Did you know that the United States may run out of fossil fuels as soon as the year 2060? Renewable energy are forms of the sun, wind, and water while nonrenewable energy are forms of coal, oil, and gas. In this essay I will be explaining to you about renewable and nonrenewable energy. First, let’s look at nonrenewable energy. Fossil fuels are easier to transport, store, and use than most other fuel sources. Fossil fuels are highly effective sources of energy because they are rich in hydrocarbons. When fossil fuels are burned for energy it is a major cause of pollution. When fossil fuels are burned, they pollute our air with chemicals like carbon dioxide. When they are released, carbon dioxide traps dust and heat in our atmosphere, which is a part of global warming.Geologists are hard at work trying to find new sources of fossil fuels. About ninety percent of our total use comes from the burning of fossil fuels. Petrochemicals are derived from oil or natural …show more content…
Renewable energy does not pollute the environment and disperse through a very wide area. Biomass is another type of renewable energy that derived from plants or animals. The solar energy stored in the chemical compounds of biomass can make liquid fuels like ethanol for cars, gaseous fuels like methane, that can be burned in place of natural gas, and solid fuels like wood chips that can be burned instead of coal. You also have to collect it before you are able to use it and it is difficult to harness.Furthermore, an incentive structure needs to be established that makes the investment in such technology viable. Solar cells, wind farms, and hydroelectric power have been used successfully to generate electricity for industry, transportation, and for use in homes. (Facing the challenge: Nonrenewable and Renewable
Unfortunately, fossil fuel is the primary cause of pollution. Pollution caused by fossil fuel, causes acid rain and global warming. Global warming affects humans and animals as well with the climate changes due to the burning of fossil fuels. In contrast to fossil fuels, solar energy is
The EPA states, “renewables are considered environmentally preferable to conventional sources and, when replacing fossil fuels, have significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” There are several impediments that prevent the federal government from fully transitioning to the use renewable energy sources but the core reason is due to the price. Rich Smith from Daily Finance states, “When it comes
Solar energy is renewable and sustainable – it will never end, after all it derives from the sun, therefore there will be solar energy as long as there is sun. Solar energy is able to be used everywhere, from major metropolitan areas to extremely remote areas and even space. New innovations are helping to make solar energy more effective on cloudy days. Besides being able to save on electric bills it is extremely low maintained and quite unlike the use of wind turbine that are loud and need attention regular due to their moving parts. (3- Rinkesh,
We, the people in the US, are particularly overflowing with coal. It 's very cheap to make and to use. Burning coal however, produces high amounts of greenhouse gases unlike nuclear power or natural gas. Chris Nelder, author and energy analyst, says that - “Part of the reason why we’ve failed to reach energy independence for the last many many decades is because economic growth goes hand in hand with energy consumption,” says Nelder. “And our economy runs on fossil fuels.
The speed and nature of energy innovations in the following centuries led to dramatic transformations in human life and economy as well as major environmental impacts. In the 19th century, a number of agrarian economies dependent on wood and animal power became industrial economies driven by coal and the steam engine (O’Connor, 2012). Many economies underwent another transformation relying on a variety of fuels in internal combustion engines and electricity generators. As the demand for energy services has changed, so have the fuels and conversion technologies employed to meet those demands. As populations have risen and economic activity has expanded, energy consumption has increased, primarily through the use of fossil fuels (O’Connor, 2012).
On the other hand, to produce biomass, waste is burned to make a steam that turns a turbine. Then this generates electricity and gives homes and industries heat. This is a kinetic energy to electrical energy transformation because the turbine is a generator which uses motion to power electricity. There are many advantages and disadvantages to producing algae biofuel as well. For example, algae uses large amounts of carbon dioxide, which will decrease the carbon dioxide on a large scale.
Due to these issues, renewable resources should become our primary source of energy. First, there are many issues with the energies sources we use now, but one of the major ones is that nonrenewable resources cannot replenish fast enough to replace what is being consumed. Energies made from fossils are the most common types of nonrenewable resource. Specifically, the three main types of fossil fuels are coal, natural gas, and oil.
