Planet Earth is changing every day in terms of the health of the environment, the impact of the people, and the technology produced. Over the last century, it has been easy to see the change the environment has experienced due to the rise in technology and population. While technology has improved countries and lifestyles in beneficial ways, it has a long way to go before being perfected. Through all the benefits of making people healthier, lives more simple, and countries more efficient, the environment has taken a severe beating in several ways. The constant use of fossil fuels has caused emissions to flood the atmosphere, animals to be harmed, clean water to diminish, and resources to drain. When the United States can run on close to full alternative energy, the country and planet will benefit in means of health, technology, lifestyle, and many more. For this to happen, the development of renewable energy is required through the creation of new technologies, more renewable energy structures, and increased financial support. 

Several causes have provoked the increased desire to move the United States towards a clean energy based society. The constant use of fossil fuels is believed to be wearing resources thin, meaning the cost of oil and coal will continuously rise until supply runs dry. Competition for fossil fuels will also increase and countries who cannot compete with larger nations will need alternate sources of energy. If the United States can lead the charge in clean energy, others will follow and intense competition for fossil fuels will decrease. Arguably the largest cause for the desire of a clean energy society is the pollution involved with fossil fuels. The damage to the environment can only be fixed if the next century involves a large decline in the pollution from fossil fuels and the only way to accomplish that is to switch to a clean society. The health of the planet depends on clean energy.

To begin, it is necessary to invent new energy efficient technologies to move the U.S. energy reliance away from coal and oil to these new technologies. Many technologies have already been developed that are clean and renewable, such as windmills and solar turbines. These technologies are relatively new but they are the first step into moving energy dependence to a completely renewable source. These renewable sources are already being implemented into today’s society, yet they are sparking controversy. Many people view these structures, (such as wind turbines), as ugly structures that take from the looks of a city or neighborhood. Another technology that is currently being used but could be improved is the solar panel. Solar panels are typically either set up in a large field or on the roofs of houses and businesses. Again, solar panels are generally not the most appealing item to have on a home or business due to the way they stand out and are fairly bulky to have on a roof. These technologies are examples of green energy that are being used today, but there are also green technologies in development that could solve the US energy crisis.

What the people of today’s society currently want is energy that is cheap and plentiful; which is part of the problem. In the current state of the United States, coal is in abundance and does not cost much, and oil is constantly being brought to the United States with gas prices being one of the only determinations for U.S. citizens to determine the cost. If gas and oil prices are low, the people are not going to complain about it and will not see the need to bring about change. The cost of installing sufficient renewable energy per person will appear to cost a lot to them and also be very inconvenient to change their current ways of life. In the study by the survey organization, Gallup, “In May 1989, 41 percent (Of Gallup respondents) said they were very concerned with ozone depletion, but by June 2008, only 23 percent said they were very concerned with this issue.” (Konisky 4). Not enough people in the United States are worried about the toll the environment is taking from pollution. 

Another problem with the transformation from a fossil fuel society to a clean energy based society is the costs of everything from development to construction to installation. These costs would cost trillions in tax-payer dollars over the upcoming decades and people may not be willing to pay for a way of life that is currently running smoothly. Hundreds of thousands of square miles of land would be necessary for solar panels, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, wind turbines, and more, which would could harm the environment in ways such as the ecosystem as well as suitable living areas for citizens. Also, many people do not believe the planet is being severely harmed by pollution from fossil fuels such as oil and coal. The scholarly article by Konisky states how as a nation, “We express concern about the problem in the abstract, but neither is the risk of climate change high on our list of public priorities, nor is it a problem for which we are willing to pay more than a small amount. It is a distant, vague concern, one that may not seriously affect generations alive today”. Currently, the problem is not considered serious enough by the U.S. population for them to act because not enough attention and seriousness has been addressed. 

However, the energy situation in America needs to be changed to favor a clean energy society and break away from the current fossil fuel dependent society. In order for people to support the change, they need to know exactly what a renewable energy source is. Renewable energy can be classified as energy that is collected from sources that naturally replenish themselves faster than humans can use them such as sunlight, wind, water, geothermal heat, and even nuclear power. All of the energy that can be obtained from these sources is considered clean. Clean energy is a vague definition but can generally be described as energy that does not produce high amounts of emissions and have a negative impact on the environment. Solar energy is a type of energy that is captured by the sun emitting rays on a structure such as a solar panel. When the particles of light hit the solar panel, they knock electrons free from atoms, which in turn generates electricity. Wind turbines work best by the coast or in open areas and convert rotational energy, created when wind turns the blades on the windmill, into electrical energy. In a similar way, hydropower uses running water, usually from a dam in a river, to create rotational energy within wheels, and that is then converted to electrical energy.  Geothermal energy works by tapping into reservoirs filled with steam or hot water. The heat from these reservoirs is then used to create electrical energy by driving an electrical generator. This type of energy can only be generated in areas of continuously high underground temperatures, which is typically near unstable tectonic plates and volcanos. Finally, nuclear power may be the most debated type of clean energy. Nuclear energy is created in a plant and occurs during a process called nuclear fission when large nuclei split into smaller pieces, and create a large amount of energy which can usually be harnessed into electrical energy. 

The current lack of clean energy can be helped out with the installation of current technology such as windmills in order to generate energy. Windmills can be installed in almost every state in the nation in order to produce electricity, however they are not currently used enough. According to the scholarly article by Amin Niayifar, “Wind energy is witnessing continuous growth at an average annual rate of approximately 25% and currently contributes to more than 2.6% of electricity generation worldwide.” (Niayifar). The current production of only 2.6% (As of August 2016) is the real problem the United States has. Not enough wind turbines are currently installed which leads to more fossil fuels being burned to produce electricity. However if more turbines are installed, overall pollution from electricity can significantly decrease. The continuous installation will help clean the environment and, “This contribution is expected to increase to 18% of the world’s electricity generation by 2050.”(Niayifar). A 15% increase in electricity from wind power over the next several decades will be a large step in the direction towards making the planet a cleaner place and reducing emissions. 

