Here I would like to talk about our environment. The modern economy is absolutely dependent on abundant energy. The modern world as we know it could not exist without useable sources of energy. Imagine the industrial revolution without coal and oil – it would have been impossible.
Although the benefits have been tremendous, we also see a number of problems. The coal and oil we burn is really nothing but ancient sunlight. As we use these very ancient stored energy sources, they end up in the air in the form of CO2 = carbon dioxide. Naturally, the air then gets to contain more of that gas.
One property of CO2 is that it although it transmits visible light, infrared radiation is reflected. This means that when the CO2 level goes up, more infrared radiation is trapped near the Earth’s surface.
There was a period in the history of the Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago, when most life went extinct. It seems that this mass extinction was associated with a sharp increase of carbon dioxide in the air. This would have caused the surface of the Earth to become much hotter.
A sharp rise in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has already happened – correlated with the use of fossil energy. Further, the climate is clearly getting warmer than it used to in a number of areas. It is especially the polar caps that are melting at an alarming rate.
My feeling is that we need to take action now if we care about our children and grandchildren. The question is: what can be done by you and me? One thing we can do is try to minimize the use of things like coal and oil. Rather, we could utilize renewable energy sources.
Ultimately, most energy sources are derived from the sun. Suppose that energy is collected directly – then we get rid of several problems. How about solar panels for example.
There is nothing new about solar cells, they’ve been produced for many years but have been very expensive. Therefore, they have not been a feasible energy source for general use. This is changing now; solar panels are getting affordable. Why not set up home solar panels on your rooftop and reap the benefit of clean solar energy. With some do-it-yourself work, you can bring down the cost even more. Being able to live off the grid – how about that.
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