Saving Energy Is Important
Mar 5th, 2008 by solarbill
Why is saving energy important? Does it really make a difference? The answer is a resounding YES!
For many reasons, some of which I will go over here. The first and most obvious is that, as humans, we are impacting the climate of the earth. If we keep doing what we are doing, we will make this planet uninhabitable. This is no longer debatable. It has become clear to all but a few scientists (who are funded to say otherwise). From UN scientists to NASA to the European Union to most, if not all, universities, there is agreement that we are effecting our weather. Most scientists are alarmed at how fast the polar caps are shrinking. One of the most accessible arguments for our predicament is Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. (I highly recommend seeing it. Gore manages to keep politics and blame out of his presentation.) Another book that gives an even scarier view is from NASA scientist James Lovelock,
“The Revenge of Gaia”, a complete turn about from his view of 25-years ago. (Lovelock wrote a short piece in the UK Independent - I recommend reading it)
Even if scientists are mistaken about the effects of energy production on global warming, there is no question that the burning of fuels, especially ones like coal, are polluting our air and water.
Another reason for saving energy: It saves money.
Most of our energy comes from fossil fuels. It is widely agreed that there is a limited amount of fossil fuel. It is wise to save it for those instances where it is most useful. The average American consumes about 11kW per day. The average human being consumes about 2kW per day. As the greatest users we are in a position to reduce our usage the most.
The world population consumes about 15 terawatts (a terawatt is 10,000,000,000,000 watts) of energy every day. About 89,000 terawatts of solar energy hit the earth every day. The energy of the wind is in the 370 terawatt range.
It is easy to see that there is plenty of available energy on this planet.
