{soapbox mode on}
Have you ever thought of what the world would look like without electricians? I argue that an advanced civilization simply cannot exist without you.
Here's why:
It's a reasonable assumption that society needs to be rather urbanised to be efficient and advanced. To build an urban society you need:
1.) "Advanced" house construction, i.e. something more than huts. This was achieved already in the ancient world.
2.) Food supply. This was a major obstacle to city growth prior to the advent of refridgeration. Ancient Rome had about a million inhabitants, and it was only barely possible to supply it with sufficient amounts of food.
3.) Water supply: Without a water and sewage system even a small city cannot exist. This was one of the real engineering wonders of the ancient world. Both the Greeks and the Romans constructed large water pipelines, some of which still stand today.
4.) Electric power: It offers light, communication and mechanical power, all of which are absolutely essential to any city. The lack of electric power was what for centuries blocked development and the emergence of a modern society. You may argue that steam engines, gas lights and similar makeshift arrangements could have been used instead of electricity. However, this would not have allowed the society to develop very far beyond what it was in the mid 19:th century England. Steam engines are gone: obviously they aren't needed to build an advanced civilization. Water pipes and power lines are here to stay: they are a necessary part of any advanced civilization. An invention that does away with the need for water or electricity is extremely unlikely.
What I'm getting at is that society can survive without cars, airplanes and computers, but not without plumbers and electricians. Alongside with that of farming, these trades are the most fundamental of the society.
I have met researchers that have given several reasons why efficient energy sources in general and electric power in particular is of paramount importance. These range from health effects of small scale burning of fuels in e.g. a fireplace to the freeing of workforce as it the small scale collecting of fire wood is no longer necessary.
The following article from the OECD Observer offers another and rather depressing perspective on electrification:
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The fact that 1.6 billion people in the world have no electricity and 2.4 billion rely on primitive biomass (wood, agricultural residues, dung) for power may be shocking, but what is worse is that without radical new policies, the figures will be virtually the same 30 years from now. That is one message of the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook and “this is not a sustainable future,” says IEA executive director Robert Priddle. Although access to electricity is spreading, it is not growing as fast as the world population, and on current trends 1.4 billion people will still be without electricity in 2030, the World Energy Outlook says. And because electricity is relatively expensive when it does arrive, people do not simply substitute it for biomass sources of energy. Many homes in developing countries use electricity only for light and still use wood and other biomass products for cooking and heating. As a result, on current trends the number of people reliant on biomass is expected to rise to 2.6 billion in the next 30 years, at significant cost to human health and the environment because of smoke pollution and reduction of natural biomass resources.
[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 01-24-2003).]
