Energy is what allows an America to perform the daily tasks that one does everyday. The main source of energy that America uses is fossil fuels, which are nonrenewable, such as coal and oil. These fossil fuels cause air pollution and damage the environment. Since these fuels are nonrenewable, they will run out, and a new source of energy needs to be found eventually. The greatest current threat to America right now is the affect fossil fuels have on the environment, and the reality that there will be none left to use.
Fossil fuels are cheap and easy to come by right now. Oil rich countries in the middle east are able to import 9.4 million barrels of petroleum into the U.S. each day for use. For these reasons, Americans may see no need to switch over to a new energy source. However, the burning of fossil fuels produce gases that trap heat inside the Earth’s atmosphere, which cause the global temperature to rise, or Global Warming. Ocean levels are rising and storms such as
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may not think that the earth needs saving, I believe that it is very important to take care of and protect our home. Global warming, brought about in part by the burning of fossil fuels, is causing severe floods and drought around the globe. Entire communities are threatened if they sit close to sea level by rising ocean levels. The fact that fossil fuels are nonrenewable pose the threat that if America doesn’t switch over to using an alternative energy source, eventually there will be no energy left. The very large majority of cars on the road today use gasoline to power the motor. There would be no way of commuting anywhere, except if someone were to have an electric car. While a terrorist attack against the United States would be a very great threat, the attack would only damage a small area of the country and the U.S. could send troops to retaliate. Global Warming affects everyone in the world, and if something is not done soon to combat it, it will be too
The U.S obtains more than 84% of its energy from fossil fuels including oil, coal and natural gas. This is because people rely on it to heat their homes, power industries, run vehicles, manufacturing, and provision of electricity. It is apparent that the country’s transportation industry highly depends on conventional petroleum oil, which is responsible for global warming, thus threatening economic opulence and national security. Apart from that, increasing consumption of fossil fuels have elevated health problems in the state, destroyed wild places, and polluted the environment. After conducting Environmental Impact Assessment, projections showed that the world energy consumption would increase by more than 56% between 2010 and 2040. However, fossil fuels will cater for more than 80% of the total energy used in 2040. Sadly, it will be a trajectory to alter the world’s climate, as well as, weaken the global security environment. Importantly, the rate at which the US relies on fossil fuels needs to reduce since it has adverse effects on the planet’s supplies. The society needs to realize that fossil fuels are nonrenewable, thus taking millions of years to form (Huebner, 2003). Notably, the country can reduce dependency on fossil fuels by practicing energy conservation and efficiency,
Fossil fuels have been used in the United States of America for hundreds of years as a source of energy to power machinery and to do a lot of work more efficiently. If they had not been easily monetized, they would not be so important to the United States’ economy as they are now, but does their effectiveness as an energy source outweigh the damaging effects that burning fossil fuels has on the world? Texas alone emits 641 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is not only a massive amount, but also doubles the amount produced by California, the second largest carbon producer in the country (Magill, “Texas, California Lead Nation in Carbon Emissions”). Carbon dioxide is the emission of humans breathing as well, so this may not seem so important at first, but the production of it not only by people, but by industrial factories, transportation, and electricity production, which all can use the combustion of fossil fuels, is poisonous to life on Earth and is slowly heating up the planet. The rising levels of heat due to fossil fuel emissions can have devastating effects on the environment and often leads to the kinds of extreme weather situations that were previously mentioned.
Why are we as a global society so hooked on fossil fuels? Put simply, we can’t live without it. Few people-- outside of aspiring reality TV stars and the Amish-- would be willing to give up their precious electronics and
According to scientists the burning of fossil fuels is the main source for the large amounts of pollutants humans are creating. Fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas produce large amounts of carbon when burned to create energy that we all use. Many people think that the burning of these fossil fuels is not that big of a deal and there are other major contributors in the climate change controversy. The burning of these resources produce thousands of tons of carbon that are released into the atmosphere everyday Most everyone in the United States uses some source of energy produced from fossil fuels. Without the fossil fuels the major cities would not have enough energy to keep everything going. While they are working on increasing the amount of renewable energy sources, they are still dependent on the fossil fuels. Scientists are trying to link human pollution to the extreme weather changes that have been going on in recent years. An article found on www.edf.com Climate Changes Effect Plunder the Planet brings up some of the ideas that are caused by climate change. With the large amounts of carbon and other greenhouse gasses that are released they are effecting our ozone layer by trapping heat from leaving the planet, causing an increase in the global temperature around the world. www.study.com Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gases, and Global Warming states that over the last 800
In the year 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed a staggering 6.89 billion barrels of oil (U.S.EIA). Which in fact, equates to 18.89 million barrels being consumed every single day. That is a vast amount of petroleum products being consumed on a daily national level. If the calculation is made, based on a barrel equaling forty two gallons, it would come out to 289,583,700,000 gallons per year, or 793,380,000 gallons per day. The amount is incredible, almost unbelievable. If the United States continues its use of oil at this rate, the supply will only last another forty years. With more and more cars being on the road and operating machinery performing tasks, the supply of petroleum will not be able to meet demand forever. As our use of fossil fuels increases, so does our need for a new source of renewable energy.
