out such a shift at either a national or international level. Traditional energy planning (when done) has revolved around limited cost projections that often fail to take longer term evidence and interactions of a wider set of factors into account. The good news is that evidence does exist on such change in case studies of different nations shifting toward low-carbon energy approaches. In fact, such shifts can occur quite quickly at times, alongside industrial and societal advance, innovation, and policy learning. These types of insights will be important for informing energy debates and decision-making going forward. Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Turning Points in National Policy and Innovation takes an in-depth look at four energy transitions that have occurred since the global oil crisis of 1973: Brazilian biofuels, Danish wind power, French nuclear power, and Icelandic geothermal energy. With these cases, Dr. Araújo argues that significant nationwide shifts to low-carbon energy can occur in under fifteen years, and that technological complexity is not necessarily a major impediment to such shifts. Dr. Araújo draws on more than five years of research, and interviews with over 120 different scientists, government workers, academics, and members of civil society in completing this study. Low Carbon Energy Transitions is written for for professionals in energy, the environment and policy as well as for students and citizens who are interested in critical decisions about energy sustainability. Technology briefings are provided for each of the major technologies in this book, so that scientific and non-scientific readers can engage in more even discussions about the choices that are involved.


Worldview ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 18 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 36-39
Author(s):  
Saburo Okita

The economy of Southeast Asia has been in relatively good shape in spite of the instability of the world monetary system, trade deficits, and the worldwide oil crisis. There are promising factors for economic growth, opportunities for employment, and possibilities of rising income. But Asian development presents short-and long-term problems of a very complicated nature. One of the most serious problems is inflation and its impact on the social and political programs of individual countries. At the same time, there are severe shortages of basic commodities, such as oil and food. My own country, Japan, is among those affected.


1980 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-49
Author(s):  
G. Jan Hupkes

The early 1970s marked a turning point in mankind's economic fortunes and the author takes 1974 as an 'artificial' vantage point from which to look back, but also forward. Several forces led to the shocks of the seventies: the breaking down in the discipline of the international payments system, rising inflation, the oil crisis, the West's loss of strategic military initiative to the East. The author outlines what ought to be done to improve the economic outlook for the 1980s: The international payments system must be placed on a more stable and disciplined footing, inflation must be controlled by balancing of national budgets, the energy crisis must be contained by reduction of oil consumption via the price mechanism. In South Africa the economic watershed year was 1976; two years later than that of the world economy in general. Since then a policy of strict financial discipline has led to a record surplus in balance of payments, which together with new emphasis on the importance of the free market mechanism and increasing energy self-sufficiency, promises a better economic future for South Africa than for many other countries.Die vroee 1970s was 'n keerpunt in die mensdom se ekonomiese lotgevalle en die skrywer neem 1974 as 'n 'kunsmatige' uitsigpunt vanwaar hy terug kyk, maar ook vorentoe. Verskeie magte het gelei tot die skokke van die sewentigs: die aftakeling van die dissipline van die internasionale betalingstelsel, stygende inflasie, die oliiekrisis, en die Weste se afstand van strategiese militere inisiatief aan die Ooste. Die skrywer dui aan wat gedoen moet word om die ekonomiese vooruitsigte vir die 1980s te verbeter: Die internasionale betalingstelsel moet op 'n meer stabiele en gedissiplineerde grondslag geplaas word, inflasie moet deur die balansering van nasionale begrotings beheer word, die energiekrisis moet via die prysmeganisme deur verminderde olieverbrulk beteuel word. In Suid-Afrika was die ekonomiese waterskeidingsjaar 1976; twee jaar later as die van die wereld-ekonomie in die algemeen. Sedertdien het 'n beleid van streng finansiele dissipline gelei tot 'n rekord surplus op die betalingsbalans, wat saam met nuwe klem op die belangrikheid van die vrye markmeganisme en toenemende energie-selfvoorsiening, 'n bater ekonomiese toekoms vir Suid-Afrika as vir baie ander lande beloof.


1975 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-522
Author(s):  
György Adam

The author argues that the so-called oil crisis may open out a new perspective on development aid to the Third World if the oil-producing countries, instead of allowing the giant Western banks and corporations to make a grab for their petro dollars (as the Western nations had so far made a grab for incredibly cheap oil energy), decide to pool the surplus oil revenues for self-help among the Third World countries. He suggests the setting up of an interregional Third World Bank, which, unlike the existing World Bank group (typecast as the instrument of the rich market economies), would be the instrument of the developing countries, thus breaking the monopoly of the West in international financing.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 24 (11) ◽  
pp. 40-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.B. Schwarz

Magnesium can reversibly store about 7.7 wt% hydrogen, equivalent to more than twice the density of liquid hydrogen. This high storage capacity, coupled with a low price, suggests that magnesium and magnesium alloys could be advantageous for use in battery electrodes and gaseous-hydrogen storage systems. The use of a hydrogen-storage medium based on magnesium, combined with a fuel cell to convert the hydrogen into electrical energy, is an attractive proposition for a clean transportation system. However, the advent of such a system will require further research into magnesium-based alloys that form less stable hydrides and proton-conducting membranes that can raise the operating temperature of the current fuel cells.Following the U.S. oil crisis of 1974, research into alternative energy-storage and distribution systems was vigorously pursued. The controlled oxidation of hydrogen to form water was proposed as a clean energy system, creating a need for light and safe hydrogen-storage media. Extensive research was done on inter-metallic alloys, which can store hydrogen at densities of about 1500 cm3-H2 gas/ cm3-hydride, higher than the storage density achieved in liquid hydrogen (784 cm3/cm3 at –273°C) or in pressure tanks (˜200 cm3/cm3 at 200 atm). The interest in metal hydrides accelerated following the development of portable electronic devices (video cameras, cellular phones, laptop computers, tools, etc.), which created a consumer market for compact, rechargeable batteries. Initially, nickel-cadmium batteries fulfilled this need, but their relatively low energy density and the toxicity of cadmium helped to drive the development of higher-energy-density, less toxic, rechargeable batteries.


2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Harlander

Bioethanol is made from sugar- or starch-containing plants that are also used in food production. In the public perception this has led to an emotional resistance against biofuels, which in real terms is not substantiated. Generally biofuels are a political product. Triggered by the oil crisis in the 1970s, fuel ethanol programmes were first launched in Brazil and in the United States. Concerns regarding energy security and sustainability, together with the option of new markets for surplus agricultural production, have led to similar measures in the EU and other countries in recent years. Accordingly, the industry invested heavily in new bioethanol plants — especially in the US — and created an additional demand for maize and wheat, with some record-breaking prices noted in late 2007. A look back into statistics shows a drastic decline in real prices for decades, which have now simply returned to the level of 30 years ago. The grain used for bioethanol is currently only 1.6% in the EU and is therefore unlikely to be the real driver of price development. The European Commission concludes in its review of agricultural markets that Europe can do both: nutrition and biofuels.


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