Fossil fuel has no future: we need to develop renewable energy - Essay Example

?Fossil fuel has no future: we need to develop renewable energy. Discuss Introduction A search for new sources of energy has always been on the top of the research priorities for scientists from across the world since time immemorial. Since the first case of fossil fuels’ finding, man has developed many ways to locate great stores and devised machines to extract them for the economic purposes. Now, the very existence of the socially organized life of human kind depends directly on the natural energy sources, such as petroleum and coal, besides a considerable amount of natural gas. However, the continuous delivery of these inevitable energy boosters is not guaranteed by the nature itself because they are non-renewable and are subject to vanishing in a very near future if the proportion of their consumption is continued as intensively as now. This essay is aimed at critically examining the facts that stands to prove the argument that development of renewable sources of energy is to be made the supreme concern of the present-day world. A careful observation of the developments in the field of consumption of energy sources highlights a number of disadvantages of the excessive dependence on natural resources. Even though their widespread popularity and easy availability are matters to be credited for, the very fact that they are simply perishable after a limited period of time is thought provoking. Majority of the world believe that the prices of petroleum products are going to decline with the findings of their new and enormous collections in the unforeseen locations on the surface of the earth. Moreover, scientific development in the current intelligence level is also capable of exploring the almost unreachable locations to find the energy buried under the oceans, deserts and dense forests across the uninhabited regions of the world. It is not necessary to go on investigating the uses of petroleum under the present conditions to know its importance in our day-to-day life. From lighting to cooking in the domestic demands and from locomotion to electricity generation, fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are the greatest providers of energy in various forms. The most important significance of fossil fuels is their reduced cost of production and accuracy of the expected output from the process of mining. Besides this, they are portable and easily to process the purification tasks for deriving different categories of products. Since the uses of fossil fuels and their converted forms of energy are widely popular, the study of their advantages and disadvantages becomes increasingly prominent in the context where they cannot be renewed by human endeavour. A list of things can be identified as their advantages; they are capable of providing resources for huge amount of electric energy in a single location. Apart from this, they are easy to find in abundance, especially coal, which is the largest raw material for the power production in thermal power plants across the world. Moreover, it must be approved that the transportation of petroleum and natural gas is also easy through pipelines whereby saving time and effort to a great extent (Fossil Fuels: Their Advantages and Disadvantages). While a majority of the factors are in support of the continued excavations for non-renewable resources, their physical and chemical hazards are not ignorable. Carbon clouding and the emission of many kinds of hazardous oxides of different gases pose a great threat to the environment when the petroleum and coal are used as energy sources. The combustion of certain natural gases generates toxic gases with heavy impacts of the greenhouse effect. Heavy consumption of resources and the geophysical impacts of the extraction of mines and oil reserves stand as a challenge facing the world now. It can also have an enormous amount of threat to the biodiversity of the flora, fauna and the aquatic lives. Further, it is evident that the business and the kindness cannot be maintained as a combination in an industry; therefore, the giant businessmen of the mining and power generation segments cannot be expected to be altruistic in the long run. Considering the intensity of the fact that the fossil fuels are perishable resources of energy, it becomes an alarming thought to search new ways to generate the backups for the future. The present day world may be divided into two layers of economic standards – wealthy nations and developing ones. The majority of the world’s population hails from the latter category whose prime concern is for sustainable funding for health and basic amenities of life. The upper class economies are on the trial runs for finding alternative and renewable sources of energy by tapping the natural gifts across their regions. They have identified and implemented plans to extract energy from wind, water, tides, sunlight and geothermal effects. However, accumulating benefit from all the possible sources so far exploited for the alternative sources other than fossil fuels merely contribute a seven percent of the total energy production in the world (McLamb 2011). Under this circumstance, the reason for this relative deficiency of energy conversion has to be attributed to the economic inadequacy of the developing countries. The effective utilization of powerful resources from water, air, tides and geothermal effects can resolve the global crises of pollution and manage the threat of a not-so-distant deficit of fossil fuel supply in the world. Among all the convertible sources of energy, hydroelectric projects are the most prominent providers of power in the form of electricity (Energy Resources: Hydroelectric Power). Dams constructed at different locations collect the water from drains and rivers at one point and the altitude of the exit channels induct a high amount of potential energy required for the rotation of turbines which operated electricity generators (Ibid). In another format of renewable energy production, wind farming is developed using wind mills which run their generators with the help of the naturally abundant wind (Energy Resources: Wind Power). Tidal power is a wonderful alternative source of energy which is more predictable of being capable of generating electricity during the times of ocean currents (Energy Resources: Tidal Power). In the process of converting heat into electric energy, geothermal plants are a great player. Geothermal energy is extracted through a process in which the heat emerging from the radioactive rocks buried inside the earth’s surface is converted into resource for running the turbines running on the pressure of steam, which operates generators that produce electricity (BBC). Apart from these widely used resources, there are other sources like solar power, wave power and bio-fuels. In converting sunlight into energy, solar cells are placed on the areas where sunlight falls directly on the earth without obstructions. With the help of photo electric effects, storage cells get electrically charged and this energy is stored in large batteries which converts the power into alternative current with the help of invertors. Bio-fuel, however, is a derivative conversion of combustible gases formed during the decomposition process of wastes such as domestic garbage, animal and human excreta and abandoned parts of plant and other biodegradable things inside a compartment called the biogas plant. The gases emerging from such plants are used for combustion in both commercial and domestic requirements; also, a changeable consumption of them can be converted into making electricity for at least commercial purposes. As a matter of fact, designing a plan for exploring the possible means to exploit the renewable means of energy may be seemingly easy, but the operation of such plants requires a heavy amount of investment which is beyond the affordable limits of economy to the developing countries. Besides this, the assurance of returns from such investments is flexible as the convertible sources of energy are subject to vary in accordance with the fluctuating climatic conditions and geophysical structures. Even while considering the factors that pose challenges in the quality and reliability of the supply of the energy in the industrial facet, the need for developing machines to exploit the non-renewable sources of energy seems to become increasingly intensive presently. The availability of the currently dominant energy stores such as fossil fuels and natural gases are sure to comedown gradually and will face the definite extinct once in future. Moreover, these finite sources are concentrated in political confinements governed by different nations. If the scientific facts are to be believed and cautions to be heeded thereupon, the very truth that the present generation cannot roll back a million years to boost the natural processing of fossil formation for petroleum and coal for the future years’ consumption is to be carefully monitored. A clear examination of all these issues may be a deterrent to some of the people who eventually resort to convertible forms of energy, though it is not an active option at the moment. Under the present scenario, one has to agree with the fact that the world today is a scattered picture of geographical diversities and physical properties in which changing governments have their roles in the international distribution of natural resources such as fossil fuels and gases. From all the sources of information related to the future of fossil fuels and the studies of research materials related to the feasibilities of alternative energy sources in the convertible forms, it can be restated that fossil fuels are seemingly approaching the end of their time. Therefore, it is need of the hour to encourage the exploitation of all other available resources in the nature. References BBC. Geothermal energy. [online]. Available at [Accessed 12 May 2013]. Energy Resources: Hydroelectric power. [online]. Available at [Accessed 12 May 2013]. Energy Resources: Wind power. [online]. Available at [accessed 12 May 2013]. Energy Resources: Tidal power. [online]. Available at [accessed 12 May 2013]. Fossil Fuels: Their Advantages and Disadvantages. Alternative energy secrets [online]. Available at [Accessed 12 May 2013]. McLamb, E., 2011. Fossil fuel Vs renewable energy resources. [online]. Available at [Accessed 12 May 2013]. Read More