Cashless society

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashless_society 

A consumer pays for coffee using the Apple Pay app on their phone and a Square reader.

In a cashless society, financial transactions are not conducted with physical banknotes or coins, but instead with digital information (usually an electronic representation of money). Cashless societies have existed from the time when human society came into existence, based on barter and other methods of exchange, and cashless transactions have also become possible in modern times using credit cards, debit cards, mobile payments, and digital currencies such as bitcoin. However this article discusses and focuses on the term "cashless society" in the sense of a move towards, and implications of, a society where cash is replaced by its digital equivalent—in other words, legal tender (money) exists, is recorded, and is exchanged only in electronic digital form.

Such a concept has been discussed widely, particularly because the world is experiencing a rapid and increasing use of digital methods of recording, managing, and exchanging money in commerce, investment and daily life in many parts of the world, and transactions which would historically have been undertaken with cash are often now undertaken electronically. Some countries now set limits on transactions and transaction values for which non-electronic payment may be legally used.

History

The trend towards the use of non-cash transactions and settlement in daily life began during the 1990s when electronic banking became common. By the 2010s digital payment methods were widespread in many countries, with examples including intermediaries such as PayPal, digital wallet systems such as Apple Pay, contactless and NFC payments by electronic card or smartphone, and electronic bills and banking, all in widespread use. At this point cash had become actively disfavored in some kinds of transaction which would historically have been very ordinary to pay with physical tender, and larger cash amounts were in some situations treated with suspicion, due to its versatility and ease of use in money laundering and financing of terrorism. Additionally, payment with a large amount of cash has been actively prohibited by some suppliers and retailers, to the point of coining the expression of a "war on cash". The 2016 United States User Consumer Survey Study claims that 75% of respondents preferred a credit or debit card as their payment method while only 11% of respondents preferred cash. Since the founding of both companies in 2009, digital payments can now be made by methods such as Venmo and Square. Venmo allows individuals to make direct payments to other individuals without having cash accessible. Square is an innovation that allows primarily small businesses to receive payments from their clients.

By 2016, only about 2% of the value transacted in Sweden was by cash, and only about 20% of retail transactions were in cash. Fewer than half of bank branches in the country conducted cash transactions. The move away from cash is attributed to banks convincing employers to use direct deposit in the 1960s, banks charging for checks starting in the 1990s, banks launching the convenient Swish smartphone-to-phone payment system in 2012, and the launch of iZettle for small merchants to accept credit cards in 2011.

Research

Among the first sociological studies about cashless societies, see Aldo Haesler, Sociologie de l'argent et postmodernité, Geneva & Paris 1995.

Measurement

Share of payments

Estimated share of payments done by cashless methods (from studies published 2008–2013)

Country	%
Singapore	61
Netherlands	60
France	59
Sweden	59
Canada	57
Belgium	56
the United Kingdom	52
United States	45
Australia	35
Germany	33
South Korea	29
Spain	16
Brazil	15
Japan	14
China	10
UAE	8
Taiwan	6
Italy	6
South Africa	6
Poland	5
Russia	4
Mexico	4
Greece	2
Colombia	2
India	2
Kenya	2
Thailand	2
Malaysia	2
Saudi Arabia	1
Peru	1
Egypt	1
Indonesia	0
Nigeria	0

A common measure of how close to a "cashless society" a country is becoming is some measure of the number of cashless payments or person to person transactions are done in that country. For instance, the Nordic countries conduct more cashless transactions than most other Europeans. Levels of cash in circulation can widely differ among two countries with a similar measure of cashless transactions.

Across the 33 countries covered in the European Payment Cards Yearbook 2015–16, the average number of card payments per capita per year is 88.4. In comparison, the average Dane makes 268.6 card payments each year, the average Finn 243.6, the average Icelander 375.5, the average Norwegian 353.7, and the average Swede 270.2. This makes card payments in the Nordics two-and-a-half to four times higher than the European average.

— Euromonitor International

Amount of cash in circulation

Even though a cashless society is widely discussed, most countries are increasing their currency supply. Exceptions are South Africa whose supply of banknotes fluctuates wildly compared to most nations, and Sweden which has significantly reduced its currency supply since 2007. China's currency has decreased from 2017 to 2018.

Banknotes and coins in circulation at end of 2018

Value per inhabitant (USD)	Code	Exchange rate EOY2018	Value per inhabitant (local currency)	Country or region
$10,194	CH	0.9842	10,033	Switzerland
$8,471	HK	7.8319	66,346	Hong Kong SAR
$8,290	JP	109.9127	911,000	Japan
$6,378	SG	1.3617	8,684	Singapore
$5,238	US	1.0000	5,238	United States
$4,230	XM	0.8734	3,695	Euro area
$2,404	AU	1.4166	3,405	Australia
$2,003	KR	1,116.0961	2,236,000	Korea
$1,924	CA	1.3629	2,623	Canada
$1,683	SA	3.7500	6,311	Saudi Arabia
$1,417	GB	0.7813	1,107	United Kingdom
$1,009	RU	69.6203	70,234	Russia
$825	CN	6.8778	5,672	China
$682	SE	8.9562	6,111	Sweden
$680	MX	19.6438	13,365	Mexico
$513	AR	37.6680	19,318	Argentina
$327	BR	3.8812	1,271	Brazil
$311	TR	5.2915	1,646	Turkey
$230	IN	69.6330	16,042	India
$205	ZA	14.3750	2,945	South Africa
$196	ID	14,410.4803	2,827,000	Indonesia

Amount of cash in circulation (historical)

The amount of cash in circulation was much lower in past decades in all countries except Sweden. The oldest comparative figures at Bank for International Settlements were from 1978 and only including the USD and 10 other currencies.

