The world is ours to inherit. People in college are the new generation of voters and will be the next people to buy houses, raise families, and lead this country. This fact is important because it reveals that our decision now will directly impact how we lead our lives and the lives of our children. The way we are living right now isn’t sustainable. This is an example from an authority from on the current state of our planet.
The finite nature of coal, oil, and natural gas will instigate higher energy prices and greater energy price disruptions. According to some credible estimates, the world will realize "peak" oil fuel availability before 2015, peak uranium around 2025, peak natural gas around 2035, and peak coal around 2050. (Bushnell, 2010)
This lifestyle will run out in within our life time, and if we don’t take steps to change we could be left in the dark. People have use resources for so long that they don’t even know that they are depleting the environment. The things that we see as convenient are actually destroying the Environment. Our constant use of water plastic water bottles, the lack of the desire to take a future step to recycle things such as newspapers, soda cans, etc. Also if this wasn’t enough incentive to change the way you live then. The clear health risk that result from the use of fossil fuels has been studied and clear correlations have been made between the two. Our society has become so blind to this issue that even our own health care systems are actually contributing to issue:
The health sector comprises 16 percent of the U.S. economy and spends $6.5 billion each year on energy, almost all of which is generated by the burning of fossil fuels, associated with chronic illnesses such as asthma, and heart and lung disease. (Unique Clean Energy Program Helps Hospitals Buy Clean Energy, Reduce Costs and Counteract Climate Change.” , 2010)
We are effectively putting ourselves in danger of health risks and causing further damage to the world that we live in.
Even with this large problem there are several solutions that can be implemented to lower the U.S. carbon footprint. In recent years the government has not made laws or mandates for the use of green technology within the states, due to the lack of pressure being put on the government by the American people. Americans need to show our government that they are ready to change the country for the better. And that it can be done with a series of small steps. The government could easily implement these steps to direct our country into a Green Culture.
The first of the steps proposed would be energy audits for all major companies. To start any major change you need to be informed of what needs to be changed. If companies knew where they were losing energy more effective approaches could be organized:
If a facility follows the recommendations of an energy audit, it can typically reduce its energy consumption by 20%. Given the amount of energy that manufacturing and processing facilities consume, an energy audit is a prudent investment as opposed to a discretionary expense - especially in these challenging economic times.(Spaulding, 2010)
This information would allow facts to be available to the public that could force companies to change or reengineer equipment to be more eco-friendly and even save the company money in the long run.
The second phase of changes would be very similar to the first but on a much more local level. An extreme focus on eco-friendly living in school, for parents and for young adults. If people knew that the options for living eco-friendly they are more likely to adjust their lives to fit this standard. The idea of recycling, controlling your thermostat, and using environmental friendly products. An example is the replacement of what we consider normal light bulbs with CFL’s:
If every American home replaced just one light with an ENERGY STAR light, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, about $700 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions of about 800,000 cars. (Light Bulbs (CFL)
If people realized that drastic steps like retrofitting your houses with solar panels isn’t the only answer then they would be more likely to change their lifestyles to fit a model that could help green American. The final and possible most effective way to change American to a greener country would be for the government to put a direct tax on the amount of carbon emissions that each company creates. People will initially see this as negative simply because Americans have that reaction to taxes in general. But this action would effectively make green profitable and companies would be more inclined to change for the betterment of their companies and consequently the American people. Also this tax could be exclusively used to put funds backing into research and local and national projects.
These are all very simple steps to remove American from the clearly outdated and overused source of fossil fuels and into a new greener age. Though even with these steps there will be an opposition. The bulk of which will revolve around people saying that: Global Warming/Climate Change isn’t real, that fossil fuels are not running out, and that these plans are not economical. These reactions sum up the largest parts of the oppositions arguments.
First, regardless of you r personal belief in global warming the effect of fossil fuel on the health of the American people should lead people to realize that these options are simply for the betterment of the nation’s health.
Secondly, the results for the amounts of fossil fuels have been wrong in the past but with the advancement of technology they have become much more accurate, and even if these predictions are wrong it is continually becoming more expensive to find and extract them for use; whereas, alternative fuels are becoming more and more economically friendlily. Solar panel are a fraction of the cost that they were ten years ago, wind turbines are exponentially more efficient than they were years ago, and the extent of recycling has become national and more sustainable. Lastly, every green option presented above provides some form of economic relief to the individual and to the country as a whole.
Though in recent years that the country is at a crossroads and that we as a people need to direct our government to change the country for the better, Everything I’ve proposed above is simply a start to a long process of changes to make our country greener. You might have noticed that I haven’t even mentioned alternative fuels source that’s was to show the point that the first steps to change our country need not revolve around radical changes in our society. Small steps will lead to leaps and bound within the United States and will cause a catalytic reaction that will propel us as a people into things like alternative energy. Mindsets need to be changed and government needs to make decisive actions to do that within our society.
