Pollution and renewable energy

Climate science has come a long way over the years. We now understand how pollution affects life forms and responsible people all over the globe are mobilizing to support renewable energy sources. All energy sources have some impact on our environment, but fossil fuels do considerably more damage than renewable sources. This destruction consists of air and water pollution, damage to public health, wildlife and habitat use, water use, land use and global warming emissions.
Approximately 67 percent of the electricity generated in 2014 was from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Producing that electricity, fossil fuels emitted millions of tons of carbon dioxide, which is the prime reason for global warming, into the atmosphere.

Renewable energy sources reduce emissions

Renewable energy sources (which includes biofuels, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar and wind) account for about 13 percent of power generation. In producing that electricity, they had minimal effects on the environment, insignificant effects on global warming and negligible effects on air quality. Plus, renewable energy sources like wind, solar, hydropower and geothermal—unlike fossil and nuclear energy—incur no fuel costs. There is no cost for the wind or the sun, the heat from the earth or the flow of water. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that carbon dioxide emissions in the United States jumped by about 7 percent between 1990 and 2013, with emissions from fossil fuel combustion being a leading factor in the overall growth in emissions. More recently, the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption rose 3 percent in the first six months of 2014 compared to the same period the previous year reversing a downward trend from 2012 to 2013.

China still the world’s biggest polluter

China remains the world’s highest emitting country, which was responsible for 29 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in 2012. Experts expect to see its emissions continue to increase until 2030. This trend has got to stop. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the earth has warmed by about 0.9 degrees Celsius. Even if we could instantly stop all new emissions entirely we could not stop climate change. Scientists believe that since the oceans have not  warmed as much as the land, the Earth is likely to continue to become about 0.6 degrees Celsius warmer than the present or a total of 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution times—a temperature which climate scientists believe will begin to cause regional food security risks, particularly in Africa.

Climate change convention

In 2010, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change formally recognized that the long-term goal of the convention was to hold the increase in global average warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level, a level that some experts consider to be too high and a level at which the existence of many small island nations will be threatened by rising sea levels. Replacing fossil fuel-based electrical power with renewable energy sources is a critical step in slowing and ultimately stopping global warming.

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