Environmental Impacts Of Renewable Energy

Nuclear power should not be dismissed and must be included as a major component of an alternative energy source to replace fossil fuels as it has the greatest potential to be the primary energy source in the future which can work together with other alternative renewable energy sources to combat global warming and to help meet the world’s growing energy demand

The United States is the second largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world, and yet is doing very little to fix this startling statistic (Dennis). The US’ reliance upon outdated energy sources continues to harm both the environment and the economy by producing millions of tonnes of pollution every year and costing the government billions of dollars (“Fact Sheet: Clean Power Plan”). Fossil fuels have been the main energy sources in America since the industrial revolution, and it is time to make a change. Renewable energy is energy harnessed from sources like the sun, wind, or water, and has little to no negative effects on the environment (“Renewable Energy Technology Basics”). The United States needs to integrate and increase the use of these types of energy across the country, as well as implement positive environmental policies, to prevent further pollution of the earth and combat the effects of climate change.

Nuclear power is, to many people, seen as unsafe and unstable much attributed to the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl plant failures, Chernobyl actually having a meltdown releasing radiation into the atmosphere. What people fail to realize is that nuclear power is the cheapest and one of the cleanest ways of producing power. Nuclear plants create no greenhouse gases to pollute the atmosphere and are very reliable, not depending on solar cycle or rainfall to produce energy. Nuclear waste is also an issue most people bring up but in our advances in technology we now have proven and effective ways to dispose of the waste. With the amount of uranium we have on the planet and the amount used to create power we have virtually an unlimited supply of fuel. Though not abundant, as with most power generation processes there are adverse effects with creating nuclear power.

Nuclear power has been around since the 1950s, and has had varying opinions throughout the years (iaea.org). At its conception, individuals viewed nuclear power as an unlimited source of energy. People thought it would revolutionize the world and produce large amounts of power at extremely low prices. However, opinions changed after catastrophic events like the reactor meltdowns at Chernobyl and Fukushima. Over the years, nuclear reactors have improved and made safer, and the power of the atom is slowly being tamed. There is still conflict between those who view nuclear power as the future and those who view it as a curse. Nuclear power is the future.

The nuclear power plant has no home in our new advanced environment. Once upon a time, nuclear energy was a well and efficient way to produce energy, but it's 2018, not 1951. Over the course of history, the nuclear power plant was one of the first ways of using energy for commercial use. Especially with so many new inventions like the TV coming out, such energy like nuclear energy was amazing. Yet in the 21st century, it is nothing but a nuisance to our clean environment. It causes too many problems and no solutions. That is why nuclear energy should be one of the last results for energy. More environmentally healthy and safer solutions should be pursued. The nuclear power plant is an inadequate way to harvest energy due to its waste, cost, and accidents, yet some would argue that it is an efficient way to obtain energy.

After the Fukushima Daiichi accident, nuclear power was once again brought into the spotlight with one burning question: Is it worth the risks? Well, I believe it is, and that we can avoid those risks altogether if we do it properly. One of our biggest upcoming problems is climate change, and with solar and wind power not able to provide enough clean power, nuclear is the safe, reliable, realistic, and clean option.

Arguments FOR using and developing nuclear power To satisfy our general needs of heating our water, heating our homes, cooking our food, powering our appliances and lighting our rooms, we need to retrieve energy from the many many methods available to us. One of these choices is nuclear energy. There are very good reasons why it should be considered and developed further, to be used in the future. Firstly, by comparing it to the other non renewable energy sources (coal, oil and natural gas), nuclear power is a very clean energy as it does not produce any of the greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which lead to the greenhouse effect or global warming.

When the term nuclear power or nuclear energy comes into conversations, often the first thoughts that come to mind are bombs, destruction, radioactive waste, and war. However, these four things occur the least in the nuclear power field. It is far more than just mass destruction and devastation, nuclear power is used to create electricity in a safe and eco-friendly manor. People have a high level of concern about the use of nuclear energy especially after past devastations such as Chernobyl or Fukushima. Even with these accidents, society should not oppose the use of nuclear energy because of advancements in technology, it has become a very environmentally friendly and cost efficient energy source.

