Fossil fuel alternatives (pg 231-234)

What are fossil fuels? Why are they detrimental for the environment, aside from climate change?

Non-renewable energy resources like coal gas or oil which release greenhouse gases when burned

Aside from climate change/global warming:

• Their extraction process may destroy habitats/biodiversity. Oil spills and drilling processes can leak pollutants into bodies of water

• Combustion might also release nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide causing acid rain → death of trees and aquatic life

What are some alternatives for fossil fuels?

• Solar energy (panels and cells)

• Wind power

• Nuclear power (non-renewable)

• Geothermal

• Hydroelectric and tidal

Solar energy pros and cons?

• Pros

  • renewable resource (energy from sun)

  • does not release anything into the air

  • can be built in many places (e.g roofs) to produce electricity and heat up water

• Cons

  • can be expensive to buy and install so it might be a challenging investment for developing countries

  • they are unreliable (depends on sunlight hours + intensity) unless there is a battery/storage device

  • Batteries contain lead and need to be properly recycled, otherwise it can cause health problems

    • In India, due to the rise of solar power use, there has been an increase in the number of people with lead poisoning

How can people be encouraged to use renewable sources? Case study

Governments have offered financial incentives to persuade people to install solar equipment

• In Spain solar panel subsidies include IBI tax rebates up to 50% for several years for homeowners

Pros and cons of wind power

• Pros

  • Can be located onshore (on land, e.g Northern Spain) or offshore (in the sea, e.g Indonesia)

  • Affordable form of renewable energy and produces no air or water pollution

• Cons

  • Anti-wind farm activists in the Netherlands claim that wind farms are a form of visual pollution, are noisy and have a damaging impact on the ecosystem

    • In 2018, Dutch fishermen led a protest on their fishing boats to discourage the wind farm developments. They argued that the equipment disrupted marine life which could threaten the supply of fish

  • Unreliable

Pros and cons of nuclear power

• Pros

  • Does not pollute the air or emit greenhouse gases

  • Reliable

  • It can produce a large amount of power and supply electricity for large regions (small amount of uranium can produce loads of energy)

• Cons

  • Health and safety concerns, especially after disasters like the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor

  • Difficult to dispose of nuclear waste as it remains radioactive for a long time

  • Expensive to build

Neither geothermal or hydropower are in the objectives pero son mis favoritos.