Fossil Fuels And The Environment
In the recent past, use of fossil fuel is raising debate on its impact to the environment and its sustainability. It has been noted that the reservoirs might get depleted soon than we thought and this has made scientist to be relentlessly on the verge of discovering other sources of fuel that are environmental friendly a well as that can be easily sustained without necessarily over relying on fossil fuel alone as the primary source of energy. The move has been appreciated and welcomed since the other means of getting fuel are believed to reduce strain that is currently posing a danger to the whole world as a result of using fossil fuel.
Side effects of fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are products of natural resources which come about as a result of anaerobic decomposition of buried organisms. It ranges from volatile to non volatile materials which can be composed of carbon and hydrogen. Fossil fuel has been rated the number one source of fuel amounting to 86 % world wide, the other forms taking merely 14 %. It is a form of non-renewable energy which takes millions of years to form. Statistics has shown that the carbon dioxide emission from this fuel tallies to about 21 billions tones per year. When such big amount of harmful gases is released to the environment, there is need for an alarm. The natural process can not absorb all this carbon dioxide emitted, and scientist have thus attributed the current global warming to be caused by this gas which is causing change in temperatures and weather patterns. It also causes acid rains which have effects to both plants and animals. Fossil fuel don’t only releases carbon dioxide but also other harmful gases that cause devastating effects to us and other living creatures.
Friendlier sources of fuel.
One of such sources of fuel that is very environmental friendly is use of water to generate energy which has got no emission of harmful gases to the atmosphere. This form of energy was pioneered in 300 BC by Romans and Greeks. It is gaining popularity and a country like Britain gets 92 % of its energy from hydro-electricity as opposed to Australia which utilizes only 15 % from this source (fossils, u.d.). The best thing with this source of energy is the fact that as long as there will be adequate amount of water, then this form of energy will always be availed. It has no great impact to the environment and it at long run translates to reduced expenditure since its more cheaper than fossil fuel. Though a bit expensive during installation, the maintenance and continuity is cheaper and can be available at any time unlike fossil fuel where producing countries can use it as a weapon to suppress countries that do not produce it. Fight of fossil fuel has been evident in many countries. During such fight, the weapons used can contribute to environmental degradation. Therefore having hydro-power as form of energy can impact positively by minimizing such conflicts ( James, 2007).
Wind energy.
Use of wind energy has been in use for many decades. The great explorers depended so much on it during their time of discoveries. It is believed this form of energy was in use in China as early as 2000BC. Most parts of the world experience wind of different velocity. It being a renewable energy, it is accessible to even the remotest parts of the world and after the initial installation, it is generally cheap as opposed to fossil fuel. Australia is known to take advantage of this form of energy as other sources can not efficiently afford to adequately serve all of them. It is very environmental friendly and its use poses to threat to the environment and its occupants.
Solar energy ( fossils, u.d).
Technologies have come to enlighten and to save the world. Use of solar energy stands to be among the best sources of alternative energy. Sun is natural and apart of countries found at Polar Regions; all others are guaranteed to have it on daily basis. This form of energy is very reliable, renewable and on top of all, cost effective. This energy can be even accessed in the remotest parts of this world after installation. This will save countries and individuals a lot of money since one will use it without fear of huge monthly bills. This will mean, it can contribute further to overall economic development through saving that will be realized from its use. Australia has embraced this technology and targets to have 75% of homes have solar energy by 2020. Other sources of fuel on the rise are bio-fuels which is made from various materials. Compared to fossil fuel, research has shown it to be friendlier to the environment that the later (Fuels, 2009).
Due to advancement in technology which has seen an upsurge of machines that require fuel to operate, it has become imperative to utilize other sources of energy. This not being the only reason, need for renewable sources of energy can not be underscored and this is why more deliberate effort has been geared in seeing how best to use these kind of energy. The environmental challenges that are threatening life of living things has acted as a catalyst to implement and advocate use of fuels that don’t infringe on environmental conservation rules. It is thus the high time all countries deliberately gear their effort towards safeguarding the nature and this can only be achieved by use of fuels that don’t impact negatively to the environment.
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