How does the rising use of fossil fuels impact the earth? The simple answer is that the earth’s temperature rises, otherwise known as global warming. Global warming then devolves into climate change. Global warming has been “proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia” (“Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?”) because of the world’s increasing reliance on fossil fuels. World-wide natural disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey, may be correlated to an increased risk in extreme weather events due to climate change. There has been efforts to curb climate change, such as pieces of legislation like the Paris Climate Accord, but beliefs of individual leaders such as Donald Trump, who “claims to think that links between carbon emissions and climate change are ‘a hoax’” (Steadman 19), has halted the fulfillment of such agreements between states. If there is not effective efforts to slow the emission rate, the earth will face devastating consequences. Therefore, the leaders of countries across the world must work together to develop a solution to slow climate change, or else the future will be disastrous.
When fossil fuels are burnt, the c02 is released into the atmosphere rapidly, and the c02 cycle doesn’t have enough time to get the c02 out of the atmosphere. This c02 traps the heat from coming out of the atmosphere and creates global warming. Global warming is serious because it melts the ice cap, removes habitas, raises sea levels and many other negative effects. A good way to stop this environmental hazard is to use green energy. Instead of burning coal and natural gas, we can use more wind turbines, hydro-electric dams and other green electricity options. We also need to research solar panels more, so we can make them more efficiant. If we start to do this, the c02 outtake would be significantly decreased and the world will be a better place to live
The discovery of fossil fuels led to times of intense economic and social globalization, as well as several advances in scientific knowledge. With these advanced technologies humans could create and do more than at any other point in history. Because of these fossil fuels, the world is how it is today. But these technologies have a setback. In recent decades, human activities have released ever-greater volumes of greenhouse gases into earth’s atmosphere, enough to affect global climate.
The environment is negatively affected be the burning of fossil fuels. The affects of the gases contribute to global warming, along with acid rain and polluted air. This pollution cuts short an estimated 30,000 American lives according to the Clean Air Task Force (Rich). The United States must stop using fossil fuels because the gases produce harm the environment we live causing harm to come all the citizens. “The future of energy production will
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (2015) reports that the United States consumed approximately 19.4 million barrels of petroleum products daily, which calculated to an overall total of 7.08 billion barrels by the end of 2015 (para. 2). The United States population consumes a huge quantity of oil alone, in addition to all of the other fossil fuels that it also greatly depends on. Fossil fuels are a natural resource that is in limited supply, and they provide an efficient and consistent supply of power to communities all over the planet. Many people are pleased with the short-term advantages these
Coal and natural gas are the United States’ main fossil fuels used as energy sources. These fossil fuels both contain mixtures of hydrocarbons, which is a chemical compound of carbon and hydrogen (Olah, 2005). Currently, fossil fuels provide eighty-five percent of commercial energy, such as businesses, worldwide and this eighty-five percent does not even account for residential use. Imagine if the residential energy use was accounted for in that eighty-five percent (Davison, 2007). According to Goodell (2006), “Between 1950 and 2000, the world population increased by 140 percent and fossil fuel consumption increased by 400 percent. By 2030, the world’s demand for energy is expected to more than double,” with most of the electricity
With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century, we saw the large-scale use of fossil fuels (such as Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal) for industrial activities (factories, electricity). These activities created jobs and over the years people moved from rural areas to cities. In the present day we use these fossil fuels on a much larger scale to power almost every thing, which in turn let out millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide each day increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which creates more heat coming down to the earth, melting our polar ice capes and raising sea levels. Further heated seas will increase the number and intensity of hurricanes and other climatic natural disasters around the world (for example
Fossil fuels are essential to life on earth as we know it today. Our world would certainly be much different if it weren’t for such seemingly simple things such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These basic elements of life on earth may not seem like a major concern to some people until we put into perspective how they have shaped our world today. Civilizations have been built, economies have risen and crumbled, and even wars have been fought over these precious fossil fuels. However, these fossil fuels serve us in ways we may never truly appreciate, as long as we use them as recklessly as we do now. The major entity about fossil fuels is concerning their longevity and permanence in our world, and we all know, they will be around forever.
Over the last one hundred and fifty years, the use of fossil fuels have resulted in more than a twenty five percent increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The global temperature has increased by one degree Fahrenheit over the same amount of time. It may not seem like much, but this is detrimental to the entirety of the planet,
Basically, first, we cannot consume the energy that is coming from fossil fuel for a long time because it leads to depletion that source. Another concern is climate change that is to give us a main indicator to redefining the energy security (Crowley2000 cited in HEZRI &WILHELM HOFMEISTE, 2012).