Banknotes and coins in circulation per inhabitant in USD at exchange rate

Country	2018	2008	1998	1988	1978	2018/1978	annual
Switzerland	$10,194	$6,371	$3,065	$2,688	$2,008	5.08	4.15%
Japan	$8,290	$7,436	$3,728	$2,275	$724	11.45	6.28%
United States	$5,238	$2,927	$1,679	$870	$428	12.24	6.46%
Germany	$4,230	$3,324	$1,759	$1,300	$680	6.22	4.68%
Belgium	$4,230	$3,324	$1,244	$1,127	$1,229	3.44	3.14%
France	$4,230	$3,324	$804	$700	$605	6.99	4.98%
Italy	$4,230	$3,324	$1,205	$747	$394	10.74	6.11%
Netherlands	$4,230	$3,324	$1,272	$1,189	$679	6.23	4.68%
Canada	$1,924	$1,444	$685	$554	$320	6.01	4.59%
United Kingdom	$1,417	$1,168	$726	$470	$326	4.35	3.74%
Sweden	$682	$1,553	$1,082	$1,063	$772	0.88	-0.31%

Legal status

United States

Under a Massachusetts law dating back to 1978, no retailer may "discriminate against a cash buyer by requiring the use of credit". It was the only U.S. state to have such a law until March 2019, when New Jersey passed similar legislation; car rentals, parking garages, and airport stores have exceptions under the legislation. The bill came shortly after the city of Philadelphia passed a similar law. San Francisco has also banned cashless stores. Similarly, Rhode Island became the third U.S. state to outlaw cashless businesses when its ban took effect on 1 July 2019. A requirement in New York City that businesses accept cash took effect on 19 November 2020. A similar law was enacted in the District of Columbia in December 2020.

Advantages of a cashless society

Reduced business risks and costs

Cashless payments eliminate several risks, including counterfeit money (though stolen cards are still a risk), theft of cash by employees, miscounting of change, and burglary or robbery of cash. The costs of physical security, physically processing cash (withdrawing from the bank, transporting, counting) are also reduced once a business goes completely cashless, as is the risk that the business will not have enough cash on hand to make the change. Cashless payments are also known to be more efficient and safer compared to cash payments, and they can always be traced back afterwards as well.

Reducing transmittal of disease via cash

Cash provides a good home for disease-causing organisms (i.e. Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella species, Escherichia coli, COVID-19, etc.). However, cash has been found to be less likely to transmit disease than commonly touched items such as credit card terminals and pinpads. Such concerns prompted the German central bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, to state that "Cash poses no particular risk of infection for public".

Transaction speed

Restaurant chain Sweetgreen found cashless locations (with customers using payment cards or the chain's mobile app) could process transactions 15% faster.

Elimination of high-denomination notes for purposes of reducing criminal activity

One significant societal advantage cited by proponents is the difficulty of money laundering, tax evasion, performing illegal transactions, and funding illegal activity in a cashless society. Many countries have regulated, restricted, or banned private digital currencies such as Bitcoin, partly to prevent illegal transactions. Large amounts of value can also be stored in real estate, antiques, or commodities like diamonds, gold, silver, and platinum.

Some have proposed a "reduced cash" system, where small bills and coins are available for anonymous, everyday transactions, but high-denomination notes are eliminated. This would make the amount of cash needed to move large amounts of value physically awkward and easier to detect. Large notes are also the most valuable to counterfeit. The United Kingdom declared only banknotes of £5 or less were legal tender near the end of World War II on 16 April 1945 due to fear of Nazi counterfeiting, although a £5 note then had the purchasing power of £217.22 in 2020, over four times larger than the current largest note of £50. On 14 July 1969, the federal government of the United States declared that banknotes of over $100 in value would remain legal tender, but any notes in government hands would be destroyed and that no new notes of those denominations would be printed in the future, although such notes were last printed in 1945, 24 years earlier. Canada did the same thing with the CAD$1000 banknote beginning on 12 May 2000. Sweden printed 10,000kr banknotes in 1939 and 1958, but declared them invalid after 31 December 1991. Singapore announced on 2 July 2014, that they would no longer produce the SGD$10,000 banknote, and it was no longer issued as of 1 October 2014. The European Central Bank no longer issues the €500 denomination euro banknotes as of 27 April 2019.

Better collection of economic data

Rather than conducting "costly and periodic" surveys and sampling of real-world transactions, "real data" collected on citizens' spending can assist in devising and implementing policies that are deduced from actual data. With recorded financial transactions, the government can better track the movement of the money through financial records which enables them to track the black money and illegal transactions taking place in the country.

Easier consumer budgeting

As digital payments are made, transactions are kept in records. Cashless payments facilitate the tracking of spending expenditure and record the movement of money. Having recorded transactions, it can help citizens to refine their budget more efficiently because people can see their recorded transactions in their bank account and know where their ingoings and outgoings are occurring.

Concerns

Lack of privacy

In a digitized economy, payment made will be recorded digitally (cash payments are also typically recorded). With digitally-recorded transactions, certain institutions such as the seller may have potential access to this information (though the record is likely to be anonymous to the seller). Such transactions could allow businesses a way to build an understanding of their customers based on observed spending patterns.

The issue of data mining also comes into place as countries head towards a cashless society. Cashless transactions leave a record in the database of the company as one makes a payment, and this information becomes a way for the prediction of future events. Through a large number of records, data mining then allows the organization to compile a profile of an individual through its records in the database.

Going all-digital, these data retrieved from transactions lead to widespread surveillance where individuals can be tracked by both corporations and the government. These records might also be available to hackers and could be made public after a data breach.

