ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY - Essay Example

Your full November 11, Environmental Sustainability We use energy to exist, develop and grow. Energy makes our lives simpler for us. The energy industry produces for us heat, light and force. Since our needs are not going to get fewer in the next twenty years, therefore, as Taylor and Parish (viii) state, “By all accounts, the energy sector will be the growth industry of the future.” They also state that “The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the United States will need 44 percent more electricity by 2020.

” This is because the demand will increase since the country’s economy and every other field is digitally driven. Today, computers and all other technological tools take around 13% of electricity produced and this is going to increase in the coming years. Also, since internet has become a significant source of telecommunication in all informational and entertainment activities, the demand of energy will continue to increase. This makes me believe that the future of energy industry is very bright in the next 20 years.

Renewable energy sources have bright chances to take over the main role in the years to come (Sorensen and Breeze 54). Man will devise ways to substitute the materials endangered by exhaustion like fossil and nuclear energy sources, with renewable energy sources. Renewable energy will continue to combat “green house gas emissions within the power sector” (Moselle, Padilla and Schmalensee 160) due to which its subsidies, implicit or explicit, will also continue to grow. Non-renewable energy sources will also be relied upon to the same extent in the next twenty years because about 80% of energy comes from non-renewable sources like oil, fossils and gas, and this can never be replaced by other alternatives. 2. Hari says that, “Population explosion is cause of global warming.

” Figure 1 illustrates the trend in population explosion over the years. Hari estimates that there will be “10 billion people on earth by 2050” which means that population will continue to grow and cause an increase in the global warming thus decreasing the planet’s sustainability. This is a serious trouble on part of scientists and politicians because a serious solution is needed before time runs out. Scientists predict that no sooner than later people will start getting badly affected by floods, extreme temperatures, climate changes and lack of water and food.

Human population will increase by 50% by 2050 and we know that human activities greatly affect the climate changes thus causing global warming. For example, the human induced developmental activities in factories and industries leads to emission of toxic and greenhouse gases thus increasing the earth’s average temperature. Ehrlich and Ehrlich state that “Global warming, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, vulnerability to epidemics, and exhaustion of soils and ground-water are all…related to population size.

” This leads to planet un-sustainability because crop failures and AIDS will lead to many premature deaths in the coming years which will be a natural measure of population control. Since our planet’s natural resources are already being over-consumed, the increasing population will naturally cause global warming because too many people consume carbon-based energy. Figure 1: Population growth over the years Works CitedEhrlich, Paul R., and Anne H. Ehrlich. “Why Isnt Everyone as Scared as We Are?

” The Population Explosion. N.p., 1990. Web. 11 Nov 2011. .Hari, Usha. “Population Explosion is Cause of Global Warming.” 4ecotips.com. Orbis 4 Ltd, 2007. Web. 11 Nov 2011. .Moselle, Boaz, Padilla, Jorge, and Richard Schmalensee. Harnessing Renewable Energy in Electric Power Systems: Theory, Practice, Policy. Earthscan, 2010. Sorensen, Bent, and Paul Breeze. Renewable Energy Focus Handbook. USA, UK: Academic Press, 2008. Taylor, T. Allan., and James Robert Parish. Career Opportunities in the Energy Industry.

USA: Infobase Publishing, 2008.