Recently, I was given the opportunity to learn about “Energy and the Environment”. This was a huge step out of my comfort zone, in case you are not familiar, I am a major in both Finance in Economics. Stepping into an Energy and Environment class was certainly uncharted territory, diving into topics that are both relevant to today’s world and other topics that are pretty science-heavy. However, the information I gathered about today’s world is certainly information I would like to share on my Civic Issues Blog.
The usage of Energy in everyday life is quite interesting. Energy, for those who are unaware, is usually generated by a source of heat. Energy typically revolves around burning fossil fuels, creating heat energy, and emitting CO2 into the atmosphere. This is what makes fossil fuels so bad for the environment. The constant increase in fossil fuel usage leads to more CO2 in the atmosphere which ultimately harms the environment. Simple events such as driving (the burning of gas), cooking, air conditioning, and heating all burn fossil fuels which harm the environment.
However, believe it or not, there are plenty of ways to get the Earth back on track and switch from the constant usage of fossil fuels. Switching fossil fuels with Energy known as “Renewable Energy” is a healthier way to stable the environment. The question is, if there are options to improve the environment, why is nothing being done? The problem is a good amount of America is not knowledgable in science. In fact, when presenting these ideas to the normal everyday citizen, most rejected the idea in the fear of change. Studies show that Americans in recent years have refused change. The switch to renewable energy would certainly save the environment, but it would be a small shift in lifestyle as well.
The way energy impacts the environment is very interesting. Everything is one large chain reaction. The burning of fossil fuels is used to create heat energy, which powers everyday household tasks but emits heat in the process. The heat gives off CO2 hurting the atmosphere which eventually effects climate change. The world population constantly growing is extremely negative as the environment will only continue to suffer. You can do your part by participating in one of the easiest and most popular sources of renewable energy, “Solar Energy”. By utilizing solar panels you are using renewable energy and helping the Earth. Another option is switching from a gas powered vehicle to an electric vehicle. Unfortunately, electric vehicles are quite expensive so that option may be a bit hard at the moment. Hopefully, in the near future people will begin to come around and help save the environment by doing their part.
This was an excellent article about how energy is involved in the world around us and ways we can use it without harming the planet. I think you make some very good points about the energy cycles and how everything will eventually feed back into itself, sometimes in good ways and often in harmful ways, like oil and coal burning. Clean energy needs to be prioritized, and honestly, I think more attention needs to be placed on nuclear energy – arguably one of the safest and most effective forms of clean energy, even if the initial cost is more expensive. Regardless of how we choose to proceed, this planet only has so much energy to give, and if we don’t use it responsibly, only bad things await our future.
Energy has been a widely disputed thing as of recently due to its increasing implication in global warming. Since most of our energy comes from heat, which then turns water into steam and turns turbines, it is important to evaluate the ways we could turn those turbines without heat or come up with better ways to make heat. In terms of these goals, we could either work with other types of heat (fission, geothermal, fusion at some point), or other ways to turn turbines or create charge (wind & water turbines, solar). All of these methods could be used to potentially better out methods for generating heat.