Moving Towards Renewable Energy

by Derek Schummer

The global demand for energy is the highest it has ever been and will continue to grow as Earth’s population increases. The majority of our energy is generated from the use of fossil fuels, which as many people have started to realize result in high carbon emissions and is one of the biggest factors in what scientists are calling global warming. This is just one reason why we must take measures now to not only protect Earth’s natural resources but to also lower carbon emissions and move towards a more ecologically friendly society. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to expand the use and movement towards generating our energy from renewable resources. This would lower our dependence on fossil fuels and result in much lower emissions. A few examples of this could include wind energy, solar power, biomass/bioenergy, hydroelectric power, and geothermal energy. The U.S. is moving in the right direction to generate 100% of our electricity from renewable resources, but it is a slow going work in progress.

There is a vision that is in place now for the United States and several other countries to generate all of our electrical needs from renewable energy by the year 2040, but if we have the technology and means to do it now we should strive for a much shorter time frame. There are actually a few countries that have already accomplished this such as Iceland, Albania, Lesotho, Paraguay, and Tajikistan. If we were to join these countries and accomplish this as well I believe it would be a major feat for the United States, especially since we consume more energy than any other country in the world. Granted this will be no easy or small task as it will be very costly to undergo so many projects to meet our energy demand and considering the fact that we currently only generate about 10% of our total energy use from renewable resources. In the long run though we can save money by getting rid of costs associated with extracting fossil fuels as well as eliminating any dependency we have on foreign imports.

I believe this could be done well before the year 2040 and strongly believe that it should. Who knows, by then it just may be too late or scientists could have this global warming idea all wrong. I guess we will have to wait and see!

Works Cited:

"Vision2040 for the EU27." Vision2040 for the EU27. N.p., July 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. <http://www.inforse.org/europe/VisionEU27.htm>.

"Total Energy and Consumption." U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). N.p., 2012. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. <http://www.eia.gov/>.