Author: Jacob Liu
Editors: Anand Soma and Cynthia Zhang
Artist: Karen Liu
As we all know, the resources on Earth are shrinking expeditiously under the temerarious acts from humans. But do you know what would be the consequence of running out of energy sources? It would most definitely be a disaster and it will influence every single person living on Earth.
If we run out of biofuel sources, we will run out of oxygen and food and we all die; if there is no more wind, the concentration of oxygen would build up in the forests which burn and stop producing oxygen, then, we all die; If the oceans have no tides, it stops moving, leading to the want of oxygen, then, we all die. If there is no more geothermal energy, the earth will freeze, then, we all die; If we run out of fossil fuels, we will lose the ability to power cities and all machines temporarily, then, probably most of us will die.
That doesn’t sound pleasant, does it? Well, a way to resolve this mishap is to just know more about these energy sources. Conventional energy, also called fossil fuels, is obtained from fixed reserves in nature like oil, gas, and coal. They are claimed to be contributing to Global Warming hugely, and they are also non-renewable, unsustainable, and unsafe which caused many accidents to happen. However, they do have many crucial advantages: they are well developed, cheap, and reliable.
On the other hand, alternative energy provides reliable power supplies and fuel diversification, which enhances energy security and lower the risk of spilling fuels while reducing the number of imported fuels needed. Some examples are wave energy, biofuel, geothermal power, wind energy, tidal energy, and solar energy. These energy sources are renewable energies that are safer and will cause way fewer pollutions. Plus, the price for maintenance and refueling is way lower as well. But it does also have some disadvantages. It has a higher upfront cost as technologies were pretty advanced for these devices. It has a bunch of limitations on where it locates and the weather of its surroundings. They would not work in certain conditions or weather. Storage technology for these devices is also usually expensive.
The battle of which type of energy is the “best” has been going on all the time. I believe that alternative energy is a better choice for humans’ future because no matter to the individuals or the community, after building up the device, people will gain huge benefits and save tons of money. It is also clean and green to the environment which is important to humans since we need a healthy environment to live in.
Citation:
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