Oil operates our present world. In its refined derivative forms, such as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel, it has many useful features such as a current availability in abundance, a high energy density, ease of transportation and storage, and relative safety. However, the problems it causes over-compensate its virtues.
Today, over 85% of the energy used in the world is from non-renewable supplies. [1] Most developed nations are dependent on non-renewable energy sources mainly fossil fuels (mainly oil). The three main issues of fossil fuel facing us today are its limited availability and the pollution it causes.
Energy Sources in 2008
The human population on Earth is skyrocketing at a rate of about 77 million a year. [2] Consequently, there are more cars to fuel, more homes to heat, and more machines to power. The energy needs of today and the future just keep building as an ever-increasing world population calls for ever-increasing consumption of energy.
The Earth only has a finite amount of fossil fuels. Therefore as the supplies begin to dwindle, the oil companies will have no choice but to keep "raising the price as the precious reserves are slowly pumped out." [4] As the price of oil swells, the first to suffer will be the poorer nations of the world. Their oil-based manufacturing structure will begin to crumble. However, thanks to greater access to global resources, urban populations in Europe and America are seemingly impervious to the problems facing the less developed areas of the globe, at least, for the time being. But already the signs of the coming oil crunch are starting to show as gas prices increase and reserves run dry. Soon our economies will begin to deteriorate as well.
Contaminants produced by fossil fuels have tainted the air, water, and soil of this planet causing sickness, disease and death to all living organisms. Each year, the health of 54,000 Americans is given up to air pollution generated by power plants. [4] Smog and haze reduce the amount of sunlight vital for photosynthesis, damaging crops and natural vegetation. The lower pH levels and higher aluminum concentrations in surface waters that result from acid rain, a byproduct if fuel emissions, cause damage to aquatic animals as well as many microbes in the soil. Ozone pollution not only attacks the throat, heart and lungs resulting in various diseases. Pollution also causes climate change, bringing disorder to multiple ecosystems around the world.
Carbon-dioxide emissions are the chief perpetrator in rapid global warming. This green house gas traps heat from the sun, preventing it from escaping out into space. Due to human activity, primarily burning fossil fuels, the quantity of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased dramatically causing the average temperature to rise. Since the 1890's, the global average temperature has risen about 0.7 to 1.4 degrees F and will increase at a faster and faster rate in the future. [3]
The increase in temperature will cause an untold number of catastrophes. The ice-caps are melting causing an increase in sea levels around the world, drowning areas, and endangering ecosystems of the world on a massive scale. Weather patterns are changing and extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, have become more frequent.
Climatologists are studying ways to stop global warming. To overcome the problems of non-renewable energy, alternative, renewable sources of energy that will not contribute to climate change and pollution must be substituted in. Of the many sources of alternative energy, the most promising ones are wind and sun.
The major advantages of wind is that it is free, inexhaustible, unaffected by inflation and produces no polluting emissions.
Wind power boosts our economy in ways that fossil fuels can't match. Wind farms can be built in a fraction of the time it takes to make coal or natural gas power plants. Wind energy has one of the quickest returns of any energy technology today (only three to eight months). The National Renewable Energy Laboratory states that wind energy creates more jobs per dollar invested than any other energy technology, enhancing the market.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the cost of wind energy has come down 85% in the last 20 years and is getting lower all the time. [5] In 2002 its prices became competitive with new coal- and gas-fired power plants. This new power source could provide 20% of America's electricity, the amount nuclear power supplies, installed on less than 1% of its land area. And within that area, less than 5% of the land would be occupied by wind equipment. The rest could be used for farming or ranching. [6]
Like wind, sunlight is free and infinitely renewable and solar panels produce no polluting emissions. Solar panels have yet another advantage. With no moving parts, they are silent, safe, easy to control, and almost never needs any repairing.
Solar energy can also reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Solar energy is produced here in the United States, not overseas, employing about 20,000 Americans in technical, high-earning jobs. [7]
The cost of solar energy has been sharply reduced over the past 20 years although it is still higher than that of oil. However, these prices should continue to fall thanks to lower installation costs and the growing number of incentives and tax packages now offered by more than 30 states. An average home has enough roof area to produce enough solar electricity to supply all of its power needs. As communities grow, more solar energy capacity can be added.
Both solar and wind technologies offer a clean, renewable and domestic energy sources. They can grow as the population does and will be able to compete with the price of traditional fuels in the near future. Renewable energy gives Americans high paying jobs and aids the economy in multiple ways. Compare these traits side by side to those of coal, oil, gas, or nuclear power, and the choice is easy. Renewable energy is the only choice.
Robin Deibel
Sources
[1] http://cnx.org/content/m16730/latest/
[2] http://www.unep.org/geo/geo3/english/085.htm
[3] http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/global_warming_worldbook.html
[4] http://www.altenergy.org/transition/transition.html
[5] http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/renewables/wind.asp
[6] http://www.altenergy.org/
[7]http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/renewables/solar.asp
Pictures
Pie chart http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained/?page=renewable_home
Smoke stacks http://www.impactlab.com/2009/04/22/studies-pollution-is-slowing-down-global-warming/
Wind http://apolloalliance.org/digest/?m=200809
Solar http://www.asap-highlea.co.uk/solar.html
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