In the world we live in environmental issues are very pressing. Easily the largest problem we now face is how to power our energy thirsty world. This is a very heated topic as many people come up with ideas everyday about mass producing clean and efficient energy. Some very popular processes in use today may seem clean to the average eye, but we must remember that nothing comes without a price. Even the cleanest of all energy sources have some sort of a byproduct, or problem that is harmful to the delicate world we live in.
Many of us do not realize how delicate our world is. We share our environments with a plethora of species that have been dependent on certain conditions for thousands of years. By putting in certain “clean energy” sources such as wind turbines, we hurt these species that have lived there for years. When we commission a wind turbine to be built, it is easy to think that it will not need much space, or require large lots of land to be developed. That is correct, but, by sending in a work crew with machines and trucks, we enormously disrupt and harm the fragile ecosystems that are in place. Besides ripping up various animal habitats, there are some green energy technologies that take up vast amounts of land in order to be built. For instance, nuclear power plants take up on average 14,000 acres. This is an enormous amount of land to take away from any species of animals.
As well taking generous amounts of space, nuclear power has some astonishingly harmful results. Nuclear power has two byproducts, water and nuclear waste. Obviously, the nuclear waste is the real issue. A typical plant will produce 20-30 tons of nuclear waste every year. The biggest problem with nuclear power is what to do with this very lethal waste. This waste has many components, one of which, plutonium, has a half life of over 24,000 years! That is just the half life of one of the many components found in this harmful byproduct. Since this nuclear waste is unsafe, proper disposal is a very messy job. The waste is stored in large metal and lead drums and buried deep in mountains such as Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nevada. This is very bad for the wildlife that inhabits the mountain and the area around it. Nevertheless, it is very poor planning. As soon as that storage site gets filled up we will be forced to go to another site, and then we will be spreading more very harmful nuclear waste all over the world. Not to mention, transporting this waste is very expensive and puts exhaust from transportation vehicles into the atmosphere. That is the exact opposite of what clean energy is designed to do.
Solar panels also have a few problems of their own. Solar panels can only work during the day. So there is a time limit that a solar panel can create energy. Also, these panels produce a very poor amount of energy when working in places like cities. This is due to airborne pollutants that decrease the severity of the sun’s rays, weakening the ability to harness solar power. Despite some design flaws, these are also very expensive. Solar panels are a clear example of how going green can be pricey. An average system for a 2,000 square foot roof runs between $10,000 and $15,000. For many people that is much too expensive to even consider. Especially in the current economic situation we are in, it isn’t even a thought for many.
While being able to produce green energy is a very important matter, it is not easy to create such technologies to make a one hundred percent green energy producing technology. The green energy producing technologies we have today are a great step in the right direction, but they all have their draw backs. Whether it be habitat destruction, nuclear waste, or total cost and efficiency, all green technologies are not perfect. We must not kid ourselves by think that they are perfect when they are not. We must strive to create a technology that is one hundred percent green that can produce power for us before we can pat ourselves on the back.
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