“Energy Source (n.) Natural Resources something such as oil, coal, or the sun, which can be used to provide power for light, heat, machines, etc.” (Google). The world that mankind lives in today is a world that needs a reliable energy source, and a non polluting one too. The consumption of the non renewable resources in the U.S is destroying the climate and health of people. The plan of converting the U.S into solely using renewable resources will fix the problems the U.S is struggling with.
The different sources of renewable energies mankind has access too. The major types of renewable energy sources are Biomass—includes: Wood and wood waste, Municipal solid waste, Landfill gas and biogas Ethanol, Biodiesel, Hydropower, Geothermal, Wind, and Solar. The world mankind lives in today is a world ran by nonrenewable resources. With the vast majority of mankind solely relaying on nonrenewable resources here is what is considered nonrenewable. Nonrenewable energy sources come out of the ground as liquids, gases, and solids.
Mankind needs a viable energy source that will not hurt it them in the future, which is happening now with ever growing about of emission done by non renewables. Propane and other hydrocarbon gas liquids, such as butane and ethane, are found in natural gas and crude oil. Non renewables resources are gases and liquids found in the earth after centuries of decomposition of past species and plants that lived long ago. We use crude oil to make liquid petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating oil.
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Crude oil is the a non renewable that is used to make gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel, all sources to fuel combustion engine cars that emit CO4 and CH4. Coal, crude oil, and natural gas are all considered fossil fuels because they were formed from the buried remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. The resources mankind uses nowadays come from prehistorical animals and plants that have turned into fuel like coal, crude oil, and natural gas. Uranium ore, a solid, is mined and converted to a fuel used at nuclear power plants. Uranium is not a fossil fuel, but it is classified as a nonrenewable fuel. Nuclear power is not considered to be a nonrenewable but there is many dangers of using uranium.
In this research mankind conversion to solely using renewable resources will solely take part through wind, solar, and hydropower. The definition of what renewable energy will be explained. Renewable energy is energy from sources that are naturally replenishing but flow-limited. They are virtually inexhaustible in duration but limited in the amount of energy that is available per unit of time. A renewable energy is a source that is naturally replenishing and virtually inexhaustible source of energy.
With the ever growing population in the U.S. a reliable inexhaustible energy source is needed to keep up U.S. civilians comfortable lives in the future. As far as renewable energy sources is concerned solar thermal energy is the most abundant one and is available in both direct as well as indirect forms. Solar energy is considered to be the most abundant energy source the U.S. has access too. This energy source is virtually inexhaustible while fossil fuels are exhaustible and cause pollution. Of the renewable energy technologies applied to electricity generation, wind energy ranks second only to hydroelectric in terms of installed capacity and is experiencing rapid growth. Wind is also ranked behind hydroelectric and solar energy another reliable and inexhaustible energy source. With good plans and placements for wind turbines, wind energy can be efficient in certain areas in the U.S.
The problems the U.S. faces with pollution is caused by excess amount of emission done but the use of nonrenewable resources such as petroleum and oil. This the excess amount of emission of CO2 and CH4 is causing heat to be trapped in the atmosphere thus warming the earth’s climate. The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases such as CO2, CH4, CFCs, halons, N2O, ozone, and peroxyacetylnitrate in the atmosphere is acting to trap heat radiated from Earth’s surface and is raising the surface temperature of Earth.
Nonrenewable resources that are being burned for fuel such as crude oil cause a excess amount of emission of CO2, CH4, CFCS, and etc. Which cause earth surface to heat and affecting earth’s climate. Increasing global temperature ultimately increases global mean sea levels at an average annual rate of 1–2 mm over the last century. With the excess amount of emission done, the heating of the surface has caused the polar icecaps to melt and raise our sea level 1-2 mm every year in last century. Many scientific studies reveal that overall CO2 levels have increased 31% in the past 200 years.Since the industrial revolution happening back in 1800s with burning coal as energy, since then the CO2 levels increased by 31 percent.
The global mean surface temperature has increased by 0.4–0.8 ◦ C in the last century above the baseline of 14 ◦ C. The huge of emission has also caused the baseline surface temperature to increase to 14 C. Arctic sea ice thinned by 40% and decreased in extent by 10–15% in summer since the 1950s. The polar icecaps have thinned by 40% causing the annual 0.2-0.4mm sea level to raise. Industry contributes directly and indirectly (through electricity consumption) about 37% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, of which over 80% is from energy use. Industries across the world contribute to 37 percent of the global green house gas emission with 80 percent is from energy use throughout the world.
By electricity consumption alone. 20 Gt of Carbon added to environment since 1800 only due to deforestation and the concentration of methane gas which is responsible for ozone layer depletion has more than doubled since then.Ever since the industrial revolution we have up the emission of CO2 and have cut down huge amounts of trees causing the balance of CO2 and Oxygen to be unbalanced. Causing the ozone layer to deteriorate. Total energy-related emissions, which were 9.9 Gt CO2 in 2004, have grown by 65% since 1971. Billions of tons of CO2 is emitted every year with it ever growing every year since 1971 it has grown by 65 percent.
There is ample scope to minimize emission of greenhouse gases if efficient utilization of renewable energy sources in actual energy meeting route is promoted. If we promote the use of renewable resources such as solar and wind power we can minimize the emission of CO2 in the atmosphere and be efficient. It may affect health through a range of path- ways, for example as a result of increased frequency and intensity of heat waves, reduction in cold related deaths, increased floods and droughts, changes in the distribution of vector-borne diseases and effects on the risk of disasters and malnutrition.With ever growing emission of CO2 it is causing more problems with environment which is causing more problems for mankind to deal with such as the possibilities of increased flood and drought chances happening around the earth. Emissions of pollutants into the air can result in changes to the climate.