Problems for the unbanked

Cashless systems can be problematic for people who currently rely on cash, who are concentrated in certain populations such as the poor, disabled, elderly, undocumented immigrants, and youth. Electronic transactions require a deposit account (in a bank or other deposit-taking financial institution) and some familiarity with the payment system. Many people in impoverished areas are underbanked or unbanked. In the United States, almost one-third of the population lacked the full range of basic financial services in 2012. In 2011, an FDIC survey found that approximately one-quarter of households whose annual income was less than $15,000 had no bank account. Nationwide, 7.7% of people in United States did not have bank accounts, with levels over 20% in some cities and rural counties, and over 40% in some census tracts, as of 2016.

As part of its Smart Nation initiative, Singapore has been moving towards a cashless economy. In 2017, 14.4% of the country's population was over 65 years old, and the majority of seniors still used cash as their only method of payment. Not used to digital payment methods, troubleshooting issues such as managing lost cards or passwords and managing their expenses can create potential trouble for anyone transitioning from cash.

Digital fraud

When payment transactions are stored in servers, it increases the risks of unauthorized breaches by hackers. Financial cyber attacks and digital crime also form a greater risks when going cashless. Many companies already suffer data breaches, including of payment systems. Electronic accounts are vulnerable to unauthorized access and transfer of funds to another account or unauthorized purchases.

Attacks on or accidental outages of telecommunication infrastructure also prevent electronic payments from working, unlike cash transactions which can continue with minimal infrastructure.

Centralized control

Opponents point out that an entirely cashless system, in addition to tracking all transactions, would enable a central government to:

• Enforce a transaction tax on every person-to-person payment
• Eliminate the storage of cash as a means to escape nominal negative interest rates, which are used to fight deflation by discouraging savings (most effective if combined with bans on barter, private currencies like bitcoin, and storage of precious metals like gold). Certain types of money could be set to "expire" and be worthless if not spent in specific ways or by specific times. This is also possible with cash, if the government allows high inflation or lets its currency undergo a devaluation.
• Totalitarian regimes could conduct more effective mass surveillance and quickly prevent certain individuals from buying anything or earning any money
• Restrict the type of consumer goods that can be purchased with a certain amount of money (and parents might be able to do the same with allowance money)

Criticism in Sweden

Sweden is one of the best examples of the results of efforts to create a cashless society. Sweden is exceptional in that the amount of cash in circulation has reduced substantially. Swedish society changed profoundly from 2000 to 2017 due to attempts to replace all cash with digital payment methods. The concept of cash-free bank branches began in Sweden between 2000 and 2005, with a cashless branch being a step towards an upcoming closure of that branch. From around 2008, Swedish banks began giving special hardware to their customers that could be used to process financial transactions (like digital payments of invoices) from home. People still had the choice to use cash, however, and those who so wished could still do business in cash at the bank offices that remained.

This trend began around 2008, and peaked in connection with the 2015–17 exchange of all Swedish coins and banknotes (except for the 10 kronor coin). According to the banks' head offices, cash was no longer required as withdrawals and deposits were possible (in limited amounts) through machines. But for "safety regulations", the maximum amount a bank customer could withdraw was about 5,000 to 10,000 SEK per week, and similar "security rules" for deposits were established as well. Later, all the major regular banks with branches began an enforced process of either closing down branches or making them "cash-free". Today very few cash handling bank branches still exist.

The limited availability of cash in Sweden has caused difficulties for smaller boutiques, shops, and convenience stores, which depend on cash, as they can no longer deposit their daily takings or obtain any change. Non-profit organisations, which are very common in Sweden, have also experienced an outsized impact. In response, Swedish banks have introduced a mobile telephone payment system known as Swish. But this system has suffered from many problems.

The banks (and initially media as well) have dismissed complaints about the change as "a problem for elderly people" only, essentially claiming that some were only struggling to learn new technology, rather than being unhappy with a totally new transaction method. Opponents of the change, however, contend that the technological excitement has changed too much too fast, saying that many dangers lurk in the reeds. Concerns have been expressed about a rising number of fraudulent transactions, and the fast development of quantum computers contributes to fears of hacking within the system. The debate about a cashless Sweden became more complicated when the Swedish authority Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap—MSB or "the Authority for Community Protection and Preparedness" in their writing "Om Kriget Eller Krisen Kommer" ("If war or crisis comes") contained a list of items to store permanently at home to be prepared, which includes "cash in small denominations". A wave of negative criticism followed in Sweden from experts outside the banking sphere expressing their concerns.

The former head of police, Björn Eriksson, started a movement in the spring of 2016 known as Kontantupproret or "The Cash Petition". This movement has quickly grown to a considerable size, with many contributors describing troubles caused by the increasingly hostile attitude expressed by banks against cash. The range of complaints covers a wide variety of issues. For instance, the well-known TV3 figure Robert Aschberg got mad after having paid at a chemist with the Swish system via his mobile phone, because he almost immediately received an advertisement from the same pharmacy, raising privacy concerns. Svante Linusson, professor of mathematics, claims that "the liquidation of cash is slowly destroying our democracy". A billiard club in Malmö was almost forced to close after their bank of 20 years refused to acknowledge them as a customer after the billiard club refused any other payments but cash (the bank claimed that the cash is not traceable in their crime investigation activities). A traditional summer market in northern Lycksele went into bankruptcy after a computer error. Because people had been required to pay with phones (Swish) and cards, there was not enough money available for them to conduct business in their market.

In general new money laundry laws require evidence of sources for higher amounts of cash. The banks in Sweden blame EU laws, but the EU laws allow transactions of below €15,000, while Swedish banks require evidence and can refuse to accept or confiscate cash without lower limit and have high requirements of documentation.

Renewable heat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_heat

Renewable heat is an application of renewable energy referring to the generation of heat from renewable sources; for example, feeding radiators with water warmed by focused solar radiation rather than by a fossil fuel boiler. Renewable heat technologies include renewable biofuels, solar heating, geothermal heating, heat pumps and heat exchangers. Insulation is almost always an important factor in how renewable heating is implemented.

