Renewable Energy In The United States

Renewable energy is energy from a source that is not depleted when it is used.

Global Warming has silently crept into our society today because of big business, lack of technology, and greed. And now with a new generation of citizens who understand what we have been doing to our earth have to stand up and do what is right. Global Warming refers to the increase in the earth’s average temperature induced by human activity. Most discussions on Global Warming today show similarities between an increase in global temperature and the increase in carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. Human activity increases the amount of these gases in the atmosphere and, as a result of the greenhouse effect, increases

In the 1960’s and 1970’s a movement regarding the physical environment began, this movement focused on a few environmental issues and disasters caused directly or indirectly by pollution. As the years progressed, this movement grew into a multifaceted activist movement gaining more attention in the US, more often referred as “Environmentalism” or “Environmental Activism”. As the human race realized the physical environment is fragile and thus must be protected, scientists started to look for more efficient and ecologically safe energy sources. The introduction of renewable energy brought to light all of these issues, giving a viable alternative for the nation’s energy future, implementing resources that are naturally replenished and also, eco-friendly.

The switch to clean energy in the United States and around the world is a difficult necessity that must be met within the subsequent five to six decades. The prolonged use of damaging fossil fuels and other unsustainable forms of energy are greatly damaging the planet. These sources of non-renewable energy are bound to run out in the following century. Millions of square kilometers of Arctic ice has melted so far, the sea level is rising, and the CO2 levels present in the atmosphere are drastically increasing (Chang). The transition to renewable energy must be met; however, this is not a process possible to achieve overnight. This change will require an extensive amount of resources and time but will reap many benefits to the users of this growing technology.

With fossil fuels powering 85% of energy in the United States and the ignorance towards the negative impacts of burning them, dependency on these harmful resources have skyrocketed and will continue to. In 2006, around 7% of America’s gross domestic product was spent on fossil fuels which is greater than what was spent on education and the military (1). The fight to teach the public to be less dependent on fossil fuels begins with decreasing usage. Decreasing energy consumption can be as simple as turning technology off when not in use, ensuring the home is efficient, and changing light bulbs to fluorescent ones. These simple changes can be taught to everyone not just save them money, but also to make sure that future generations reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the future. In addition individuals in a community can also band together to encourage local lawmakers to make areas more people friendly and use less cars (2).

What exactly is renewable energy? In the terms of The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC, 2015), renewable energy comes from sources that can be replenished easily. Solar power, wind energy, hydroelectricity, geothermal, and biomass energy are all examples of this. All of these sources can be replenished, or renewed naturally. Wind energy is free of pollution and costs about the same as electricity from coal. Solar energy is growing cheaper, and is used in many every day appliances. Biomass energy uses materials such as wood, corn, soy, and sometimes animal waste. It takes time for biomass energy to grow, but it is a critical renewable resource. Hydroelectricity is energy produced by flowing water and accounts for six percent of America’s electric supply (NRDC, 2015). If we can make the transition to a future of cleaner energy sources, we can eliminate our dependence on fossil

Energy could be defined as that raw material or resource that man needs to achieve the desired production, energy consumption being one of the great measures of the progress and welfare of a society.

All over the world mankind commonly references mother Earth as important and fragile and even locally there are second graders at Cornerstone elementary singing Native American songs describing how “the Earth is our mother, we must take care of her.” The rising issue of global warming, scientifically known as climate change, is slowly becoming a worldwide epidemic that only 53% of Americans are even worried about, according to a 2014 survey by the IPCC. The definition of climate change is a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels. The first studies of climate change and human carbon dioxide emissions started in 1896 by a man named Arrhenius. The interest was renewed during the cold war era when several satellites were launched and more data taking resources were available. 1970 was host to the first Earth day and since then global warming has gained more and more awareness and understanding. The cause of the average global temperature is due to the greenhouse effect, in which the suns heat and energy heats the Earth’s surface then gets absorbed by greenhouse gasses and re-emitted in all directions warming the surface and the atmosphere. With more than 1300 scientists on the IPCC team

Today in the United States gas is at a record low on the national average being below $3 it seems like we are heading in the right direction, but looks can be deceiving. While the USA gas prices drop, other countries are fighting over our $120+ Billion average oil costs. Despite the consistent jump prices from being outrageously expensive to afford to fill up our tanks, we are still not focusing more on something that would save the American people billions a year. The solution is focusing less on finding oil that will eventually become scarce to switching to a more logical choice; which is renewable energy.

Everyday 85.8% of Americans drive to work, (McKenzie) whether it be carpooling or driving alone. Everybody knows that coal and gas won't last forever, but what will we use when they run out? The answer is all around us, it could be wind power, nuclear power, or even new biofuels. Whatever we decide on using, we are going to need to choose it quickly.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like with no fossil fuels and how they affect the Earth? Or ever wondered about alternative energy sources? According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, about 67 percent of the energy the United States uses is from fossil fuels and about 19 percent is from nuclear energy.That is about 86 percent of Americans source of energy. This means more than three-fourths of the energy Americans produce and use is coming from a nonrenewable energy source. That leaves about 13 percent of the energy consumed is from a renewable resource. Thirteen percent is not even a fourth of the energy produced. Hydropower is the biggest renewable source of energy that the United States makes. Hydropower produces seven

In the United States, major fossil-fuel-burning energy-producing industries dominate: they are more widely used, they produce more energy, and they severely harm the environment. I believe that the United States should move towards alternative energies that don’t burn fossil fuels to produce energy, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power, because they, despite their currently high price point, provide large amounts of pollution free-energy, which will increase energy independence due to their ability to easily produce electricity within the nation and create amounts of electricity competitive to those of conventional energies.

One of the greatest problems in recent years in America is the dilemma of alternative forms of energy. While all forms of energy have various pros and cons, some are much more favorable than other depending on renewability, reliability and cost. Some are extremely energy renewable, some are much cheaper than others, some are much more reliable and some take up a lot less space than others. There has been a lot of disagreements as to what the best source is, pro's and con's considered. All of the sources have one thing in common: they all have a major reason that could triumph over their alternatives. Amid all the argument is an energy source that can tops them all, but it may be a while before it's accepted as that. Our modern society is

The U.S. must create new ways of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. The benefits of switching over to these sources are endless and so are the life span of these energy sources. Renewable resources have been around since Earth has been created and will continue to be until life on this planet ceases to exist. The clear benefits of adapting to renewable sources of energy are very promising and can continue on to impact the United States in a very positive manner from creating a better environment, stimulate the economy positively and never having to fear an expiration of these energy forms.

The world today is a place of rapid progress and scientific advancement, which has been going strong for the last few decades. This period will gradually begin to slow down and eventually stop altogether because the world will, quite literally, run out of fuel. Right now, the majority of all the energy used in the day-to-day lives and operations of the entire world population are nonrenewable. This energy is created from the fossil fuels: coal, petroleum and natural gas. Fossil fuels are still cheap and high in supply, but the rate at which we are consuming them, which is only expected to increase, vastly exceeds the rate at which they regenerate. This creates the aforementioned problem of mankind running out of the required natural resources to fuel its own energy demands. The only solution to this problem that is possible, is to begin placing more influence renewable sources of energy and doing so as soon as possible. Renewable energy sources include solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal power. Each of these are insignificant alone, but as a group they become a viable alternative to nonrenewable energy sources. Together, they have the potential to replace the fossil fuels as our primary provider of energy. Although there are many that argue against the use of renewable energy it is vital that the United States government makes the implementation and widespread use of renewable energy sources mandatory.