Throughout the years, civilizations have put their lives on the line in the form of battle and conquest. These fights have been over land, resources, or just out of fear. But the real threat that affects everyone in the world has been growing stronger with each and every day that goes by. No, it is not that neighboring country, or maybe a newly elected president. It comes in the form of something that cannot be seen within the naked eye. The threat that I am eluding to is the concept of global warming. Global warming has counted for the deaths of countless animals and many people acquiring forms of illnesses. This threat has loomed of the world for years now and people are starting to combat this threat. And one major way that people are combating global warming is through the use of alternate energy sources. Some alternative energy sources include wind energy, hydroelectric energy, solar energy, natural gas, Geothermal energy, and many more. There are millions of people from all kinds of different backgrounds that truly believe in alternative energy sources and feel like something should be done to combat global warming. These alternative sources could quite possibly stop the danger of global warming and help save the world from impending destruction. 

To start it off, a source from the critically acclaimed website, “Union of Concerned Scientists,” published an article describing the negative effects of global warming and what people has done and is doing to make the situation even worse. Some of the statements include that one of the leading cause of global warming in the United States of America is a byproduct of the electricity production. In which, a large majority of the electric power plants are powered by coal. To be exact, the coal powered electricity plants account for approximately 25 percent of the total United States global warming emission. To draw a vivid comparison between natural gas and coal, natural gas “emits between 0.6 and two pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt- hour.” Wind energy emits only 0.02 to 0.04, solar emits 0.07 to 0.2, and Hydroelectric emits between 0.1 to 0.5. While coal emits a staggering 1.4 to 3.6 pounds of carbon dioxide. The various alternative energy sources emit about an average of around 85% less emissions. 

One of the most valuable, effective, and abundant energy sources is through the power of the wind. And the people from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in wind also. Wind is “caused by the heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the rotation of the Earth, and the Earth’s surface irregularities.” They published an article describing the various reasons as to why wind energy should be used in this day and age. For example, one of the many reasons include that wind energy is the amplest resources on the world. So as “long as the sun shines and the wind blows,” we can continue to harness the wind for our own gain. Another reason as to why wind energy should be expanded is that it is arguably the most environmentally safe resources. Wind doesn’t use any fossil fuels, including coal and natural gas, and does not emit any greenhouse gasses. If the use of wind energy were to be implemented today, it would have to potential to cut greenhouse emissions by 14%. To put this into a physical meaning, wind energy could help save 400 billion dollars in avoided global damage by the year 2050. Wind energy is also “one of the lowest- cost renewable energy technologies available today.” This could help people all over the world save money, all the while save the environment. 

Another energy source that could prove to be crucial is hydroelectric energy. The use of hydroelectric energy dates back all the way to over 2,000 years ago. Back then, the people “used water wheels to grind corn and wheat.” And throughout the years, the civilizations have become more advanced and began to use to force of water to power their buildings and homes. With most of the United States still being powered using fossil fuels, oil, and nuclear power plants, hydroelectric energy accounts for 7% of the total energy production. And on the global scale, hydroelectric energy accounts for 16% on the total electricity production. And sadly, with the current trend with the rising sea levels, hydroelectric energy could become more available to different parts of the world. Additionally, hydroelectric power plants have a completely different attribute that other alternative resources. Hydroelectric plants are often in the form of a dam. In which, only one damn would need to be required to power a whole community. This is in contrast to other facilities that require numerous minor construction jobs that would be built over time. 

 

There is another alternative energy resource that has a ton of potential to be a substitute for fossil fuels, and it is called Geothermal energy. Geothermal, if you break it down, is exactly what it sounds like. It is the transfer of the Earth’s heat below the crust to energy that we use. People all over the world have been constantly tapping into the Earth for its energy. In 2013, humans harvested 68 billion kilowatts of energy that was used to power their home, factories, buildings, and everyday lives. To put this into perspective, that is a little less than half the amount of energy produced in both Iceland and El Salvador combined. Geothermal energy also has the potential to become the most cost efficient resource known to man. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that by the year 2019, with the new installation of geothermal power plants, we could get the price of kilowatts per hour down to 5 cents. While the price of natural gas plants would be at six cents per hour. And the price of conventional coal power plants would be at a price of nine cents per hour.

The last major alternative energy sources happens to be one of the most abundant on Earth, and it is solar energy. In fact, “173,000 terawatts of solar energy strike the Earth continuously.” This might not seem like a big deal to the naked eye. Although, that amount of energy is 10,000 times more than the total world’s energy use. Solar energy is also one of the cleaner resources. Solar energy releases “less than 1% of the carbon dioxide emissions released by a fossil fuel plant.” For the United States, they rank third for the largest solar energy users in the world. And with every passing year, the amount of solar energy used increases exponentially. Dating back to 2008, in which the United States produced 1.2 gigawatts, as skyrockets to a staggering estimated 27.4 gigawatts. As of now, solar energy is somewhat unreachable to much of the public due to the costs. Additionally, the costs and construction times for solar energy has been decreasing with the help of the SunShot Initiative’s soft cost program. As the sun continues to burn, and the people of Earth continue to use energy, solar energy could prove to become a vital component of alternative resource initiative. 