Many colder countries consume more energy for heating than for supplying electricity. For example, in 2005 the United Kingdom consumed 354 TWh of electric power, but had a heat requirement of 907 TWh, the majority of which (81%) was met using gas. The residential sector alone consumed 550 TWh of energy for heating, mainly derived from methane. Almost half of the final energy consumed in the UK (49%) was in the form of heat, of which 70% was used by households and in commercial and public buildings. Households used heat mainly for space heating (69%).

The relative competitiveness of renewable electricity and renewable heat depends on a nation's approach to energy and environment policy. In some countries renewable heat is hindered by subsidies for fossil fuelled heat. In those countries, such as Sweden, Denmark and Finland, where government intervention has been closest to a technology-neutral form of carbon valuation (i.e. carbon and energy taxes), renewable heat has played the leading role in a very substantial renewable contribution to final energy consumption. In those countries, such as Germany, Spain, the US, and the UK, where government intervention has been set at different levels for different technologies, uses and scales, the contributions of renewable heat and renewable electricity technologies have depended on the relative levels of support, and have resulted generally in a lower renewable contribution to final energy consumption.

Leading renewable heat technologies

Solar heating

Solar heating is a style of building construction which uses the energy of summer or winter sunshine to provide an economic supply of primary or supplementary heat to a structure. The heat can be used for both space heating (see solar air heat) and water heating (see solar hot water). Solar heating design is divided into two groups:

• Passive solar heating relies on the design and structure of the house to collect heat. Passive solar building design must also consider the storage and distribution of heat, which may be accomplished passively, or use air ducting to draw heat actively to the foundation of the building for storage. One such design was measured lifting the temperature of a house to 24 °C (75 °F) on a partially sunny winter day (-7 °C or 19 °F), and it is claimed that the system provides passively for the bulk of the building's heating. The 4,000-square-foot (370 m²) home cost $125 per square foot (or 370 m² at $1,351/m²), similar to the cost of a traditional new home.
• Active solar heating uses pumps to move air or a liquid from the solar collector into the building or storage area. Applications such as solar air heating and solar water heating typically capture solar heat in panels which can then be used for applications such as space heating and supplementation of residential water heaters. In contrast to photovoltaic panels, which are used to generate electricity, solar heating panels are less expensive and capture a much higher proportion of the sun's energy.

Solar heating systems usually require a small supplementary backup heating system, either conventional or renewable.

Geothermal heating

Hot Springs located in Nevada.

Geothermal energy is accessed by drilling water or steam wells in a process similar to drilling for oil. Geothermal energy is an enormous, underused heat and power resource that is clean (emits little or no greenhouse gases), reliable (average system availability of 95%), and homegrown (making populations less dependent on oil).

The earth absorbs the sun's energy and stores it as heat in the oceans and underground. The ground temperature remains constant at a point of 42 to 100 °F (6 to 38 °C) all year round depending on where you live on earth. A geothermal heating system takes advantage of the consistent temperature found below the Earth's surface and uses it to heat and cool buildings. The system is made up of a series of pipes installed underground, connected to pipes in a building. A pump circulates liquid through the circuit. In the winter the fluid in the pipe absorbs the heat of the earth and uses it to heat the building. In the summer the fluid absorbs heat from the building and disposes of it in the earth.

Heat pumps

Heat pumps use work to move heat from one place to another, and can be used for both heating and air conditioning. Though capital intensive, heat pumps are economical to run and can be powered by renewable electricity. Two common types of heat pump are air source heat pumps (ASHP) and ground-source heat pumps (GSHP), depending on whether heat is transferred from the air or from the ground. Air source heat pumps are not effective when the outside air temperature is lower than about -15 °C, while ground-source heat pumps are not affected. The efficiency of a heat pump is measured by the coefficient of performance (CoP): For every unit of electricity used to pump the heat, an air source heat pump generates 2.5 to 3 units of heat (i.e. it has a CoP of 2.5 to 3), whereas a GSHP generates 3 to 3.5 units of heat. Based on current fuel prices for the United Kingdom, assuming a CoP of 3–4, a GSHP is sometimes a cheaper form of space heating than electric, oil, and solid fuel heating. Heat pumps can be linked to an interseasonal thermal energy storage (hot or cold), doubling the CoP from 4 to 8 by extracting heat from warmer ground.

Interseasonal heat transfer

Main article: Seasonal thermal energy storage

A heat pump with Interseasonal Heat Transfer combines active solar collection to store surplus summer heat in thermal banks with ground-source heat pumps to extract it for space heating in winter. This reduces the "Lift" needed and doubles the CoP of the heat pump because the pump starts with warmth from the thermal bank in place of cold from the ground.

CoP and lift

A heat pump CoP increases as the temperature difference, or "Lift", decreases between heat source and destination. The CoP can be maximized at design time by choosing a heating system requiring only a low final water temperature (e.g., underfloor heating), and by choosing a heat source with a high average temperature (e.g., the ground). Domestic hot water (DHW) and conventional radiators require high water temperatures, affecting the choice of heat pump technology. Low temperature radiators provide an alternative to conventional radiators.

