Essay Renewable Energy Sources

In the past century, it has been noticed that the consumption of non-renewable energy sources has caused more environmental damage than any other human activity. Electricity generated from fossil fuels has led to high concentrations of harmful gases in the atmosphere. This has led to many problems being faced today such as the ozone layer being affected and global warming. Vehicular pollution has also been a major problem. That’s why energy companies nowadays want everyone to use green energy instead of what they are using now. They give out folders and send out TV commercials to promote it. But people don’t even know what green energy is, so why would they change?

Renewable or green energy is energy that comes from the earth itself. Wind, hydro, solar and wood energy. These energy sources are much better than nuclear and non-renewable energy and they can be reproduced by nature quite easily or are available in high quantities. If we look at it from macro scale, the use of green energy can, reduce chemical, radioactive, and thermal pollution all around the world. If we don’t stop using “wrong” energy sources soon, the world is going to be too polluted, the global warming will get worse and the ozone layer will be thinner and thinner. If you look at it from mesoscale it’ll be really difficult to provide everyone, in one country, enough windmills. If we could provide it, it will not look really beautiful, but it’ll be better for nature. After all, these nuclear factories don’t look nice either. There is also an opportunity that we could let cars run on solar energy, but that means that everyone has to get a new car, and that would be a lot of work, and will cost a lot of money. Changing all the cars would be almost impossible. Still, West-Europe is polluted by cars, so we have to do something about that problem.
We could also look at this problem from the micro scale. There are things I can do myself, but I don’t think it’ll make much difference. I could change my current energy provider into a provider that provides me green energy, and I could use solar energy for my heating etc. But if I want to change something in the world I would have to convince a lot of people that green energy is much better. But is it?
There are some advantages and disadvantages for green energy that I want to mention.

Advantages:
- Green energy doesn’t pollute the air  When solar energy is used the process doesn’t pollute. And it’s the same with the others. (hydro, wind, wood energy)
- It doesn’t run out (soon)  The solar, wave and wind energy will never run out. But wood energy can run out, and that’s also a disadvantage.
- It’s not more expensive than normal energy  So money won’t be a problem, although still people think it is more expensive
- It helps to prevent changes in the climate  We will not get trouble with nature and the climate if we change to green energy.
- Green energy is recommended by “Het Wereld Natuur Fonds”  This means that it must be really good, because the WNF always supports things that help nature

Disadvantages:
- Forests will be ruined  We will not have forests to walk in, because all the wood will be used to produce energy.
- Animals will loose their habitats If all the forests will be gone, the animals will die and maybe they will extinct.

As you can see, there are more advantages than disadvantages. That means that the energy companies should promote more and more to convince the people that green energy is much better than other energy sources. They also should make it clear that it will not cost them more money than their current energy provider. And they should also mention that “Het Wereld Natuur Fonds” is supporting them.
I did some investigation around the neighbourhood, and I found out that everyone thought it was more expensive, and that that the main reason was for not changing. But they also told me that they didn’t want to go through all the paperwork, because they are too busy.
I think that everyone should use green energy. Before we started discussing this topic in the lesson I didn’t know what green energy was and that it was so much better for nature. I’m glad that we talked about this, because now I know that there is something we can do to save the world from ourselves. We are destroying it, and if we want to do something about it, it will cost a lot of money, but saving the world is worth it!

I made it clear that there are more advantages for green energy. But I also want to say that the disadvantages can’t be forgotten. Both of the energy sources have really bad disadvantages, which both aren’t good for nature, but if we change over to green energy now, at least the pollution gets less. So again; I want to say that everyone should switch over to green energy. If I could help, I would make flyers or something, and tell everyone about the advantages and that they are saving the world with it.
I don’t actually think something like this would happen or make any difference. If we want to make a difference we should all work for it.