However, when looking at nuclear energy one need to consider the “two factors that impede the consideration of adoption of nuclear power - fear and expense.” (Easton, 2010, p. 221) If these factors could be overcome, we could gain the benefits of the this resource Reviving nuclear energy technology will help to reduce the need to burn oil, coal, or any other fuel that emit air pollution because nuclear reactor does not emit air pollution. Overall, it does not contribute to harming the environment. Furthermore, the use of nuclear energy as stated earlier will help eliminate the need for foreign oil and giving the country the much-needed national security and a green energy policy that will curve global warming.

The use of renewable energies such as wind, solar, tidal, or geothermal power are not always reliable, can be very expensive, and can be difficult to harness. A dry spell of wind or a cloudy, cold, snowy winter could cause these types of energy to be useless to us. Other times we might get an abundance of wind or sun, but how do we harness this for later use? Many think the answer is simply storing the energy in batteries but this is a very uneconomical option. The size and amounts of batteries and renewable energy plants needed to do this would be outrageous and quite frankly, impossible (Lowe, 16).

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is found naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere. All the extra carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossil fuels, is making the greenhouse gases around the Earth too effective. In other words less energy escapes back into space. Instead, the trapped energy in our atmosphere heats up the Earth’s climate, causing climate change. There are also other things humans are doing that are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. Plants and treed absorb carbon dioxide as they use it to make food through photosynthesis. This is another cause of an increase in carbon dioxide because of the amount of deforestation that is taking place. So, instead of carbon dioxide being locked away in plants and trees, it is up in the atmosphere. An example of this is

The choice of whether or not to use nuclear energy as a power source is admittedly a controversial one. When people think about nuclear energy it can often be from a negative point of view. People are concerned about nuclear energy, perhaps even rightfully so, because of the potential for deadly accidents to occur, the generation of toxic radioactive waste, and release of radiation into the environment if such waste is improperly stored. However, many consider these concerns to be overly exaggerated, particular given the advancements in nuclear reactor technology since its earlier days. The fact is nuclear power is a cheaper source of fuel than using coal or oil, let alone compared to other traditional alternative forms of energy. Also in comparison to current fossil fuel based power generation, it is significantly safer and cleaner. We should use nuclear power instead of other sources of energy because it can produce high levels of electricity at relatively low cost, it would significantly reduce the existing damage to our environment and atmosphere caused by more common forms of fuel, and it is relatively safe.

Countries everywhere rely on nuclear energy to power their electricity, but many people are scared these huge reactors. Should they be? Nuclear power plants are safe with the correct safety precautions and designs put into place and they are the most proficient means of producing energy. To put it bluntly, we need nuclear energy from these power plants and as far as technology goes nuclear power plants are the best ways of producing this energy. Despite a few negatives the positives of using nuclear energy greatly outweigh the negatives.

Energy conversion has been essential in every human activity since the prehistoric age. A basic extent of the evolution of society is directly associated with the changes in the fundamental sources of energy and its uses. Through the last 250 years, people have learned how to harvest and deal with energy in different forms to make work easier and live more comfortable. Nevertheless, this human activity is overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases emission, which make the temperature higher, trap heat and generates serious and harmful impacts on the environment and on climate. Therefore, the governments all around the world are making an effort to promote and develop renewable energy as the new main energy source.

The rate at which carbon dioxide is being admitted into the atmosphere directly correlates to the increase in global temperature. Human induced carbon dioxide is the primary factor that is heating the planet. The burning of coal and oil, the clearing of land for agriculture and industry, and other human activities have increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In fact, our dependency on fossil fuels has catapulted our levels of carbon dioxide from low to uncontrollable. According to NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, “The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 400 parts per million in the last 150 years” (NASA). This human induced carbon crisis has amplified a “greenhouse effect” on Earth, which is a “warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space” (NASA). However, the greenhouse effect is not something to be