Pump type and source	Typical use case	Heat Pump CoP variation with Output Temperature
		35 °C (e.g. heated screed floor)	45 °C (e.g. low temp. radiator or heated screed floor)	55 °C (e.g. low temp. radiator or heated timber floor)	65 °C (e.g. std. radiator or DHW)	75 °C (e.g. std. radiator & DHW)	85 °C (e.g. std. radiator & DHW)
High Efficiency ASHP air at -20 °C		2.2	2.0	-	-	-	-
Two Stage ASHP air at -20 °C	Low source temp.	2.4	2.2	1.9	-	-	-
High Efficiency ASHP air at 0 °C	Low output temp.	3.8	2.8	2.2	2.0	-	-
Prototype Transcritical CO 2 (R744) Heat Pump with Tripartite Gas Cooler, source at 0 °C	High output temp.	3.3	-	-	4.2	-	3.0
GSHP water at 0 °C		5.0	3.7	2.9	2.4	-	-
GSHP ground at 10 °C	Low output temp.	7.2	5.0	3.7	2.9	2.4	-
Theoretical Carnot cycle limit, source -20 °C		5.6	4.9	4.4	4.0	3.7	3.4
Theoretical Carnot cycle limit, source 0 °C		8.8	7.1	6.0	5.2	4.6	4.2
Theoretical Lorentz Cycle limit (CO 2 pump), return fluid 25 °C, source 0 °C		10.1	8.8	7.9	7.1	6.5	6.1
Theoretical Carnot cycle limit, source 10 °C		12.3	9.1	7.3	6.1	5.4	4.8

Resistive electrical heating

Renewable electricity can be generated by hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal and by burning biomass. In a few countries where renewable electricity is inexpensive, resistance heating is common. In countries like Denmark where electricity is expensive, it is not permitted to install electric heating as the main heat source. Wind turbines have more output at night when there is a small demand for electricity, storage heaters consume this lower cost electricity at night and give off heat during the day.

Wood-pellet heating

Wood Stove.

 

Wood Pellets.

Wood-pellet heating and other types of wood heating systems have achieved their greatest success in heating premises that are off the gas grid, typically being previously heated using heating oil or coal. Solid wood fuel requires a large amount of dedicated storage space, and the specialized heating systems can be expensive (though grant schemes are available in many European countries to offset this capital cost.) Low fuel costs mean that wood fuelled heating in Europe is frequently able to achieve a payback period of less than 3 to 5 years. Because of the large fuel storage requirement wood fuel can be less attractive in urban residential scenarios, or for premises connected to the gas grid (though rising gas prices and uncertainty of supply mean that wood fuel is becoming more competitive.) There is also growing concern over the air pollution from wood heating versus oil or gas heat, especially the fine particulates.

Wood-stove heating

Burning wood fuel in an open fire is both extremely inefficient (0-20%) and polluting due to low temperature partial combustion. In the same way that a drafty building loses heat through loss of warm air through poor sealing, an open fire is responsible for large heat losses by drawing very large volumes of warm air out of the building.

Modern wood stove designs allow for more efficient combustion and then heat extraction. In the United States, new wood stoves are certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and burn cleaner and more efficiently (the overall efficiency is 60-80%) and draw smaller volumes of warm air from the building.

"Cleaner" should not, however, be confused with clean. An Australian study of real-life emissions from woodheaters satisfying the current Australian standard, found that particle emissions averaged 9.4 g/kg wood burned (range 2.6 to 21.7). A heater with average wood consumption of 4 tonnes per year therefore emits 37.6 kg of PM2.5, i.e. particles less than 2.5 micrometers. This can be compared with a passenger car satisfying the current Euro 5 standards (introduced September 2009) of 0.005 g/km. So one new wood heater emits as much PM2.5 per year as 367 passenger cars each driving 20,000 km a year. A recent European study identified PM2.5 as the most health-hazardous air pollutant, causing an estimated 492,000 premature deaths. The next worst pollutant, ozone, is responsible for 21,000 premature deaths.

Because of the problems with pollution, the Australian Lung Foundation recommends using alternative means for climate control. The American Lung Association "strongly recommends using cleaner, less toxic sources of heat. Converting a wood-burning fireplace or stove to use either natural gas or propane will eliminate exposure to the dangerous toxins wood burning generates including dioxin, arsenic and formaldehyde.

"Renewable" should not be confused with "greenhouse neutral". A recent peer-reviewed paper found that, even if burning firewood from a sustainable supply, methane emissions from a typical Australian wood heater satisfying the current standard cause more global warming than heating the same house with gas. However, because a large proportion of firewood sold in Australia is not from sustainable supplies, Australian households that use wood heating often cause more global warming than heating three similar homes with gas.

High efficiency stoves should meet the following design criteria:

• Well sealed and precisely calibrated to draw a low yet sufficient volume of air. Air-flow restriction is critical; a lower inflow of cold air cools the furnace less (a higher temperature is thus achieved). It also allows greater time for extraction of heat from the exhaust gas, and draws less heat from the building.
• The furnace must be well insulated to increase combustion temperature, and thus completeness.
• A well insulated furnace radiates little heat. Thus heat must be extracted instead from the exhaust gas duct. Heat absorption efficiencies are higher when the heat-exchange duct is longer, and when the flow of exhaust gas is slower.
• In many designs, the heat-exchange duct is built of a very large mass of heat-absorbing brick or stone. This design causes the absorbed heat to be emitted over a longer period - typically a day.

Renewable natural gas

Renewable natural gas is defined as gas obtained from biomass which is upgraded to a quality similar to natural gas. By upgrading the quality to that of natural gas, it becomes possible to distribute the gas to customers via the existing gas grid. According to the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, renewable natural gas is 'cheaper than alternatives where biomass is used in a combined heat and power plant or local combustion plant'. Energy unit costs are lowered through 'favourable scale and operating hours', and end-user capital costs eliminated through distribution via the existing gas grid.

Energy efficiency

Renewable heat goes hand in hand with energy efficiency. Indeed, renewable heating projects depend heavily for their success on energy efficiency; in the case of solar heating to cut reliance on the requirement supplementary heating, in the case of wood fuel heating to cut the cost of wood purchased and volume stored, and in the case of heat pumps to reduce the size and investment in heat pump, heat sink and electricity costs.

