Gander Page |1

Nicholas Gander

Mrs. Hurni

English 111

A Renewable Future for The Planet

What if fossil fuels and all the pollution that they cause became a thing of

the past? Renewable energy is a way of providing power by using sources that will

not run out. They also have very little to no environmental impacts such as

pollution. Alternative energy sources should replace fossil fuels because they will

save money, they are more abundant, and they cause less pollution.

In the article “Renewable Energy” by Mary H. Cooper it says that between

the years 1980 and 1995 that the cost of solar energy went down from $30 to only

$5. I would say that is a lot better than fossil fuels because fossil fuels fluctuate in

price, and they have actually risen in the past few years. There have been many

improvements in the cost efficiency of many different types of renewable energy

(Cooper). The one of those sources that has actually had the most increase of cost

efficiency is wind power (Cooper). Also according to Cooper’s article not only

have renewable energy sources become more cost efficient, they have also become

more reliable and efficient. Accord to the same article some of the renewable

energy sources have become so efficient that they can produce a reliable source of

energy in many places across the country. There are also many forms of renewable
 Gander Page |2

energy that is very cheap like geothermal, solar, and wind energy. Geothermal

energy is actually less than $1 in price it is actually around 5₵ per kilowatt hour

(Cooper). Solar energy is probably one of the most expensive of them all costing

about $3 per square foot of photovoltaic cells (Cooper). Now this may be the most

expensive, but they only need to be bought once and gasoline constantly needs to

be bought again since it gets used up, while the photovoltaic cells would just need

to be cleaned every now and then. Wind energy this is probably the least expensive

renewable energy source it only costs around 4₵ to produce 1 kilowatt hour

(Cooper). For me I believe it is completely possible for us to go renewable and the

financial cost would be worth it.

Renewable energy sources are actually more abundant than fossil fuels. I

took a class back in high school it was AP environmental science. In this class we

learned about the different types of renewable energy. We learned about solar

energy which converts the sun’s rays to electrical energy. We also learned about

wind energy as well, which uses the gusts from the wind to spin a turbine to create

the electricity. These energy sources are more abundant than fossil fuels because

they come from a source that will never run out. Fossil fuels come from

decomposing fossils, and they take hundreds and hundreds of years to actually

become fossil fuels. While fossil fuels take millennia to decompose into what we

need them to be to turn them into fuels and to make electricity. Renewable energy
 Gander Page |3

sources on the other hand don’t take any time at all to be able to be turned into

energy. Renewable energy sources will never be depleted either that’s because they

come from sources that will always be around, such as the sun or the wind. Due to

the period of time it takes fossil fuels to be created we could run out of them for

quite a while. In the article “Distribution and Management of Fossil Fuels” it says,

“By some estimates, about 87,000,000 barrels of oil are consumed each day

worldwide.”. So, if we keep using oil at this rate we will run out before anymore

has time to form. This daily use of oil would translate to 31,755,000,000 barrels of

oil in one year. This means that we could easily run out of fossil fuels in a couple

decades if we can’t find new sources, and eventually those sources will run out.

There is another advantage to switching to solely renewable energy and that

is that there is very little to no pollution from them. Fossil fuels produce CO2,

carbon monoxide, and many other types of air pollutants. Also, if fossil fuels are

not disposed of correctly they can end up in the water ways and then harm animals

when they go to drink the water. In the case of Biomass, a renewable energy

source, it can use manufacturing wastes to produce electricity. Biomass could also

be used as a source of fuel for cars, trucks, and SUV’s (Hesse). There is also

geothermal energy which uses the heat from the Earth to heat buildings and can be

used to produce energy as well (Hesse). In the article “Renewable Energy” by

Hesse there is a renewable energy source that would causes no pollution, that is
 Gander Page |4

because it uses the waves of the ocean to produce energy. This type of energy is

called ocean energy it is maybe a decade or so old but is already in use in some

places. In the article “Renewable Energy” by Hesse it says, “A 240-megawatt tidal

power facility on the Rance River in France produces electricity as tidal flows

move back and forth through turbines located at the mouth of the river.”. This

means that with just one river France is receiving 240,000,000 watts of power.

There is far less pollution when it comes to renewable energy sources or there is

none at all.

So in conclusion, there may be many ways that renewable energy sources

are better than fossils. One of those ways is that it costs less than fossil fuels do,

and they are actually becoming cheaper. Another is that they are a lot more

abundant than fossil fuels are, especially since fossil fuels take millennia to

decompose into the form that we need to make fossil fuels. The last one is that

renewable energy causes less to no pollution compared to fossil fuels. If we can

produce energy that won’t harm our planet, then why should we continue to use

something that harms our world.

 Gander Page |5

Works cited:

Bell, Maria Mercedes. "Distribution and Management of Fossil Fuels." Human Geography:

People and the Environment, edited by K. Lee Lerner, et al., vol. 2, Gale, 2013, pp. 495-497.

Global Issues in Context,

eztcc.vccs.edu:2048/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2062300193/GIC?u=viva

2_tcc&xid=cfdacd23. Accessed 3 Dec. 2017.

Cooper, Mary H. "Renewable Energy." CQ Researcher, 7 Nov. 1997, pp. 961-84,

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1997110700. Accessed 1 Dec. 2017.

Hesse, Paul Philip. "Renewable Energy." In Pollution A to Z, edited by Richard M. Stapleton, 175-

180. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. Global Issues in Context (accessed

December 2, 2017).

http://eztcc.vccs.edu:2048/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3408100217/GIC?

u=viva2_tcc&xid=4249798b.