Renewable Energy

With the expense of petroleum-based energy sources and the amount of pollution created by them the need to find cleaner and cheaper energy sources has never been greater. The need to 'Live Green' is taking on an ever more important meaning as people are realizing that you can't just keep on using up the earth's resources without having to worry about the consequences.

One of the consequences is that the earth is heating up. It has been debated that it is just part of the normal cycle of earth to heat up and cool down. Given the large amount of evidence to this that is hard to argue. However there is now a large body of evidence that humans have impacted this cycle and are in fact accelerating and exacerbating it. For example the polar ice sheets are currently melting at an above normal rate. This has the effect of allowing the water to absorb even more solar radiation (ice reflects it) than normal and further heating up the planet.

These affects that humans are having on the heating cycle needs to be greatly reduced. Decreasing the carbon footprint of humans can do this. The carbon footprint is the impact that each person and society has on the planet. We need to reduce ours so that we can harmoniously live on the planet and not destroy our own habitat.

To do this cleaner energy sources must be used. One of these is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy has gotten a lot of bad press and the nuclear power plants that are currently being used are admittedly dangerous. However there are now newly designed nuclear power plants that greatly mitigate the dangerous aspects of nuclear power. Given this nuclear energy should once again be looked at seriously as a viable alternative to foreign oil.

There are also other sources of energy that don't engender as many issues as nuclear energy. These are solar energy, hydroelectric power, geothermal power and bio fuels. Each has its' place as no one of them will most likely be used exclusively to quench the insatiable thirst for energy. As a society and race we must find a way to eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) our dependence on foreign oil. This dependence has weakened our society and made us party to radical regimes that are only interested in perpetuating their twisted vision of how society should be.