As the paper has gone over and over emission of the pollutants causes climate change in the earth. Over the last century the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2).Burning the nonrenewable resources like coal and crude oil just keep on increasing the concentration of the atmosphere. To a lesser extent, the clearing of land for agriculture, industry, and other human activities has increased concentrations of greenhouse gases.
Getting rid of nonrenewable resources would not completely get rid of the emission of greenhouse gases into atmosphere because human activity like clearing land and industrial work emit greenhouse gas as well. Warmer conditions will probably lead to more evaporation and precipitation overall, but individual regions will vary, some becoming wetter and others dryer. Warmer conditions may experience wetter or dryer climates all having to do the excess amount of emission done by mankind affecting the climate. Causing either flooding or drought in certain areas. A stronger greenhouse effect will warm the oceans and partially melt glaciers and other ice, increasing sea level. Ocean water also will expand if it warms, contributing further to sea level rise. With the greenhouse effect in affect the sea level will raise, ocean water will being warmed up will melt the polar icecaps.
Now why should the U.S. convert to solely using renewable resources. There are many pros in the foreseeable future that can better the U.S. health and technological advancements. Renewable energy sources that meet domestic energy requirements have the potential to provide energy services with zero or almost zero emissions of both air pollutants and greenhouse gases. With converting to solely using renewable resources it will make mankind’s emission to the greenhouse gases and air pollutants to be virtually nothing. Renewable energy system development will make it possible to resolve the presently most crucial tasks like improving energy supply reliability and organic fuel economy; solving problems of local energy and water supply.
Renewable energy system being put in affect will help mankind’s reliability problem and solve organic fuel economy problems on not just the national level but also the local level. Increasing the standard of living and level of employment of the local population; ensuring sustainable development of the remote regions in the desert and mountain zones. Ensuring that the world has a sustainable energy resource, a more comfortable life style will be possible for virtually any human on the earth. Thus, increasing the standard of living with using renewable energy as the main source of energy. Implementation of the obligations of the countries with regard to fulfilling the international agreements relating to environmental protection.
Now that we have gone over the pros of renewable resources a plan has been introduced by a study done by Stanford to how the U.S. can fully convert to solely using renewable resources. In the Stanford news article they talk about their state- by-state plan to convert the U.S. to 100 percent clean renewable energy by 2050. The plan explains major barriers for this plan to commence such as public, political, and industries changing to renewable energy. They showed how with today’s technology and economy it will be possible which will persuade them and decrease the barrier. A plan has been introduced where the U.S. can solely relay on only renewable resources by the year 2050. The plan explains the major problems they will face with politics, the public, and commencing the project. All this can be done with today’s technology and economy. They then went on how each state would be divided up into sectors residential, commercial, industrial and transportation. Then analyze the current amount and source of the fuel consumed such as gas, oil, renewable, coal, and calculated the fuel demand if all the demand were replaced by electricity.
This is a challenge because saying this they assume that all cars, houses and industries are electric. They calculated this off of today’s technology and energy saving, would rise significantly. The plan also introduces that they will divide each state into sectors and completely make a system compatible to that state. Then they will analyze how much fuel that state consumes and convert it into how much solar and wind power will be needed to power the state. The next step in the plan is to see how to power the new electric grid. They focused on only using renewable energy to meet the demand of each state. Examples the renewables are : wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and tiny amounts of tidal and wave.
The part of the plan introduces how they will need to create a new efficient version of the electric grid solely focusing on using renewable resource. They analyzed each state’s sun exposure, and how many south-facing, non-shaded rooftops could accommodate solar panels. They developed and consulted wind maps and determined whether local offshore wind turbines were an option. They will analyze each states solar sun exposure and wind maps to make a state specific power consumption. Geothermal energy was available at a reasonable cost for only 13 states. The plan calls for virtually no new hydroelectric dams, but does account for energy gains from improving the efficiency of existing dams.For states that do not have much solar exposure and wind power there are states that will need to use geothermal power to power the state. Reports say the conversion should be 80% done by 2030 and fully converted by 2050 if they follow the guidelines.
Theoretically speaking if technology was not too advance from today the conversion rate would be at 80 percent by 2030, but if technology is advancing the conversion rate would be faster then being fully done by 2050. The plan calls for no more than 0.5 percent of any state’s land to be covered in solar panels or wind turbines. The upfront cost of the changes would be significant, but wind and sunlight are free. 0.5 percent of land covered in just solar panels may seem to be a small number but it actually covers a lot of land in those bigger states but with expenses being high to convert sunlight and wind power is free.
So the overall cost spread over time would be roughly equal to the price of the fossil fuel infrastructure, maintenance and production. The cost of the price of fossil fuels will be roughly equal to the conversion money needed to convert. his plan outlines, the reduction of air pollution in the U.S. could prevent the deaths of approximately 63,000 Americans who die from air pollution-related causes each year. The conversion to using the renewable source only will even help health and problems air pollution-related causes each year. It would also eliminate U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases produced from fossil fuel, which would otherwise cost the world $3.3 trillion a year by 2050. If the U.S. was not to convert to renewable resources repairing the atmosphere will cost them approximately 3.3 trillion dollars by 2050.
The mass consumption of using nonrenewable resources will be the demise of mankind but if we were to convert to renewable resource now it will fix some problems. The plan standford introduced is a very viable plan that can be done with our technology and economy. The pros of fully converting to using solely renewables outweighs the cons and pros of nonrenewable resources. The final thought for this paper is that we should convert to using renewable resources to help our future and keep mankind’s demise at bay.