Another popular type of clean energy is solar energy. Solar energy is popular because solar panels can be installed in many locations from large fields to the rooftops of homes and businesses. The majority of solar energy production comes from large-scale projects which, “Account for about 60 percent of all installed solar capacity in the United States. This capacity is expected to triple by the end of this year(2016) from the 2014 level.”(The Promise of Tomorrow Electric Power Industry Outlook). While the current total of solar energy is low in the United States, it is on the rise and needs to continue to rise. If the energy production from solar power can triple in a two year period without excessive government funding, it would certainly be able to take off with significant funding. Solar energy is also cheaper to use than fossil fuels so if a portion of the money spent on oil and coal was set aside for solar power, the short term result may be more expensive but the long term result would result in a cheaper and cleaner form of energy. 

One of the lesser known types of renewable resources is hydropower, or the use of running water to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Hydropower currently accounts for just under 50% of total renewable energy electricity, but should be used more for several reasons. It is one of the cheapest forms of generating electricity because it uses the constant source of running water to generate mechanical energy which is then converted. According to current research, “The energy conversion system efficiency for a well-operated hydroelectric power plant can be around 85%, while the system efficiencies for thermal-electric plants are less than 50%.”(Chiyembekezo). The efficiency of hydropower alone proves why it should be a more used source of generating energy because aside from the cost of building the hydropower plant, the energy is cheap and does not harm the environment. 

The future of electrical energy generation in the United States, and possibly the world, may be nuclear energy. While many people may think of the word nuclear and relate it only to nuclear weapons of mass destruction and events like Chernobyl, it can actually be an energy source with a zero-carbon profile. The article on nuclear energy by Scott Segal uses a quote from Obama in which Obama says, “To meet our growing energy needs and prevent the worst consequences of climate change, we’ll need to increase our supply of nuclear power. It’s that simple.” (Segal) In this quote, Obama was clearly saying that the climate change due to the current use of energy is not in a good state and change needs to happen. The environment is taking too great of an effect from emissions due to fossil fuels. This effect is unnecessary because currently, “Just under a hundred nuclear power plants in the United States generates about 19 percent of our nation’s electricity. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, these plants are the largest source of zero-carbon electric generation in more than half of the states.” (Segal) If a few hundred more nuclear power plants were to be developed in the United States, they could potentially account for a majority of the electrical energy generation development within the United States. While the risks of running a nuclear power plant are high, the reward is greater. As technology continues to develop, nuclear plants will become less and less of a risk and play a huge roll in the future of energy in the United States. 

It has been clear over the last several decades that pollution in the environment are bad but just how bad are they? According to the article by Mouratiadou, “China, followed by the USA and India, are the major emitting regions out of the five investigated ones in terms of cumulative century emissions” (Mouratiadou). Being the second largest producer of emissions in the world, the U.S. needs to lower itself on that list. The total use of fossil fuels may be due to the total population of the country and the amount of availability of items like cars that produce a lot of emissions. An example of the pollution of cars can be visibly seen as smog in places like Los Angeles, California, where the emissions from a vast amount of vehicles combine with the air, and actually harm visibility. With many people having cars and other fuel-consuming products, the availability of fossil fuels is already declining and will continue to decline as the use continues. Constant growth and urbanization lead to the research results that, “A baby born in the United States costs 30 times more in terms of resources than a baby born in Nepal or Bangladesh.” (Chorafas) This simple statistic clearly shows how much more natural resources are used by the U.S. than other countries around the world and that the numbers need to decrease. At the current rate, this number is only going to increase significantly because, “According to reliable estimates, between now and 2050 the world’s population will rise by 30 percent or more to about 9 billion” (Chorafas). If the current emissions problem is not fixed now, it will only be substantially worse in the next several decades, and the environment will continue to take a toll until fossil fuels run out. 

The future benefits of transforming from a society that is solely based upon fossil fuels such as coal and oil to a society that can run primarily on renewable energy are endless. A recent study by National Geographic found that renewable energy in the United States accounts for only about 11% of the total energy production in the country. However, this number can be drastically changed if new and old technologies are implemented as a normal part of society. The automobile industry is making great changes in recent years by developing hybrid and electric cars, which either use much less fuel or run solely on electricity. As this type of technology continues to develop, emissions from automobiles can decrease significantly and benefit the environment. The future in the automobile industry is already looking green. A recently developed technology, solar roadways, has been installed in France. Solar roadways have potential to change the solar industry in the next several decades by combining as a roadway and energy source. While current costs of this are expensive, future development may lower costs and provide great amounts of energy. 

The world is in a time where it is not worrying about what the future of the planet will be, but instead making sure it runs well in the current day. Without a change in the way the planet is running, future generations must deal with the consequences of the present. These consequences may make the planet unsafe to live on and almost impossible to clean up. However, the transformation to clean energy in the next few decades could help save the planet forever. If the United States is willing to invest in the technologies of the future, willing to install the tools of clean energy, and willing to continue to push the boundaries of clean energy, not only will the country change, but the entire planet. The world can contain much less pollution, fossil fuels will be stored in large supply, and effects like smog will no longer be in existence. While the transformation is not going to happen over night or even over a few years, an impact will be seen by future generations if the process begins now. A clean energy society is a better society.
