We are currently locked into a ‘battle of ecosystems.’ where our very existence is requiring one side to win, it simply must, to be more dominant.

This ecosystem battle is between those that are highly vested in the fossil-based energy supply system of today and those that are forcing change into a more renewable reliant energy system as quickly as possible.

We are pushing so much of the principles and theories of ecosystems to the maximum test in the outcomes we wish to achieve, in the energy transition we require.

We are determining our future planet and what defines a healthy ecosystem in a very ad-hoc, self-determining way. The ambitions of so many vested interests need fresh evaluations in any new socio-economic structure. We must bring these two competing energy views into a balance. A balance that allows the planet to return to one where we, as humans, can be more in harmony with all that is around us, in the air we breathe, in sharing this earth in its diversity of resources, living creatures, and what it offers in natural wonder.

To drive change, as we must, in our energy system, we must challenge and reevaluate so many industrial and national policies, to be integrated into a new world order. We must determine who is capable of bringing this new order as I presently can’t see our existing global institutions are equipped or even mandated to enact this. We are failing to manage energy in this ecosystem way.

This energy transition is genuinely an ecosystem of epic proportions.

The energy (eco) system is not impacting many; it is affecting us all; we are all impacted. We do need to recognize that the energy transition, as its end product, electricity, is what we all have become highly dependent upon. Electricity is powering and linking into each of our economies, into our societies. Yet we are facing a stark choice for our earth.

Should we allow energy to continue on its current system, reliant on fossil fuels, old, inadequate energy systems, and infrastructure solutions? Or do we finally recognize, power solutions need to change radically into sources of energy, based more on renewables, that provide cleaner, more naturally sustaining environments based on wind, the sun, and natural conversion of water or the increased use of biomass?

The move towards renewables means a redesign of our energy source and supply systems to combine these different sources of energy; we have the chance to reverse the current crisis our world is facing; of rapid climate warming and significant degradation of the environment.

Of course, there is today a very popular “soundbite” of “we want to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.”  Yet to achieve this does mean we face one of the biggest challenges we will face up to in this century, or perhaps when you to look back, within any century.  This energy transition is as big as it can get. The prize is a return to a planet we can live upon in healthy ways, not one of “affordable energy.”

Ecosystems can evolve naturally, given time, but we presently do not have the luxury of allowing one to develop we much (attempt) to manage this energy transition ecosystem.

The entrenched fossil reliant energy system must migrate towards the clean energy future we urgently require, to allow for our planet to return to a balanced one. If we as humans want to lead healthy lives, we do need this balance this with what this earth offers, to live alongside other creatures, plants, and in what nature provides, and value this completely different. It is not simply trying to extract or be the ultimate judge over parts of the ultimate ecosystem, we need to stop imposing just our needs.

Managing the energy transition is vital to that as it may be essential to our world, but its present byproduct is polluting or poisoning our planet’s environment with significant carbon emissions. We need to provide a more sustainable future for all living things on this one planet of ours in the use of clean energy that does not burden or have an impact on our “living” system.

The Global Energy Transition

Now the energy transition is highly complex, and it is multiple ecosystems interacting and building up. It is embedded as deeply as you can get into the socio-economic system we rely upon. We are facing the most significant challenge where our planet is getting progressively warmer; we see disasters, crises, flooding, droughts, and living conditions that will become highly challenging in the next ten to twenty years for most of us. Our planet is growing increasingly unhealthy, and our reliance on fossil-related energy is causing this.

The enormous impact of fossil fuel-based reliance requires a profound restricting within any future energy system. The new energy system does need to be based on clean energies, or renewables, as we know them. Most of the existing solutions currently being offered to replace existing energy sources are wind and solar solutions; these are expected to replace the fossil-related ones.

Understanding a complete energy transformation requires us to urgently find other solutions, based on the conversion of minerals that might still be carbon-based into new energy solutions as they extract the carbonization. One such solution is hydrogen conversions or carbon capture techniques.

If we are going to complete the energy transition, the future energy systems must be all about “deep decarbonization” solutions must come from new solutions and technological innovation breakthroughs but at a pace of unprecedented speed and scale. To achieve carbon capture at a global level is presently regarded as today’s hunt for a holy grail. Planting trees will only take us so far; we need a technological breakthrough that captures, contains, and reduces carbonization.

Ecosystems have not been as crucial as they are today in our understanding

When you hear or read about people talk of ecosystems, you do need to think about the one that is critical to us all — having a healthy ecosystem that needs to come from this energy transition.

In our original recognitions of ecosystems, the recognition is the reliance on all the dependencies. The natural ecosystem is where our water, air, soil, plants, living creatures are all interlinked, all needed. It is where our sources of energy, minerals, nutrients, water, oxygen, and living organisms are so reliant on the sun, healthy air, and need a balance for a healthy environment. It is one we, as humans, need to put back into a balance if we want to survive.

Today we are witnessing the degradation of this one vital ecosystem we are all utterly dependant upon, our planet.

We are moving towards a crisis due to the over influence we as a human has imposed. We are facing such far-reaching change and well-being, in industrial and rural regions, in the way we live. If we do not tackle our energy system by replacing the current carbon-driven economy we will pay the price of this in providing an environment we will find it increasingly hard to exist in ways we currently know. If we continue to contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, it will not only become unhealthy but for much of our living as we know it.

Does that sound dramatic?

Well, we are really messing with the ultimate ecosystem we have, the world we live in, and it is continuing to move in a very unhealthy direction. Managing the energy transition is critical, believe me, it is one ecosystem that needs global coordination and handling. Achieving this is way beyond selected parties determining their own needs, determined to hold onto their positioning or vested interests, yet that is, actually, the fundamental nature of ecosystems.

It is an ecosystem battle that we, as humans, need to provide the different conditions to bring our planet back into order, as we were the ones who put the world into this crisis in the first place.