Two main types of improvement can be made to a building's energy efficiency:

Insulation

Improvements to insulation can cut energy consumption greatly, making a space cheaper to heat and to cool. However existing housing can often be difficult or expensive to improve. Newer buildings can benefit from many of the techniques of superinsulation. Older buildings can benefit from several kinds of improvement:

• Solid wall insulation: A building with solid walls can benefit from internal or external insulation. External wall insulation involves adding decorative weather-proof insulating panels or other treatment to the outside of the wall. Alternatively, internal wall insulation can be applied using ready-made insulation/plaster board laminates, or other methods. Thicknesses of internal or external insulation typically range between 50 and 100 mm.
• Cavity wall insulation: A building with cavity walls can benefit from insulation pumped into the cavity. This form of insulation is very cost effective.
• Programmable thermostats allow heating and cooling of a room to be switched off depending the time, day of the week, and temperature. A bedroom, for example, does not need to be heated during the day, but a living room does not need to be heated during the night.
• Roof insulation
• Insulated windows and doors
• Draught proofing

Underfloor heating

Underfloor heating may sometimes be more energy efficient than traditional methods of heating:

• Water circulates within the system at low temperatures (35 °C - 50 °C) making gas boilers, wood fired boilers, and heat pumps significantly more efficient.
• Rooms with underfloor heating are cooler near the ceiling, where heat is not required, but warmer underfoot, where comfort is most required.
• Traditional radiators are frequently positioned underneath poorly insulated windows, heating them unnecessarily.

Waste-water heat recovery

Recycling heat.

It is possible to recover significant amounts of heat from waste hot water via hot water heat recycling. Major consumption of hot water is sinks, showers, baths, dishwashers, and clothes washers. On average 30% of a property's domestic hot water is used for showering. Incoming fresh water is typically of a far lower temperature than the waste water from a shower. An inexpensive heat exchanger recovers up on average 40% of the heat that would normally be wasted, by warming incoming cold fresh water with heat from outgoing waste water.

Messianism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messianism 

Messianism is the belief in the advent of a messiah who acts as the savior of a group of people. Messianism originated as an Zoroastrianism religious belief and followed to Abrahamic religions, but other religions have messianism-related concepts. Religions with a messiah concept include Judaism (Mashiach), Christianity (Christ), Islam (Isa Masih), Druze faith (Jesus and Hamza ibn Ali), Zoroastrianism (Saoshyant), Buddhism (Maitreya), Taoism (Li Hong), and Bábism (He whom God shall make manifest).

In Judaism, the messiah will be a future Jewish king from the line of David and redeemer of the Jewish people and humanity. In Christianity, Jesus is the messiah, the savior, the redeemer, and God. In Islam, Jesus was a prophet and the messiah of the Jewish people who will return in the end times.

Abrahamic religions

For a more comprehensive list, see List of messiah claimants.

Judaism

Main articles: Messiah in Judaism and Chabad messianism

For a more comprehensive list, see List of Jewish messiah claimants.

Messiah (Hebrew: משיח; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, ("anointed [one]") is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed. For example, Cyrus the Great, the King of Persia, is referred to as "God's anointed" (Messiah) in the Bible.

In Jewish messianic tradition and eschatology, the term came to refer to a future Jewish king from the Davidic line, who will be "anointed" with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age. In Standard Hebrew, the messiah is often referred to as Melekh ha-Mashiaḥ (מלך המשיח‎), literally "the Anointed King".

Rabbinic Judaism and current Orthodox Judaism hold that the messiah will be an anointed one, descended from his father through the Davidic line of King David, who will gather the Jews back into the Land of Israel and usher in an era of peace.

Following the Expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 many Spanish rabbis, such as Abraham ben Eliezer Halevi, believed that the year 1524 would be the beginning of the Messianic Age and that the Messiah himself would appear in 1530–31.

Orthodox Jewish messianic movements have occasionally emerged throughout the centuries among Jewish communities worldwide. These surround various messiah claimants. However from the Jewish view, the claimants failed to deliver the promises of redemption, and generally remained with only a handful of followers. Excepting Jesus, the most popular messiah claimants were Simon bar Kokhba in 2nd century Judea, Nehemiah ben Hushiel in the 7th century Sasanian Empire, Sabbatai Zevi in the 17th century Ottoman Empire (precursor to Sabbateans), Jacob Frank in 18th century Europe, Shukr Kuhayl I and Judah ben Shalom in 19th century Ottoman Yemen. There are those who currently identify the 20th century Menachem Mendel Schneerson (the Lubavitcher Rebbe) as the Mashiach).

Other denominations, such as Reform Judaism, believe in a Messianic Age when the world will be at peace, but do not agree that there will be a messiah as the leader of this era.

Christianity

Main articles: Christ, Christology, and Jesus in Christianity

See also: Christian eschatology and List of people claimed to be Jesus

In Christianity, the Messiah is called the Christ (/kraɪst/; Greek: Χριστός, romanized: Khristós, lit. 'Anointed One'; Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ, romanized: Māšîah, lit. 'Mashiach'), the saviour and redeemer who would bring salvation to the Jewish people and mankind. "Christ" is the Greek translation of "Messiah", meaning "Anointed one". The role of the Christ, the Messiah in Christianity, originated from the concept of the messiah in Judaism. Though the conceptions of the messiah in each religion are similar, for the most part they are distinct from one another due to the split of early Christianity and Judaism in the 1st century. Christians believe Jesus to be the Jewish messiah (Christ) of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament.

Christians believe that the messianic prophecies were fulfilled in his mission, death, resurrection, and ascension to his Session on the heavenly throne, where "he sat down at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet" (Heb 10:12–13 NET, quoting the Davidic royal Psalm 110:1). Christians believe that the rest of the messianic prophecies will be fulfilled in the Second coming of Christ. One prophecy, distinctive in both the Jewish and Christian concept of the messiah, is that a Jewish king from the Davidic line, who will be "anointed" with holy anointing oil, will be king of God's kingdom on earth, and rule the Jewish people and mankind during the Messianic Age and World to come.