In the United States of America, there are more than some scientists that believe in “going green” and using alternative energy sources. There are some celebrities that have taken initiatives is helping to guide people in the right direction of change. Some of these big names include Matt Damon, Kevin Costner, Penelope Cruz, Jessica Alba and even Leonardo Di Capriol. These big names have done all kinds of good deeds such as donating to the cause, spreading the word, and doing their own part in using alternative energy and limiting their carbon footprint. Even singer Jason Mraz, who has dedicated a large amount of his time to the cause, once talked about how his solar panels allow him to have “a $0.00 electric bill, [because] my solar system will at times send energy back to the grid.” Another person who also has done her part in using alternative energy is Australian superstar Cate Blanchett. Blanchett has invested a good part of her earnings into a solar power company named Sungevity. The company raised an astonishing $15 million for new funding within a three-year period. Blanchett even pleaded her stance with the Australian government for “her support of a carbon tax plan designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions.” She even said that “everyone will benefit if we protect the environment” and that she has been very fortunate if her career but “that’s no reason not to stand up for something that I deeply believe in.” With the help of all of the big-name celebrities and public figures, we could help convince the public eye that we do need change. 

Although, the use of alternative energy sources would help the environment, there would also be a countless list of challenges. And with each potential site for alternative energy comes with a lot of steps to get it up and running. For obvious reasons, one could not construct a hydroelectric plant in the middle of a dessert in Egypt. And the dark and cold country of Iceland would not be an optimal place to use solar panels and to build geothermic power plants. Also, to get a site up and running for wind energy would “require several years of monitoring to determine whether [that location is] suitable.” So, one step in the process of developing a site would take a large amount of prospecting to find the most optimal location. The next step in the process is making sure that you would have the correct permits for that specific location. Then, perhaps the most important and difficult step, is the marketing for that alternative energy. Even through humans know about some consequences to using fossil fuels and oil for energy, it is not enough to cause them to switch to a different resource. To combat this and hopefully persuade people to change their habits, “public education will be a critical party of a fully functioning market if renewables are to succeed.” And lastly, the final step in the list of potential challenges is the installation, operation, and management of the facilities. The creation of all of these alternative energy plants would require a countless number of workers to make sure the plants are running properly. In which, all the workers would need to be thoroughly educated on everything that resides and functions in that plant. And those educators would need to be paid for educating which would require more money which leads to my next point. From an article that was written back in 2012 by Susan Kraemer, who is a writer and activist for the use of alternative energy sources, stated that it would cost an estimated 4 trillion dollars to switch by the year 2020. Another major issue that could come from switching to the use of alternative energy sources is the idea of time. If countries all over the world were to pass legislation to ban the use of fossil fuels and gas, and only allow for the use of alternative resources, it would take a good ten years or so until we could get enough factories and energy plants up and running to power our everyday lives.            

There are countless upsides with the use of alternative energy sources, that are separate from aiding the environment. Even though this idea was stated as a negative, it could also be a positive. This proponent is all the potential jobs that constructing, developing, and maintaining would require. This would create a whole new job market that would be a huge help to the economy. For example, in 2011, a company that manufactures and operates wind turbines created the opportunity to “directly employ(e) 75,000 full-time employees in a variety of capacities.”  That is a small demonstration of how many jobs can be created if the world were to switch to alternative energy sources. Additionally, an upside to switching to alternative resources for energy would allow for a far more reliable energy system. In comparison to fossil fuel electric systems, wind and solar energy and well distributed and spread out. If a storm we to pass over the facilities, and were to damage some of the components, the system would still be able to function. While if a storm we to damage the facilities at a fossil fuel electric facility, the whole system would shut down. This was the exact case with Hurricane Sandy back in 2012. In the New Jersey and New York area, millions lost power from their fossil fuel driven electric plants. While, in the Northeastern portion of the United States where a good amount of renewable energy system lie, sustained minimal damage from the storm and was able to keep the lights on. Another upside to alternative energy sources is the positive effect it would have on the economy and the cost of electricity. If we were to continue our current trend with fossil fuels and oil, we would eventually begin to run low on t hose resources. That would cause the prices of oil and fossil fuels to skyrocket, having a ripple effect all over the world. While if we were to switch to renewable energy, and the sun and Earth were to continue to exist, we would have an endless amount of energy. All the while continuing to maintain a fair price point for energy and electricity. Also, most of these alternative resources require a power facility to harness the energy and convert it into electricity. 

The world is starting to get to the point where the damage caused by oil and fossil fuels will become irreversible. The time to change the resources we use on a daily basis is now. Obviously, change cannot happen overnight. But if we, as a group united, were to put into place some worldwide initiatives that would transfer the use of fossil fuels and oil to alternative energy sources, the entire world would be for the better. If we would switch to an electricity system that was driven by alternative energy sources, the power grid would be far more durable, the economy for benefit considerably, millions of people would become employed, and we would not run out of resources until the end of the world. This change would not only be crucial for our generations survival, but your children’s wellbeing and their children and so on. It pains me to think that my great, great grandkids might be in grave danger because our generation wasn’t6 able to see the real problem. So we could either let this problem continue and get for worse than any of us could of imagined, or we can take initiative to make sure that the future generations will be able to live on an inhabitable planet. Fossil fuels and oil are the fuels of the past, and alternative energy sources are the energy of the future.
