01/29/2008: "Renewable Energy"

Nowadays we hear so much about recycling, the environment, and power consumption. The fact that we are running out of our natural resources or will at some point, and the cost of oil has gone dramatically higher than necessary. Whether that is because we are on the verge of new vehicles that work with alternative power sources or not remains to be questioned. The fact is that many nations are currently working towards alternative power sources not only for your home's heat and air conditioning, how to make your car move, but of course general electricity as well.

In todays day and age we are barraged with messages that we are ruining our own environment, there are massive holes in the ozone, and that global warming is heating the planet too much. Is all of this true though I wonder. I mean in all actuality if you really think about this the population has grown tremendously from 1900 to 2000 worldwide. On the other hand though, how long have we even had central air, a combustion engine for every citizen, as well as power to even light our homes? All came at different times I suppose, but we could not have had all of them for more than 200 years now at the most. 200 out of 2000 years is only a tenth, and to imagine that we could destroy our planet that fast is rather alarming and almost unbelievable.

I don't mean to debate this evening whether global warming is occurring or not, as I'll leave that for the scientists out there. However as I said many nations are pushing towards alternative power sources. Including geothermal heat, directed solar power, and wind power that all store up and fuel turbines to produce electricity. Currently less than 10% of the United States is fueled by what is known as renewable energy or energy that we can recreate without damaging the environment or little to no risk to it. It is consumable and renewable allowing us to continue to power nearly all of our current machinery in other ways different from standard combustible and non-renewable power sources.

Society is always changing around the world and while none of us might have paid too much attention to energy conservation, it's a problem that has kind of came about because of the times rather than foolishness. Due to massive population growth we are now consuming too much power and too quickly. In order to combat this it isn't so much that are governments don't care, but it is a situation that we now have to play catch up since we didn't foresee this problem.

Without making excuses for anyone or pointing fingers, I won't deny the importance of renewable energy, recycling of materials, and in general, taking care of the environment. But I also don't think we should worry so much about the world melting or being destroyed by global warming. I'm not saying it isn't happening at all, as there is mixed evidence on both sides; but I would allow our governments some time to not only find the best technology to solve energy issues and then create working applications of those systems.

The World is what we make of it, and not all problems can be foreseen, this is simply a case where humanity needs to address it's growth and power consumption, and make the necessary changes for our current use as well as expected future requirements.