Sustainable Energy Resourses vs. Climate Change - Essay Example

and Number Sustainable Energy Resources vs. Climate Change Introduction A sustainable community is attainable provided that there is a balance between the economy, the society and the environment. During the third quarter of 2011, The Economist reported that “the global population is likely to reach 7 billion”. Due to the growing population of human beings around the world, increased in human activities could alter the climate condition of our natural environment. As a common knowledge, the existing energy sources in the United States are vital to the economic development and progress. In fact, a significant increase on the demand for energy would mean the need to increase the energy supply coming from different sources of energy. In response to the increasing demand for energy resources, the United States government is spending approximately US$500 billion each year in the development of energy sources alone (“Energy Sources”). With the presence of sufficient energy supply, the local manufacturers will be able to produce consumer good items to meet the increasing local and international demand. For this reason, the U.S. Department of Energy has been relying over the use of different energy sources including: bioenergy, coal, electric power, fossil fuels, fusion, geothermal, hydrogen, hydropower, natural gas, nuclear, oil, solar and wind energy (“Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030”; “Energy Sources”). With regards to the different sources of energy, it will be argued that the use of renewable energy sources such as the biomass, solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal energy is better than the use of fossil fuels. As part of going through the main discussion, the advantages and disadvantages of energies coming from the sun, wind, water, heat, and fossil fuels will be compared and contrast. 2. Thesis Statement As compared to non-renewable energy resources like fossil fuel, the socio-economic benefits of using renewable energy resources should be considered a sufficient ground in motivating the U.S. government to financially support the development of renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, water, and geothermal energy throughout the United States. 3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Solar, Wind, Hydropower, and Geothermal Energy over Fossil Fuels Because of environment, health, long-term cost efficiency and other practical reasons, generating electricity out of the wind turbine, hydroelectric power plant, geothermal energy, and solar energy can be more advantageous as compared to the use of fossil fuels. When using either fossil fuels or biomass combustion, the Science Daily reported that approximately 20% of the energy produced is actually wasted as heat. Based on this context, fossil fuels and biomass are inefficient sources of electricity (“Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030”). Depending on the availability of renewable energy resources, the use of the wind turbine, hydroelectric power plant, geothermal energy, and solar energy system can provide us with more economic advantages since the overall supply of energy will be greater than our daily consumption needs (“Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030”). Furthermore, the use of these renewable energy resources can provide us with long-term ready supply of energy without the possibility of causing serious damages to our health and environment. Among the available sources of renewable energy, the solar system is considered a very good source of electricity since the process of generating electricity from the sun can provide us with 30 times more than the total electricity that we actually need to run the entire U.S. economy (“Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030”). On the other hand, wind turbines are also considered as another powerful source of electricity since the energy generated from the wind turbines are approximately 5 to 15 times more than the electricity needed to power all countries around the world (“Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030”). Geothermal energy utilizes heat from the inside of the Earth’s crust whereas the biomass energy is derived from plants (“Geothermal”; Union of Concerned Scientists). As compared to fossil fuels, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory argued that biomass energy is better due to its significant reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions. As a non-renewable energy resource, the burning of fossil fuels could trigger the development of serious global climate change (“A clean energy revolution is the solution to climate change”). In fact, the presence of excessive amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere can cause environmental temperature to increase. Due to high levels of carbon emission in our surroundings, different countries from all over the world may experience and suffer from health and socio-economic consequences of hurricanes, drought, El Nino, tropical storms, and other form of extreme weather condition. In response to the continuously increasing population and energy demand throughout the United States, it was clearly explained in Science Daily that the act of relying too much in the use of fossil fuel can deplete the country’s long-term reserves of fossil fuel (“Go solar, wind or geothermal if you want renewable energy with life-cycle efficiency”). Once the reserves of fossil fuel become scarce, the market price of electricity would automatically increase. This will cause serious disturbances in the U.S. socio-economic activities. Although there are advantages with regards to the use of wind turbine, hydroelectricity power plant and solar energy, there are also some less complicated problems with regards to the use of these renewable energy resources. First, the U.S. government will have to build expensive wind turbines, solar photovoltaic cells and concentrated solar arrays, dams, drilling up to two or three kilometers down the Earth’s surface in order to benefit from these renewable energy resources (“Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030”). On top of investing on expensive generators and infrastructure for renewable energy resources, the U.S. government will also have to spend on the transmission line that will carry the wind, water, and solar energy to different communities. Even though some countries had already set-up some wind turbines, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that the wind does not always blow all the time to generate the electricity needed for our daily consumption (“Advantages and Challenges of Wind Energy”). Furthermore, it is not possible to build wind turbines in congested urban areas such as New York or Los Angeles, California. For this reasons, Hick argued that one of the disadvantages of relying too much on the wind energy resources is that the amount of electricity that can be produced out of wind turbines can be less than what the United States could generate out of fossil fuels. On the other hand, relying too much on hydroelectric energy can also lead to serious environmental issues since this particular energy option can affect the natural flow of marine environment caused by the build-up of methane (“Renewable Energy Today. Advantages and Disadvantages of Renewable Energy”). 4. Conclusion and Recommendations The negative long-term socio-economic, environmental, and health benefits associated with the use of fossil fuel is more than the challenges associated with the use of renewable energy resources Since there is a limitation with regards to the use of solar energy panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric power plant, the U.S. government should encourage a group of professionals to conduct a thorough study concerning the advantages and disadvantages of each type of renewable energy resources based on the structures present in a given geographic area. For example, in case there is an abundant supply of water in a given state, the government may find it more feasible to invest on hydroelectric power as compared to wind turbine. Even though investing on new infrastructure for renewable energy resources is very expensive, its long-term socio-economic and health benefits exceed the actual costs of environmental and health damages due to severe climate change. Since these renewable energy resources do not produce carbon dioxide due to combustion, lesser pollution is expected to be released in the air. Related to the issue on environmental protection, sources of renewable energy supply is more promising as compared to fossil fuel. For this reason, the U.S. government should financially support projects that aim to promote the use of renewable energy resources throughout the United States. By allocating some of the government collected taxes on these types of project, it is possible for the U.S. government to control and minimize the amount of carbon that is being emitted to the atmosphere each day. References Green Peace. A clean energy revolution is the solution to climate change. It will pave the way for cleaner energy and a safe environment for everyone. 2009a. Web. 21 February 2012 . Green Peace. Geothermal. 2009b. Web. 21 February 2012 . Hick, Matthew. “Renewable Energy Today. Advantages and Disadvantages of Renewable Energy.” 2012. Web. 21 February 2012 . National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Biomass Energy Basics. 2009. Web. 21 February 2012 . Science Daily. Shifting the world to 100 percent clean renewable energy as early as 2030: Here are the numbers. 2009. Web. 21 February 2012 . Science Daily. Go solar, wind or geothermal if you want renewable energy with life-cycle efficiency. 2007. Web. 21 February 2012 . The Economist. World population projections. Growing pains. 5 May 2011. Web. 21 February 2012 . U.S. Department of Energy. Advantages and Challenges of Wind Energy. 7 November 2011. Web. 21 February 2012 < http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wind/wind_ad.html>. U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Sources. 2009. Web. 21 February 2012 . Union of Concerned Scientists. How geothermal energy works. 2011. Web. 21 February 2012 . Read More