alternative sources of energy essay

Human activities produce a profound impact on environment. Today, the impact of humans on nature is larger than it has ever been before and the interference of man into natural process often leads to disastrous effects. At the same time, the progress of mankind is unstoppable and people keep introducing new technologies, using natural resources, exploiting natural environment for their own benefits, which are the major cause of the conflict between human in nature. To put it more precisely, the strife of humans for the improvement of the quality of their life, for the creation more comfortable conditions of living lead to the ignorance of environmental problems. As a result, people readily pollute the environment and simply destroy nature to get some material benefits. However, in this regard, it is understand the major problem people are currently facing. This problem is the disparity between short-run benefits people receive from unlimited exploitation of natural resources and pollution of the environment, on the one hand, and the disastrous effect of human activities on nature, which threaten the extinction of may living species, including humans, in a long-run perspective. In such a situation, people should undertake preventive measures to stop the deterioration of the environmental situation. In this respect, the introduction of alternative, renewable sources of energy can improve consistently environmental protection, but it needs profound research to replace totally fossil fuels that are widely used today.

On analyzing the current situation, it should be said that the pollution of the environment has reached an unprecedented level. The impact of humans on nature has never been so enormous and so destructing as it is at the moment. In actuality, people are the dominant species in the world and no other animal can compete with them.

Nevertheless, it does not prevent humans from the extinction of other living species, even though they do not need to struggle for the survival because the position of humans in the world is unchallenged (Rothenberg et al., 11). It seems as if people do not understand that the major, if not only threat to the survival of human race is human race itself.

To put it more precisely, a part of the modern society understands the negative effects of human activities on the environment. In fact, many of these negative effects are evident even for ordinary people who have the vaguest idea of consequences of human activities and their impact on nature. For instance, the problem of the global warming and climate change is obvious and people understand that this problem threatens to their survival. The air and water pollution deprives humans of vitally important elements they need for survival. Many specialists (Sarkis, 83) warn about the danger of the global catastrophe which can put the end to the mankind and the life on the entire planet.

Nevertheless, a considerable part of the modern society remains ignorant to these warnings. In this respect, it is necessary to underline the fact that there are several reasons for such ignorance of people. Firstly, some people are really unaware of disastrous long-run effects of human activities, such as global warming, for instance. Secondly, people can be aware of the negative impact of human activities on the environment, but they believe they cannot change the situation for better, because they are just ordinary people, but not the actual decision makers who can define economic and political development of the modern society. Finally, and this is probably the most dangerous reason, people are aware of possible negative effects but they are not ready to refuse from short-run benefits they can receive due to using modern conveniences, technologies and exploiting nature. For instance, the modern society is hardly able or, to put it more precisely, willing to refuse from using cars and fossil fuels, even though the negative effects of traffic and use of fossil fuels is well-known. In fact, it is only an example which demonstrates the common trend that is typical to humans ”“ to pursue short-run benefits for the satisfaction of human needs and desires to live comfortably and use technological advancements, which actually stimulate further exploitation of natural resources and pollution of the environment.

In such a situation, the introduction of alternative, renewable sources of energy on the mass scale is an effective measure which can protect environment and minimize the negative impact of human activities on nature. The use of solar power, wind power, and other renewable sources of energy is highly prospective. However, the problem is how to introduce them on the national or even global scope. At this point, it is possible to focus on the research of possibilities to introduce of alternative sources of energy on the local scope that will naturally help to solve the problem on the national scale. For instance, it is possible to stimulate the use of vehicles using electric power, instead of fossil fuels. Furthermore, it is important to stimulate the households to use alternative sources of energy, such as solar power. In this respect, the state can introduce special subsidiary programs to fund the introduction of renewable sources of energy or, alternatively, to stimulate companies producing energy using alternative, renewable sources of energy. For instance, the state can ease the fiscal pressure on such companies.

As a result, the problem of environmental pollution can be solved but efforts of the entire society are needed. The role of the state is particularly important in this regard because the introduction of the state program aiming at the use of alternative, renewable sources of energy en mass can solve the problem of pollution and stimulate the development of environmentally friendly technologies. The state will give the strategic direction in the development of modern technologies either through fiscal stimulation of environmentally friendly technologies or through subsidizing prospective productions.



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