Renewable Energy Effects on Global Warming Essay Example

To begin, one of the biggest issues we face with global warming is the overall usage of fossil fuels. As stated before, this gas consisting of carbon dioxide and other methane gases are what create the greenhouse gases. A really significant fix with this problem is that we lessen our fossil fuels and start producing more eco-friendly products and start to move to a more renewable environment. What makes renewable energy even greater is that it varies from a lot of different sources. The main sources are: Hydropower, windpower, biomass, and solar. Hydropower is the strongest source of energy, having produced over 540,000 megawatts from 2001-2017. A good example of hydropower being used is a huge dam like the hoover dam. Another form of renewable energy is wind power. Using the earth’s wind, structures like the windmill can turn wind into electricity. This is also one of the more well known renewable energies. Solar energy in more recent years has become one of the best sources for energy, using the sun as its main source. This is seen primarily with solar panels on homes. It is said that “concentrating solar power (CSP) plants use mirrors to concentrate the sun's heat, deriving thermal energy instead.”(Nuñez 19). Lastly, biomass is a type of renewable energy that is used mostly from waste.Whether this be from wood, plastic, or any kind of trash, these are all put into a landfill that release less damaging gases. Furthermore, “America wastes roughly 40 percent of its food. 1 Of the estimated 125 to 160 billion pounds of food that goes to waste every year, much of it is perfectly edible and nutritious”(FoodPrint). Another huge problem that would help the cause if fixed is food waste.

Every year 250 million slices of bread are thrown away and wasted and almost 6 billion glasses of milk are thrown away. The waste of food has become a huge problem. Most of the food we own in our pantry ends up going to waste, creating more deadly gases in the atmosphere making matters even worse. To fix this problem, People should only buy what they know they are going to end up eating, and reduce food waste. If people continue to discard large amounts of food, this problem will only get bigger. Many countries outside of the United States are handling this extremely well. Food waste markets have become huge in Great Britain, selling food that would otherwise be trashed for a smaller value. In the United States there are rarely any markets like these which brings even more problems. If we build more stores that center around food waste, and even reduce food waste ourselves, this will help dramatically. Lastly, we need to start manufacturing and producing more eco-friendly appliances. It is very crucial that if we want to decrease the amount of gas that is put into the air we will start manufacturing more eco-friendly vehicles and make less gasoline powered ones. People are already making small steps in this direction. Popular Tesla CEO “Elon Musk” has already taken off with the tesla model cars. Recently it has become more popular to own a tesla and electric cars in general. We are starting to see vehicles turn to an electrical route, but it is not quite there yet. There are many great benefits to electric cars, one being that “[electric vehicles] can also reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change and smog, improving public health and reducing ecological damage.”(EERE 20). Not only do cars using gas emit dangerous gas, but they also contribute to a leading factor to global warming. The usage of these electric cars will benefit our environment and our overall health as a whole. As said before, solar energy can also be very helpful.