Islam

Main articles: Masih, Mahdi, and Mahdism

In Islam (Shia and Sunni), the Mahdi is considered as the promised one [6] but there is a difference in who the Mahdi is, the Shiites of the Twelve Imams believe that the Mahdi is Muhammad, the son of Hassan Askari, the twelfth Imam and the Imam of their time, who was born before and now He is hidden from most people by Allah/god's will for more than a thousand years and appears at the appointed time. But according to some people of the Sunnah, Mahdi is someone from the Prophet's generation (probably Sadat's dynasty) who has not yet been born. He will be born in the future and become the savior of mankind. Also, most of the followers of Sunnah consider Mahdi as an ordinary and very pure person, which is in contradiction with other prophecies of Abrahamic religions. Most of the Abrahamic religions have emphasized that the savior of the end of time is a divine messenger for humanity. According to Shiites, Mahdi is a divine chosen one, the proof of God and infallible. Also, they have mentioned many signs about the appearance of Mahdi. Shiites consider Mahdi an imam, and unlike Sunnis, according to their claim, relying on hadiths, traditions and verses of the Qur'an, especially the affliction of Abraham in Surah Baqarah, they consider Imamate to be a divine position and it is the highest position in the system of previous creation. They know Muhammad's status as the highest of creations. Shiites emphasize the imams' formative authority and consider them to be the manifestation of God, and they have repeatedly mentioned in their works the superhuman powers given to imams by God. In fact, Shiites are not the first ones who have proposed the savior of the apocalypse as a manifestation of God. In Hindu religion, the savior of the end of time is called Avatar, which means manifestation, Avatar comes from the word Avatarai, which means the manifestation of a superior power. Some groups of Muslims, especially the Wahhabis, consider this claim of Shiites to be completely polytheistic and superstitious. While in the Torah, the book of Genesis, 12 kings from Ismael's generation are mentioned, and Shiites consider these 12 kings to be their 12 imams. In the Sunni hadith books, 12 caliphs are mentioned after the Prophet of Islam, the last of whom is the promised Mahdi. All Muslims agree on the return of Jesus Christ, and some Sunnis and all Shiites of twelve Imams believe in the return of Christ at the time of the appearance of the Mahdi and consider him one of the special helpers of the promised Mahdi.

For a more comprehensive list, see List of Mahdi claimants.

See also: Jesus in Islam and Islamic eschatology

 

In Islam, Isa ibn Maryam is the al-Masih ("Jesus son of Mary, the Messiah") who is believed to have been anointed from birth by Allah with the specific task of being a prophet and a king. In Islam, the Mahdi is believed to hold the task of establishing the truth and fighting against divisions of Islam, uniting all sects before the return of Jesus who will kill the false messiah Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (similar to the Antichrist in Christianity), who will emerge shortly before him in human form in the end of the times, claiming that he is the messiah. Then Jesus will pray for the death of Gog and Magog (Yajuj Majuj) who are an ancient tribe sealed away from humanity who will rise to cause destruction. After he has destroyed al-Dajjal, Mahdi's final task will be to become a just king and to re-establish justice. After the death of Mahdi, Jesus' reign of the messianic King will begin bringing eternal peace and monotheism in the world ending all religions besides Islam.

Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:43:656: Narrated Abu Hurairah:

Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary (Mariam) (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (as charitable gifts)."

The Ahmadiyya Muslim community believes that the prophecies regarding the advent of the Messiah and Mahdi have been fulfilled in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian. He claimed to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, the metaphorical second coming of Jesus of Nazareth and the divine guide, whose advent was foretold by the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad.

Druze faith

In the Druze faith, Jesus is considered the Messiah and one of God's important prophets, being among the seven prophets who appeared in different periods of history. According to the Druze manuscripts Jesus is the Greatest Imam and the incarnation of Ultimate Reason (Akl) on earth and the first cosmic principle (Hadd), and regards Jesus and Hamza ibn Ali as the incarnations of one of the five great celestial powers, who form part of their system. Druze doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, and died by crucifixion.

Druze believe that Hamza ibn Ali was a reincarnation of Jesus, and that Hamza ibn Ali is the true Messiah, who directed the deeds of the messiah Jesus "the son of Joseph and Mary", but when messiah Jesus "the son of Joseph and Mary" strayed from the path of the true Messiah, Hamza filled the hearts of the Jews with hatred for him - and for that reason, they crucified him, according to the Druze manuscripts. Despite this, Hamza ibn Ali took him down from the cross and allowed him to return to his family, in order to prepare men for the preaching of his religion.

Bábism and Baháʼí Faith

Main article: Manifestation of God (Baháʼí Faith)

He whom God shall make manifest (Arabic: من يظهر الله, Persian: مظهر کلّیه الهی) is a messianic figure in the religion of Bábism. The messianic figure was repeatedly mentioned by the Báb, the founder of Bábism, in His book, the Bayán. The Báb described the messianic figure as the origin of all divine attributes, and stated that his command was equivalent to God’s command. The Báb stated that once the messianic figure had arrived, the perusal of one of his verses was to be greater than a thousand perusals of the Bayán. The prediction is widely recognized as being fulfilled by Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith.

Other religions

Buddhism

Main articles: Maitreya, Buddhist eschatology, and List of Buddha claimants

Maitreya is a bodhisattva who in the Buddhist tradition is to appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma. According to scriptures, Maitreya will be a successor of the historic Śākyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The prophecy of the arrival of Maitreya is found in the canonical literature of all Buddhist sects (Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna) and is accepted by most Buddhists as a statement about an actual event that will take place in the distant future.

