he cost to our environment is only one of many hidden costs
of conventional energy generation. Another cost is financial.
Many people have the misconception that renewable fuel sounds
great in theory but is too expensive in practice. The fact is,
the market for renewable energy is increasing, driving down
the price of the technology. This initiates a financial cycle
much like that of any emerging industry (remember what a desktop
computer cost ten years ago?): Because of the decrease in price
even more people can afford the switch to clean power; and with
the increased market the price will decrease further, thereby
making it even more affordable. The hidden costs of conventional
energy are covered by government subsidies that make its excavation,
pumping, damming, and drilling economically feasible.
The generation and use of energy - whether to power a household
appliance, manufacturing plant, or the computer on which you're
reading this report-affects the environment. There's no way
around it. Generating electricity and running the thousands
of internal combustion vehicles that clog our roads and highways
every day impairs air quality, damages water systems, harms
land and wildlife, ultimately leading to global warming and
all of its detrimental effects.
"Global energy systems developed their
current appetite for fossil fuel...through an economic sleight
of hand which permits energy consumers to ignore the staggering
environmental costs of their choices."
The Environmental Imperative for Renewable Energy, a report
by the Renewable Energy Policy Project.
BREATHING IT ALL IN: AIR
More than 50% of the electricity in the United States is generated
by coal-burning power plants, and since all forms of combustion
release gases and particles into the air, generating electricity
has huge implications for the quality of air. Gases such as
sulfur and nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and particles of
toxic metals and organic materials can be carried great distances
by wind. Acid rain resulting from power plant emissions in the
Midwest has affected forests and waterways from Florida to the
far north of Canada.
Aside from affecting natural habitats nearby and hundreds of
miles away, air pollutants from power plants and automobiles
can have close-in and long-range effects on people's health.
Asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, and other lung diseases have
been attributed to poor air quality, and in the Northeast, we're
all too familiar with bad ozone days.
LAND MINES: LAND
Pennsylvanians know as well as anyone that coal mining operations
can cause severe damage to land. Besides clearing forests and
mountaintops for strip mining, contamination from tailings and
acid mine drainage can persist long after mines have been closed.
Acid rain has damaged forests in many parts of North America.
Uranium mines come with their own set of problems, including
low-level radiation associated with wastes. Oil exploration
and development has forever altered the landscape in a number
of states, and the threat of even more hangs over thousands
of miles of the nation's most pristine and fragile wilderness
area, Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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LET IT FLOW: WATER
Power plants draw huge quantities of water from rivers, lakes,
or the coast for their cooling systems. Most of the cooling
water is returned to its source, but at a raised temperature,
which throws off the natural balance of everything in the ecosystem,
from algae to fish. Coal-fired power plants have also been responsible
for the acidification of lakes, rivers, and streams through
acid rain.
Large-scale hydroelectric power generation also alters the quality
of water, and it has a host of other environmental implications,
including disruption of the natural hydrologic cycle, blocking
migration routes for spawning salmon, and habitat loss.
The transportation of oil has ramifications beyond the occasional
Exxon-Valdez or Prestige disaster. The deepening and widening
of rivers in order to accommodate bigger tankers alters the
landscape and can dredge up pollutants that have settled in the sediments over the years. Dangerous
chemicals such as PCBs reenter the ecosystem when the watershed
is "shaken up."
THE SKY IS FALLING: GLOBAL WARMING
Even though there is still an occasional voice of dissent, the
scientific community has firmly established that global warming
is not fiction but fact. The concentration of greenhouse gases
in the Earth's atmosphere has increased tremendously since the
Industrial Revolution, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels
and the loss of vegetation on land.
According to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
as well as other scientific groups including the Union of Concerned
Scientists, the small scale shifts in climate that we see today-warmer
land and ocean surface temperatures, altered precipitation patterns,
more frequent and more intense El Niņo events- indicate what
could happen if global warming continues unabated.
Many of us do not realize the effects of global warming because
we are not faced with its extremest effects. Rising sea levels,
loss of biodiversity, drought conditions, increased spread of
disease, and more severe air pollution challenge much of the
world's population on a daily basis. Those living on coastal
areas, everywhere from New Orleans to Bangladesh, are already
witnessing and experiencing the effects of global climate change-effects
all of us will face unless we act to stop global warming, starting
today.
ON THE UP SIDE: GOOD NEWS
The good news is that new regulations, better
technologies, and smarter methods of operating power plants
reduce our environmental impact. Even better news is the fact
that the movement for clean, green power is coming of age. Renewable
energy sources such as wind, hydrogen, and solar yield fewer,
if any, greenhouse gases, and carry far less risk politically
than conventional sources like coal, oil, and nuclear power.
And, since renewable means never-ending supply, clean sources
of energy are available in unlimited supply in certain climate
conditions. By harnessing what energy we can from sources available
in our own backyards, we resist climate change and restore the
natural (and naturally safe!) state of our land, air, water,
and atmosphere.
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and resources page.
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