The climate change caused by human activities is one of the major challenges facing the planet today. It is regarded as the world’s greatest threat to the environment and human population. Effective mitigation measures are needed to counteract this man-made climate change. Measures developed should rescue the population from the growing effects of the climate change crisis.
The direct connection between the climate threats and critical economic situation in the energy industry can be observed. Today, the USA is dependent on the foreign sources of energy to meet the country’s energy needs, and this fact influences the economy negatively.
The situation of empowering the country with creating the additional sources of energy can contribute significantly to gaining the definite economic stability and responding to the problem of the climate change. Thus, the threats of the climate change can be overcome with references to resolving the economic crisis with the help of orientation to the new sources of renewable energy, which can be discussed as beneficial from the perspectives of the impact on the environment and saving the costs.
The development of the new sources of renewable energy is the first step to diminish the effects of the economic crisis experienced in the country. The orientation to creating new approaches to receive the necessary energy with accentuating the rapid and large investments in the industry can contribute to the economy’s revival in a quick and sustainable way.
The accents should be made on replacing the energy technologies that rely on expensive carbon based fuels with up-to-date technologies that use such renewable and sustainable energy as wind, sun, and natural heat of the earth.
This measure will give the USA an opportunity to fulfill the Project Independence of producing 100 per cent of its electricity from carbon-free sources, which was proposed by President Nixon thirty five years ago (Gore 302). From this point, the solution of the economic crisis associated with the energy issues is based on developing the effective strategies to use new technologies in creating the renewable energy.
The government can propose the nation the effective solutions to the issues of economic crisis, energy crisis, and climate change with references to emphasizing the advantages of the new energy resources. According to Gore, large amounts of energy can be generated with the help of the geothermal hot spots, wind farms located in deserts and using the concentrated solar thermal plants in deserts (Gore 302).
Furthermore, the production of electricity from the renewable energy resources such as the sun, wind, and natural heat of the earth is a viable way through which the nation can reduce its carbon emissions. The other promising measures include transporting renewable electricity from the rural areas to the urban areas. This can become possible by planning and constructing a unified national smart grid.
In addition, the United States has a high oil consumption rate and a high percentage of fuel is used in transportation, mostly by individual drivers (Zuckerman 323). Thus, transport industry consumes huge amounts of fuel, and this industry can use energy hybrids and operate the renewable electricity. From this perspective, plug-in hybrids would help solve the problem of storing electricity. Moreover, vehicles could be charged during off-peak energy hours (Gore 303).
The active usage of the renewable energy resources can be discussed as the advantageous strategy not only from the point of the economic benefits but also from the perspective of reducing the negative impact of the environment. The threat of the climate change is caused by the carbon dioxide emissions, which pollute the atmosphere as a result of the intensive industrialization and extreme usage of coal and oil as the main sources of the energy (Gore 303).
That is why, creating new ways to overcome the economic and energy crises with the help of using the renewable energy, the government contributes to diminishing the air pollution with the carbon dioxide and resolving the problem of the climate change.
Furthermore, the dependence on the oil and coal resources intensifies the country’s dependence on the foreign nations and their energy resources. Thus, high dependence on foreign oil could make the economy fall behind as a huge amount of money is spent each year.
It is important to note that the wealth of the nation depends much on the oil countries of the Middle East. Consequently, dependence on the foreign oil also puts the nation at a high risk as it faces a dangerous vulnerability when the world becomes unable to access oil from the Middle East (Zuckerman 323).
However, considering definite economic factors, researchers are inclined to discuss the possibilities to use the renewable energy resources to overcome the industry’s crisis as rather ineffective. Thus, Zuckerman states that “no combination of solar, wind, ethanol, biodiesel, or anything else will allow us independence in the foreseeable future” (Zuckerman 323).
Moreover, the United States alternative energy approaches have the little government support in comparison to gas, oil, and nuclear power lobbies, and this makes it difficult to invest in the production of electricity from the renewable energy sources (Zuckerman 324). Nevertheless, there are the ways to cope with the problematic situation successfully. The long-term support for the renewable energy demand has to be increased so as to diversify the energy mix in the USA.
Such measures as procuring renewable electricity from large scale projects, introducing new incentives, performance-based incentive rebates and feed-in tariffs could increase support for using the renewable energy (Zuckerman 325). Furthermore, the development of renewable energy sources will call for the large capital to provide support for businesses interested in this field and encourage private investments.
The orientation to the renewable energy and implementation of the definite transformations in the industry will enable the nation to tackle the issue of the climate change and saving the planet and the human population along with contributing to the economy’s development.
There are various benefits that can be obtained from deploying renewable energy sources. More job opportunities will be created for the American workers, the more secure and diverse energy supply will be achieved by reducing exposure to high fuel prices, and the healthy and clean environment that is free from high amounts of carbon dioxide and other harmful green house gases will be created.
It is necessary to help the country achieve its long-term environmental, security and energy benefits of the renewable energy, support the development of transmission and development of broader interstate carbon trading as well as development of stronger RPS targets. Such measures will provide the nation with the opportunities to obtain quick benefits of the renewable energy as well as create the necessary demand for this kind of energy.
Works Cited
Gore, Albert. “The Climate for Change”. Writing and Reading across the Curriculum. Ed. Lawrence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2011. 301-303. Print.
Zuckerman, Mortimer. “Stop the Energy Insanity”. Writing and Reading across the Curriculum. Ed. Lawrence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2011. 322-325. Print.