The main advantage for using biomass as an energy source is because it is renewable. The current problem the world is facing is that we are running out of oil, natural gas, petroleum and fossil fuels. With time these resources will no longer be available to us. For decades, the world has become familiar with ways for the people of the world to receive continuous energy being gas or electricity. These ways are called renewable resources opens the door for mankind to live a successful lifestyle similar to present day with some transitioning.
Fossil fuels have played a pivotal role in the development of society since the time of the Industrial Revolution. As a result, our dependency upon fossil fuels has not only improved our way of life, but also risen questions regarding our use of these energy sources and their adverse impacts on the environment. Given the results of scientific studies and the knowledge gained from them over the past several decades, society itself has done very little to move forward as a whole to push for cleaner and less destructive ways to produce energy. Despite the results of many models projecting the supply of fossil fuels running out anywhere between 2050 and 2100, capitalist economies continue to exploit and surpass the limits of reasonable use of oil, coal, and natural gas. This paper will not only discuss a relevant article by Merrill Singer and my position arguing
Fossil fuels primarily powers the world through natural gas, petroleum, and coal. Fossil fuels are non-renewable and eventually will completely dissipate. Fossil fuel plants cost more to operate than nuclear power plants. A coal fired power plant will require three million tons of coal; generating the same amount of energy a nuclear power plant would produce using two hundred tons of uranium fuel annually. (Gale 1).
Fossil-fuel power plants are indeed proven effective when comes to generating power. But this should not be the only basis since the hazards of these plants should also be considered. Coal power plants produce a large amount of carbon emissions greatly contributing to the climate change and it pollutes the environment also in a form of acid rain (14 Far-Reaching Advantages and Disadvantages of Coal, 2015). Burning coal produces sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide which are combined to create fine particulate matter. Fine particulate matter affects the lungs if inhaled causing unrepairable damage.
The existence of biofuels is now familiar to many people as an alternative to fossil fuels, but little is understood about the true sustainability of these fuel sources. According to Ryan Georgianna and Stephen Mayfield, professors specializing in biotechnology at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), biofuels will have the most success if they can compete economically with fossil fuels (Georgianna & Mayfield, 2012). This competition will drive people to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of biofuels as compared to fossil fuels. Supported by their extensive research in biofuels, Mayfield and Georgianna state that using fossil fuels “drives climate change, exhausts finite reserves and contributes to global political strife” (Georgianna & Mayfield, 2012). These issues are already influenced greatly by the growth of the human population, so increased demand and decreased supply of fossil fuels compounds a negative effect on both society and the earth.
It has made our contemporary life possible. Everything from train, buses, cars, trucks are heating in the winter and cooling in the summer are all depended on cheap and reliable fossil fuel energy. There is no other way of life that uses as much as suburbia. It is cheap and abounded fossil fuel that pave, lubricate, and drive the growth of our suburban movement on and on to
This is because, these are very easily available. They have a vast presence over the globe.” & “fossil fuels have pretty low cost” with these two being said we can see how fossil fuels happen to be so great, and just why would anyone want to go against a natural source of energy that is easily obtainable and cheap you may ask. Well the answer to that is simple, the people that decide to go aginst fossil fuels are those that are trying to preserve out environment. Fossil fuels are harmful not just to ou environment but also to any organism. Certain places in the world have decided to stop usng fossil fuels and began to use alternative renewable energies these countries that decided to go in this direction of using clean renewable energy may hav not stopped using fossil fuels over night but surely every good thing takes time.
2.1 INTRODUCTION Non-Renewable Resources are resources that have the potential to be used up due to consumption or overuse, they have production, development or replenishment rate that cannot match up with the depletion rate. In short these are resources that can be finished, output exceeds input, and they are infinite. Non-Renewable resources vary from non-renewable fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil, non-renewable alternative energy sources like nuclear energy and deep-earth geo-thermal energy, soil, and minerals (Botkin & Keller, 2012). These non-renewable resources range from a few years, up to thousands of years to replenish. The local as well as global challenge, is that most non-renewable resources are directly exploited by humans and their existence is widely threatened were usage