Sunday, April 13, 2014

Energy Dependence by Kira McKay


March 30th, 2014
            When I think about the resources that we have and the dependency we have on other countries it really has me wondering what if we didn’t those resources and we had to depend on ourselves? To be honest that’s a hard question to answer.
            First of what are some of resources we depend on? The first one that comes to mind is obviously the sun. Most of the energy we capture for use on earth originates in the nuclear reactions powering the sun. For example coal, oil, natural gas and even the wind and hydropower we harness to generate electricity, originally derive their energy content from the sun. Some facts on energy resources are 40% of U.S energy from all sources is used to generate electricity, in 2008 fossil fuels provided almost 85% of the energy used in the United States, 20% of our electricity was generated by nuclear fuel in 2008 and lastly, emerging technologies is a huge one that’s happening right now and things that derive from that is electric vehicles, biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells so as noted we have a lot of resources that we depend greatly on to keep us moving every day.
            We depend greatly on fossil fuels along with nuclear energy supply about 93% of the world’s energy which a lot is considering that they are non-renewable energy sources. Renewable energy at the time is only supplying about 7% of the world’s energy which ultimately isn’t close to being enough. I ask myself how long would it be before the fossil fuels are depleted. Scientist predict 50 to 150 years and that isn’t long enough at all, sure it won’t happen in my life or not even my kids’ lives but definitely will happen in my grandkids and great grandkids lives. The biggest factor on how long fossil fuels are going to last depend greatly on the world’s population and I don’t see that dying off anytime soon if anything there will just be continued growth for years to come. So what are some alternatives that we should really take advantage of that we already have? My opinion is that we should find use out of the sources we’ve had for millions of years which is the sun, water and wind. They don’t pollute the earth, they’re renewable and efficient. Obviously the object is to capture and harness their mechanical power and convert it to electricity in the most effective and productive manner possible. There is enough renewable energy to supply the entire world’s energy needs forever but the challenge is to develop a method that’s effective and economically capture, store and use the energy when needed. I believe that it can happen look at the how far they’ve come with electric cars, the  use of solar energy and modern windmills to name a few. Another possibility of generating energy is through the use of more dams.
            Coming up with new and improved ways to generate energy is essential to us now and in years to come because really there is no turning back when it comes to energy sources so coming up with new ways to crucial. Our dependence upon nonrenewable energy resources is a potential recipe for disaster.

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