Although Maitreya Buddha appears in the canonical literature shared by many sects of Buddhism, Buddhists in different historical contexts have conceived of Maitreya Buddha in different ways. In early medieval Chinese Buddhism, for example, Taoist and Buddhist ideas combined to produce a particular emphasis on the messianic role of a Bodhisattva called "Prince Moonlight." Furthermore, the Chinese Maitreyan traditions were themselves marked by considerable diversity. Erik Zürcher has argued that a certain "canonical" Maitreyan cult from the fourth to sixth centuries believed Maitreya to inhabit the Tushita heaven where Buddhists might be reborn in the very distant future. Another rival tradition, however, believed that Maitreya would appear in the imminent future in this world to provide salvation during a time of misery and decline. This latter form of Maitreyan belief was generally censored and condemned as heretical to the point that few manuscripts survive written by Buddhists sympathetic to this tradition.

Maitreya Buddha continued to be an important figure in millenarian rebellions throughout Chinese history such as in the rebellions associated with the so-called White Lotus Society.

Cargo cults

Main article: John Frum

John Frum is a figure associated with cargo cults on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. He is often depicted as an American World War II serviceman who will bring wealth and prosperity to the people if they follow him. He is sometimes portrayed as black, sometimes as white. Quoting David Attenborough's report of an encounter: "'E look like you. 'E got white face. 'E tall man. 'E live 'long South America."

Nazi messianism

Main articles: Religion in Nazi Germany and Religious views of Adolf Hitler

There has been significant literature on the potential religious aspects of Nazism. Wilfried Daim suggests that Hitler and the Nazi leadership planned to replace Christianity in Germany with a new religion in which Hitler would be considered a messiah. In his book on the connection between Lanz von Liebenfels and Hitler, Daim published a reprint of an alleged document of a session on "the unconditional abolishment of all religious commitments (Religionsbekenntnisse) after the final victory (Endsieg) ... with a simultaneous proclamation of Adolf Hitler as the new messiah."

Russian and Slavic messianism

See also: Polish messianism

Romantic Slavic messianism held that the Slavs, especially the Russians, suffer in order that other European nations, and eventually all of humanity, may be redeemed. This theme had a profound impact in the development of Pan-Slavism and Russian and Soviet imperialism; it also appears in works by the Polish Romantic poets Zygmunt Krasiński and Adam Mickiewicz, including the latter's familiar expression, "Polska Chrystusem narodów" ("Poland is the Christ of nations"). Messianic ideas appear in the "Books of the Genesis of the Ukrainian People" (Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius Manifesto), in which universal equality and democracy in the Zaporizhian Sich, recognized as a revival of human society initially planned by God and faith in its future revival, associated with faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. Reborn Ukraine will expand universal freedom and faith in all Slavic countries and, thus designed by God, an ideal society will be restored.

Sebastianism

Main articles: Sebastianism, Sebastian of Portugal, and Fifth Empire

Sebastianism (Portuguese: Sebastianismo) is a Portuguese messianic myth, based on the belief that King Sebastian of Portugal, disappeared in the battle of Alcácer Quibir, will return to Portugal and create the Fifth Empire. The belief gained momentum after an interpretation by priest António Vieira of Daniel 2 and the Book of Revelation. In Brazil the most important manifestation of Sebastianism took place in the context of the Proclamation of the Republic, when movements emerged that defended a return to the monarchy. It is categorised as an example of the King asleep in mountain folk motif, typified by people waiting for a hero. The Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa wrote about such a hero in his epic Mensagem (The Message).

It is the longest-lived and most influential millenarian legends in Western Europe, having had profound political and cultural resonances from the time of Sebastians death till at least the late 19th century in Brazil.

Taoism

Around the 3rd century CE, religious Taoism developed eschatological ideas. A number of scriptures predict the end of the world cycle, the deluge, epidemics, and coming of the saviour Li Hong 李弘 (not to be confused with the Tang personalities).

Wicca, Stregheria, Neopaganism and Witchcraft

Main article: Aradia

Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland's 1899 work Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, a claim that has subsequently been disputed by other folklorists and historians. In Leland's Gospel, Aradia is portrayed as a Messiah who was sent to Earth in order to teach the oppressed peasants how to perform witchcraft to use against the Roman Catholic Church and the upper classes.

Since the publication of Leland's Gospel, Aradia has become "arguably one of the central figures of the modern pagan witchcraft revival" and as such has featured in various forms of Neopaganism, including Wicca and Stregheria, as an actual deity. Raven Grimassi, founder of the Wiccan-inspired tradition of Stregheria, claims that Aradia was a historical figure named Aradia di Toscano, who led a group of "Diana-worshipping witches" in 14th-century Tuscany.

Zoroastrianism

Main articles: Saoshyant and Frashokereti

According to Zoroastrian philosophy, redacted in the Zand-i Vohuman Yasht,

at the end of thy tenth hundredth winter [...] the sun is more unseen and more spotted; the year, month, and day are shorter; and the earth is more barren; and the crop will not yield the seed; and men [...] become more deceitful and more given to vile practices. They have no gratitude. Honorable wealth will all proceed to those of perverted faith [...] and a dark cloud makes the whole sky night [...] and it will rain more noxious creatures than winter.

Saoshyant, the Man of Peace, battles the forces of evil. The events of the final renovation are described in the Bundahishn (30.1ff): "In the final battle with evil, the yazatas Airyaman and Atar will 'melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and it will be upon the earth like a river' (Bundahishn 34.18), but the righteous (ashavan) will not be harmed."

Eventually, Ahura Mazda will triumph, and his agent Saoshyant will resurrect the dead, whose bodies will be restored to eternal perfection, and whose souls will be cleansed and reunited with God. Time will then end, and truth/righteousness (asha) and immortality will thereafter be everlasting.