Technologies
Articles
Ten Cost-Neutral Ideas
to Encourage More Use of Sustainable Energy in BC
Ten Great Reasons for Using Sustainable Energy
1. It will never run out
The sun won’t go supernova
for another 5 billion years. The winds will blow as long
as
the Earth has weather systems, and the tides will roll
as long as there is a moon. Not like oil and gas, which
may be gone within 100 years.
2. It
will only get cheaper
The prices of wind and solar
energy have fallen steadily over the last 20 years, while
the prices of oil and gas have risen. When the President
of Puget Sound Power recently rejected all bids for new
gas-fired electricity, he said that his utility was investing
in wind energy as a hedge against the volatility of future
natural gas prices. Sustainable energy provides stable
prices, because nature’s energy is free.
3. It won’t give you asthma
No-one ever got asthma from
wind-power, microhydro, or ground-source heat. And nor
will they! No smog or air pollution: just clean open skies,
the way nature made them.
4.
It won’t give you cancer
Unlike nuclear energy, which
some believe is the way of the future, sustainable energy
does not produce radioactive wastes that need protecting
for 100,000 years, and nor does it produce plutonium as
a by-product. Just clean fresh air, with no risk of cancer
or childhood leukemia.
5. It will provide many new jobs
Each MW of wind energy creates
3-4 full-time jobs. There are also thousands of jobs waiting
to be created by retrofitting every building for greater
efficiency, and installing solar hot water, ground source
heat, and green hydrogen fuel cell systems.
6.
It will provide a boost for rural areas
Most wind, tidal, wave, or microhydro
installations happen in rural areas, not in the heart of
cities. Farmers in windy areas in the Peace could earn
$3,000 to $7,000 per turbine, while continuing to farm
their fields.
7. It will protect us against disappearing
fossil fuels
North America’s natural gas
supply is beginning to run tight, pushing prices up. If
it runs out, we’ll have to ship it in from places like
Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan in liquefied form, and depend
on the politics of these countries for heat and power.
The era of cheap oil will soon be over. Not so the wind,
sun, hydrogen and tides!
8.
It will help us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions
There
are no carbon emissions from wind and solar energy to trap
heat in the atmosphere,
pushing up Earth’s temperature. If we want to head
off the increase in floods, forest fires, droughts
and heat-waves
that are coming our way, a shift to sustainable energy
is the best way to begin.
9. It will protect us against
terrorism
There are plenty of policy analysts
who say that America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are
caused at least partly by the need to secure future oil
and gas supplies. Sustainable energy can end our dependence
on imported fossil fuels, and the military presence that
is needed to protect them.
10.
We owe it to our children
When the coal, oil and gas are
gone, and for the many thousand years that lie ahead,
the world will be powered by clean, sustainable energy.
We
are the generation that will change, giving our children
a clean, safe, affordable future. The era of fossil fuels
is a short, fleeting moment in history, which will soon
be over.
= Top = |
