Greenhouse-gas emissions and their effects continue to grow rapidly as the world carries on. The only plausible solution we currently have to this trend is natural gas. Now I do not want to have the conversation of whether or not global warming is real. I have argued both sides and it is not fun if the other side is more stubborn that you are. The real issue is what the people and our governments (yes plural, this is a world-wide issue) intend to do, not about global warming, but, about how we produce and use energy. There needs to be organization of a real shift of our focus to make us a natural-gas economy.
In 2006, China's yearly greenhouse-gas emissions first exceeded those of the United States. By the end of this year, China will be emitting twice as much greenhouse-gas emissions as America. This has to do with China's economic growth and vast expansion of coal use. Nearly 70% of China’s electricity comes from coal. We can expect Chinese economic and energy growth to continue. On the other hand, America’s greenhouse-gas emissions are the lowest they have been for about 20 years because we have been somewhat trying to make the shift to natural gases. What has been and can be done to keep greenhouse-gas emissions low and fuel the global economy? Well, a lot actually.
If you recall, I wrote an article the other week in regards to a tariff placed on solar panels and related equipment and how they seemed to be more of a clean energy tax than anything. Well, that does not help the issues we are faced with. That does not even really keep business domestic. China’s government is heavily subsidizing clean energy technologies in order to be more efficient. Having better technologies helps with energy conservation. Just like how it takes money to make money it takes energy to make energy. However, we are currently wasting a large amount of energy by simply making and delivering it. Proper conservation methods and innovations will save energy as well as money, thus helping keep greenhouse-gas emissions low.
Another solution is proper insulation. Most homes in America are not properly insulated and costs homeowners a good deal of money from wasting heating and cooling. The U.S. Department of Energy has found that smart homes have amazing insulation and for states such as California that have them wasted less energy due to effective insulation. Pretty cool how you simply go to McGuckin’s get some weathering striping and be warmer, richer, and more environmentally friendly. Sadly though, this will not make up for the hole we have buried ourselves in.
One controversy solution is extracting natural gas by hydraulic fracturing or “facking”. There is some shortsighted opposition from some environmentalists on the matter. They say that fracking may contaminate ground water with greenhouse gas methane. Ground water is a popular source of drinking and tap water and can be unusable if polluted. Although it is true that there have been a couple isolated events of ground water pollution caused by fracking, this is still an pretty much unexplored solution. Technology for clean fracking is relatively simple. With strict regulations and careful monitoring for transgressions, clean fracking can help get the world off coal once and for all.
As experts have said before, a dual solution of both conservation and clean fracking is what will eventually shift us away from coal and into a new clean era. Coal use has proven to damage human health and the environment and cannot be used forever. Heck, it should not be used now. And yet it remains because it is familiar and cheap. With countries such as China and India growing rapidly in population, their need for energies will be increasing drastically. If we do not implement a new method for energy production soon, we could be stick with coal for much longer than we hope.
