So what are the things that are threatening us today? It is our global dependence on non-renewable energy sources. This global dependence on non-renewable energy of fossil fuels will lead to economic and environmental crisis that will then cause world conflicts.
According to research, the United States takes up "4.7% of the world's population" and yet, we use about 25% of fossil fuels produced every year (Pimentel 536). This means that Americans, out of the other nations with greater populations, use a significant amount of global fossil fuels. Most importantly, this amounts to about $65 billion used every year to ship foreign oil to the US. This money is out of our pockets and into foreign hands; the problem with this is what would happen after fossil fuels depletes from the world, which is estimated to be within ten to twenty years. Foreign nations in the Middle East depend on us for our trade for oil, while we depend on oil to fuel our industries. The depletion of oil will cost devastation on both sides.
Other than the economic crisis, we are slowly killing our home planet. According to one study by Joensuu OI, the burning of coal will release 3000 tons of mercury into the atmosphere a year (Fossil Fuels as a Source of Mercury Pollution). This mercury excess in our atmosphere is frighteningly larger than that of the normal mercury in our atmosphere per year: only around 230 tons. By releasing such toxins into our atmosphere, we are destroying the living things that took so long to grow and adapt to our home planet, including ourselves. Furthermore, fossil fuels contribute to global warming. The use of fossil fuels of methane hydrates, for example (only one type of fossil fuel), will add ten to fifteen gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere (Methane Hydrate - A Major Reservoir of Carbon in the Shallow Geosphere). This amounts to an increase of around 1-2% of carbon in our planet compared to the normal 830-1960 gigatons of carbon within our planet's landscapes. This inevitably contributes to global warming; even if it is a slight increase in temperature, it will greatly impact the balance of life and environment in our planet.
Most importantly, if our fossil fuels have been depleted, all the nations in the world will have environmental and economical crisis. Like Darwin's "survival of the fittest," the world with environmental problems such as flooding, hurricanes, and drop in water supply would surely enrage war. Furthermore, landscapes will disappear due to flooding, and environmental temperatures of the earth will shift and cause crop failures and mass animal extinction. As a specific example, the article, "Evidence for the Existence of the Medieval Warm Period in China" by Zhang De'er states that the Boehmeria nivea trees and the citrus trees' growth rate vary by the slightest temperature change (De'er 289). During a medieval warm period between 800-1200 A.D., these trees were growing at mass rates, and population also increased during this period. This shows a correlation between population and crop accumulation. However, after the warm period, came an unstable cold period, in which near-global war of the nomads, the Mongols and other worldly known nomads. This unstable period shows a depletion of resources such as crop, and the results are famine, disease such as the black plague, and war. By using up the fossil fuels and harming the environment today, we are only ensuring a global war over depletion of resource and also global sufferings of diseases and famine due to crop failures and unstable environmental temperatures. World economies will end.
The only solution to this world conflicts due to economic and environmental breakdown is by using renewable energy. Like living things, renewable energy resources are available year round and do not take more than a million years to be deposit onto Earth. These energy sources include bio-fuel, windmills, and solar-panels. Because it is available everywhere, the cost of these fuels will not rise like fossil fuels. Also, since it can be made everywhere, nations would not have to go out and find their own fuel, reducing global conflict when fossil fuels deplete. These fuels will also be better for the environment. Unlike fossil fuels, they do not contribute to global warming, and they are renewable and recyclable, helping world environment by not depleting more resources from Earth as fossil fuels have. Thus, renewable fuels will be included into our everyday life cycles and economic cycles, being renewable and more stable than fossil fuels, which can deplete at any time or be inflated or deflated at various times due to inconsistency in diplomacy or abundance.
Steven Nim
Subscribe to