Introduction

According to EIA, last year, the United States had produced 1,171,809 tons of coal. There were 1458 mines around the U.S. extracting coal. Coal is found underground so miners have to excavate deeply and use explosives to get to the coal. Each year, getting to the coal becomes increasingly difficult and prices rise. Burning coal is our main source of electricity and “the U.S. government predicts that world coal consumption will increase from 114.5 quadrillion Btu in 2004 to 199.1 quadrillion Btu in 2030.” Nuclear power follows coal and is made from nuclear fission of uranium-235, an isotope of uranium. Nuclear waste is created after nuclear fission, which is mostly plutonium. Both coal burning and nuclear power are damaging to the environment and must be stopped.

Coal at Home

            All around the U.S., coal is burned to provide electricity to homes and businesses. The amount of electricity used is measured in kilowatt-hours. Each kilowatt-hour uses approximately 1 lb of coal. An average household uses about 12,924.224 Kilowatts-hour a year in America, as of 2007. Both coal and nuclear power provide a large amount of electricity and are cheap but have negative consequences. Nuclear power has nuclear waste, which is mostly plutonium that will take millions of years to slowly decompose. Nuclear power is not used as much in America due to fears of terrorism attacks by using plutonium. Burning coal releases greenhouse gases and mercury could escape and seep into the aquifers and lakes, damaging the fish and our water supply. About 32 million people live in places with air pollution, and over 11 thousand people die every year due to air pollution.

Saving the World

            By being efficient with our electricity, we can prevent millions of tons of coal to be burned and by using Green Power. Green Power is electricity obtained from renewable resources such as solar power, hydropower, wind power, and other alternative resources. Simply switching from incandescent bulbs to fluorescent bulbs, people can save money in their monthly bills. Energy-star appliances are appliances that are energy efficient. Using geothermal heating is a great way to cut power bills by using the heat of the earth to cool down and heat homes. Solar energy is probably the best energy source since the energy from the sun is massive. Simply by making small changes in your lifestyle can help you and the world.

Some Thoughts

            Humanity changes its ways only when its existence is threatened. Right now, oil and coal companies are making a lot of money and have obtained power with the money. Their power comes from lobbying congressmen or corrupting them. Every year, ecologists have to win the fight against contractors to preserve wildlife, but contractors only have to win one time. Right now, there are noticeable changes to human life, but not major enough to completely affect human life. There are those people that have grown up against science and will also ignore our impending crisis. We already know we are going to run out of coal, but how many mountains do we have to destroy before actually finding some other source? The Middle East is full of petroleum but we have to fight for it and defend our oil. Offshore drilling will only damage our environment. We must change our dependence before we are threatened to extinction by our own folly. Switching to solar panels and wind power to power our homes is probably the main objective. We must first begin our transition to our goal by using natural gas and biomass in the beginning. It will be a difficult time but will eventually pay off in the long run. Cars will probably run on hydrogen instead of petroleum, natural gas, or ethanol. Our world will be a better place to live for future generations. We cannot save the world but we can prevent more damage done to it by doing all of these things.