GEOGRAPHY OF ENERGY. A WORLD IN TRANSITION

Abstract

Geography and energy are two major scientific fields. From one side Geography is the science which answers fundamental questions of spatial behavior of all environmental and human phenomenon and from the other side energy is actually the «fuel» of economic and social development for many countries and regions especially after industrial revolution. In today’s world energy came to be one of the major fields of development, success or even conflict between countries and societies. The division of energy producers and energy suppliers and the world with access to energy or not came to be one of the major problems of world nations. During the last decades’ geography of energy is a result of the tiny mix of geography and energy science. Tiny, because of the very few publications in the field although it is seriously accelerating during the 21st century. It is only after 1961, when the discussion about the role of geographers in the field of energy and the answers to common geographic questions like patterns and spatial understanding of the production, distribution and needs of energy came up to the foreground. It is true that the world face fundamental changes in the patterns of energy production, distribution and use. International and national policies of the countries are driving energy transitions from «conventional» to «unconventional» fossil fuels (Farrell and Brandt, 2006; Greene et al., 2006) and from non-renewable to renewable energy resources (REN21, 2012). These changes follow a pattern behavior and a spatial analysis of the phenomenon is seriously needed. In this paper the transition of energy forms and the spatial behavior of energy production and needs are discussed. The future of an -energy driven- world sets the background for new tools of analysis of the demand for energy from human race. A theoretical background of the field of geography of energy is also given.