Solar energy and pollution

The earth has been under assault from fossil fuels for many years and the result has been untold premature deaths and dangerous diseases. Pollution is the most urgent problem some countries face in 2018. China and India, the world’s two biggest polluters, are also leading the way in solar power manufacturing and use. The urban areas in those two countries are so polluted, it's astonishing desperate measures were not taken long before this. Chinese cities are so polluted, visibility is astonishingly low in places. The burning of coal is mostly to blame for this situation, but other fossil fuels are involved as well.  Globally, we are using fossil fuels up so fast, we will run out in about 50-60 years. There is an urgent need to think carefully about renewable energy sources because climate change demands action before things get dramatically worse. The latest climate projections show that the Arctic is melting much faster than originally anticipated.

This article will give you a fundamental understanding of how energy is generated from nonrenewable resources and renewable resources. Fossil fuels could be harming the environment and your health more than you realize, which is why you should strongly consider solar power, as an alternative to control energy costs and improve the environment.

What are nonrenewable resources?

To make an informed decision on how to regulate energy costs, you need to understand the difference between nonrenewable resources and renewable resources. Scientifically speaking, nonrenewable resources are finite and cannot be easily produced. Nonrenewable resources take millions of years to form from natural processes beneath the earth.

Basically, there are four major nonrenewable resources that account for the vast majority of energy consumption in the U.S.:

Petroleum

Coal

Natural gas

Uranium

Here is a brief explanation of each type of nonrenewable resource

Petroleum

Petroleum is the term for commodities created from raw, liquid crude oil. Over millions of years, fossil fuels have been created from organisms that have been compressed underground. Burning petroleum products, such as gasoline, releases the energy stored in fossil fuels that you use daily. These are among the most polluting forms of energy imaginable.

Coal

A large percentage of the energy produced in the U.S. originates from coal mining. Similar to crude oil, coal is another fossil fuel that takes millions of years to form, but coal is excavated from rock, whereas crude oil is a liquid. There are several different varieties of coal, and each contains a different amount of energy. Don't listen to those who talk about "clean coal." This is a misnomer to make coal appear to be more innocuous than it is in reality.

Natural gas

Most American consumers receive a monthly energy bill that probably includes natural gas in addition to electricity. Natural gas is yet another type of fossil fuel that takes millions of years to form in various rock deposits beneath the ground. Natural gas is colorless, odorless and tasteless, and is often derived from crude oil deposits since these two fossil fuels are closely related.

Uranium

Uranium is the highly radioactive fuel that powers nuclear reactions. To generate vast amounts of energy by splitting uranium atoms, scientists use a specific variety of uranium that is rare. However, the nuclear energy produced from uranium creates radioactive waste that is extremely harmful to humans and the environment, requiring careful storage since nuclear waste degrades very slowly. The process of mining uranium is also extremely dangerous and leaves mining sites uninhabitable for thousands of years. Despite disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear reactors are still online all over the world, including some reactors identical to the nuclear facility at Fukushima that had three meltdowns.

The best way to help the environment and save money is to install solar!

Solar power is here to stay, and the sooner you explore how much you can save, the sooner you can enjoy the benefits of residential solar power. Please visit our solar blog to find out more about the benefits of going solar.

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