We need alternate energy forms and we need this energy now. Record high prices at American gas pumps and continued trouble-brewing in the Middle East, Nigeria, and other areas of importance to the oil-driven economy have made it clear to Americans that we are in need of developing many new avenues of energy supply and production. In short, we need to reduce our dependency on oil, it is finite and the cheap sources of oil (not all oil,just that which is cheap to get out of the ground) are running out. Energy consultants and analysts are insistent that cheap oil has reached it’s peak or is going to peak soon. This means an expensive future unless we can find new alternate sources of powering our mechanical and electronic civilization. New sources which are alternatives to oil.
We must also switch to alternate forms of energy because our present forms are too damaging to the earths atmosphere. Some don’t believe the global warming trend is much, if at all, caused by the actions of humans (they believe it’s a natural cycle and there’s nothing we can do about it except prepare for the effects), we do contribute to the destruction of the environment and to things like air pollution with our energy sources.
Coal is another source of energy that we need to wean ourselves off of for several reasons. It is finite and it is very dirty plus coal mining is dangerous and environmentally disruptive. We can explore new, streamlined methods for producing electricity. We presently generate much electricity via hydro-power so that we are less damaging to the environment however we do need more construction of large dams which are damaging to the environment in other ways.
Developing nations which have turned industrialized in recent decades will need the benefits of alternate energy research and development. They are presently doing much more environmental damage than the United States.
The United States, Japan, and some European nations have been implementing studies and programs for the development of alternative energy sources and are therefore already leading the way in doing less environmental damage.
The developing nations such as China and India need to look to Japan and the West as examples of what research and development to give government backing and private investment money to. We could also add great boost to our own economy by being at the forefront of such alternative energy sources development and then marketing the technologies and services to nations like India, China, Brazil.
Biofuels from things like “supertrees” and soybeans, refined hydroelectric technology, natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells, the further building of atomic energy plants, the continued development of solar energy photovoltaic cells, more research into wind-harnessed power, all of these are viable energy sources that can act as alternatives to the mammoth amounts of oil and coal that we presently depend on for our lifestyles. The alternate energy of the future is green.