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Posts tagged Atmosphere
“Going Green” – What Does It Mean?
Dec 31st
There is much information available today regarding energy efficiency and the benefits we receive by making these choices. The main objectives are to save money by using less energy, diminish our dependency on foreign oil and reduce the carbon footprint thus helping the environment.
It seems like you can’t open the newspaper, magazine, book or even your desktop computer without reading something about “going green”. I’m not sure that most people even know what “going green” is. Perhaps the best place to start is with an understanding of what is meant generally by “going green”. Environmentally friendly activities have been popular for many decades, to conserve energy, reduce pollution and save money. In fact it dates back to the 60′s movement. The catalyst for the recent green movement came from the theory that human-generated release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere was contributing to global warming. Consequently, individuals, businesses and governments started re-evaluating how to reduce their carbon dioxide output.
Today when we speak of “going green”, we generally refer to something broader than global warming. We generally refer to a heightened awareness of using the Earth’s resources more efficiently. Today, includes efforts to conserve our natural resources, reduce our contributions to landfills, and reduce pollution generally. Going green, then, can be summarized by “conserve, reduce, reuse, recycle”–which means conserve energy, reduce waste, reuse what you can, and recycle what you can’t.
Personally I feel that the green movement is a public relations problem with the way it was being marketed. Perhaps individuals and the business community would have embraced the concept of green technologies had the movement been known as “becoming more energy-efficient” rather than “going green”. With that said the results cannot be denied. Whether you embrace the concept of “energy efficiency or “going green”, (conserve, reduce, reuse, recycle) will save you money, reduce our dependency on foreign fuels and help the environment.
The Importance of Renewable Energy
Oct 9th
Renewable energy is an energy produced from easily-replenished sources like the sun, wind, water, biological and geothermal processes. Compared to fossil fuels and coals, these natural resources are usually referred to as clean forms of energy since they do not produce harmful emissions and polluting agents into the atmosphere and thus have a very minimal environmental impact during the process of production which is a very good factor in the preservation of our environment.
It is undeniable though that investing in renewable energy does not come cheap but if we are to think about what the costs of continuing the usage of coals and fossil fuels will do to our environment, I think it’s fair enough. Just consider the damages brought about by the effects of global warming, to sum it all, it may worth more if not equal to the amount needed for the facilities required in the production of renewable energy. And since there are no more harmful emissions therefore it is non-polluting, thus; a more healthy society is likely achievable.
The benefits of using renewable energy is not limited to being replaceable, it extends to the creation of jobs through the different projects initiated by several companies and agencies supporting the use of this energy source. By using this form of energy a nation’s dependence from oil-producing countries will alleviate. Instead of spending money for importing energy why don’t we invest it in the maintenance and acquisition of more equipment for the production of renewable energy? It makes more sense to invest to something that both the present and the future generation can benefit. We cannot exhaust the limited resources that we have because if we do what else could we give to our children in the future.
Let’s not think about how hard it will be to achieve a green world nowadays but how harder it is to restore a world from destruction. It takes millions of years before the world can regenerate new sources for the world to consume and we can only hope that they are produced even before we use up the already limited stocks. Shifting from the conventional sources of energy to the renewable sources is not an easy transition. It can greatly affect not just the economy but also the consumption of every house (residential or industrial) however we should always consider the environmental aspect and the societal needs if we are to decide which energy source we should maintain and use.