Obtaining a Sustainable Environment Contest By Steem4Nigeria

Introduction

Obtaining a sustainable environment

When we speak of environmental sustainability, we attempt to talk about how we interact with the environment. This is a move to fellowship with the environment in such a way that we keep the resources that are embedded in the environment, safe and sound. The resultant effect of this is that there will be future needs, and these practices will ensure that we have what will keep us up and going.

Environmental sustainability connotes practices that sustain the environment, as simple as that. Human beings are always on the hunt for what to do and what to eat. In this chase, they encounter raw materials that they have to convert to finished goods in an attempt to satisfy their current need. To ensure that there are enough resources left for future generations to use, to ensure that the processes of turning raw materials from the environment to finished goods do not lead to the depletion of the quality and quantity of these assets, we must imbibe cultures that keep them in better conditions for future use.

Improving the quality of life on earth is a dire need however, there must be patterns that must be strictly followed to enable us to ferry raw materials to finished goods, resulting in satisfaction and sustenance of the ecosystem. For example, If you have a Cat at home as a pet, it likely may birth to three more kittens in addition to itself. The animals would be four in your home. The Implication is that you would need to find a way to take care of the cats without harming the general balance in your home. So, it is with the earth. According to statistics, there are a few billion of people on earth. The increasing number of human beings on earth puts pressure on demand for sustainable living.

Ultimately, if we continue to lay pressure on these resources, we will use them at rates faster than the rate of replenishment. In obtaining a sustainable environment, we need to examine the major influences on the environment. Human beings are the defining factor that determines what happens or what does not happen in the environment. If we want to secure a sustainable environment, we must create systems that will keep us in check while we explore our environment. Because ecological, social, and financial situations differ from one territory to another, we can not authoritatively say there is a blueprint or method that all territories must apply to ensure that there is a drive or goal to sustain the environment. Anyway, each country or nation is responsible for creating laws and systems to manage this.
Some laws may be placed to guide and guard the exploitation of the environment such that people will find the proper balance between exploiting natural resources and damaging the environment.

How Can Renewable Energy Benefit the Environment?

I feel that it is important that we understand what renewable energies are and their types before we delve deeper. Renewable energy is a type of energy source that is clean and can be replenished. These kinds of energy emanate from natural sources. It is not really a new technology but, it is a way of harnessing nature’s gift. If we take a look at the sun, we see that it is very useful in all of our activities. At a basic level, it helps keep us warm and even light forest fires that burn for kilometers. With the advance in technology and innovation, we have found ways to utilize less expensive methods in capturing and exploiting these energies from their sources. Dirty energy sources such as fossil fuels are responsible for the decaying condition of the atmosphere right now. They can be termed as unrenewable because they actually take some time before they successfully get replenished. Gas or premium motor spirit PMS, are all sourced from a finite source called crude oil and they are serious pollutants.

In the southern part of Nigeria, the Niger Delta region to be specific. The inhabitants of the community lack access to basic amenities such as clean water because of oil spillage and vandalization. In an attempt to exploit these dirty energy sources, we see that the effect is deadly on the environment at a local and global scale. Renewable energy will serve the environment a sumptuous plate of chicken, that’s on a funny note anyway. My point is that it will help combat climate change. Through the usage of renewable energy, air and water pollution which is a common attachment to the traditional exploitation of power sources will be dealt with. This is will in turn improve public health and allow for proper use of water.

Types of Clean Renewable Energy

• Solar
  The sun has been in existence since the creation of the earth and humans have been exploiting it since then. It has been used for the most basic needs such as staying warm and drying food. Solar panels are made to help turn direct sunlight to electricity. These are either placed on roof-tops or on elevated surfaces. Solar panels can generate adequate power to satisfy the energy need of a community. Interestingly, solar energy does not emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases that can harm the earth. And that is why we should consider using these kinds of energy sources.

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According by to word of statistics who posted this on twitter

• Wind
  The wind is air in motion. Turbines are used to exploit this energy source. These turbines stand very tall, with blades wide to ensure enough wind effect. As these blades turn, an electric generator helps convert wind to electricity. This does not emit greenhouse gases into the environment in any form.

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It is also important I state that renewable energy on its own is beneficial to the environment. The concept of using renewable energy is one that is being developed on a daily basis. When we employ use of renewable energy, we make use of energy that has no negative effect on the globe. The ozone layer is a layer of gases in the atmosphere that protects the earth from ultraviolet rays. When this layer is damaged, there is a resultant negative effect on the ecosystem. During the exploitation of crude oil, there is a terrible amount of fossil emission that is released into the atmosphere which is terrible to the health of the ecosystem. Using renewable energy helps humans not depend fully on imported fuel. This alone would serve a big purpose in sustainably exploiting the environment and as a matter of fact, help countries that import fuels, save money. This money could be further use to develop networks of renewable energy sources and the cycle will continue.

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The usage of renewable energy will combat the menace called global warming. I initially spoke about global warming being the unusual warming and heating of the earth due to the depletion of the ozone layer. Automobiles and industries keep releasing dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, these released gases serve as heat entrapment technology, the result is a series of biological and environmental effects.

Carbon dioxide is the major gas we think about when we mention global warming. It is actually a major constituent of the gases that warm up the environment. Furthermore, we see that there are other sources of energy that can administer little to no emission of carbon dioxide hence, global warming.

During school, I had the opportunity to study a published article that was released in July 2008 and was updated in December 2017. I found out that, when we burn out natural gas in an attempt to power electricity, there is an average release of one to two pounds of carbon dioxide which is a major cause of global warming. Furthermore, during the course of my study in school, I found out that coal also emits about one to three pounds of the formerly acclaimed gas. You can imagine how dangerous these amounts are! Anyway, when we consider using solar and wind energy sources, there is a very minimal to no release of greenhouse gases.

I am of the opinion that if and when we employ the use of these renewable energy sources, we can deaden the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane, which will significantly reduce global warming. In fact, we understand that the emission of these harmful gases affects human health and stability. The air we breathe and the water we drink are affected by harmful gas emissions which lead to damages to the health state of humans and animals. We breathe in bad air, we drink polluted water.

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On the good side, using some of these renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy helps in curtailing the emission of these gases. There are little to no levels of water and air pollution. For instance, during the exploitation of wind and solar energy sources, we have no contact with water to foster its exploitation. Thus, there is no water pollution.

But when we consider the exploitation of coal and fossil fuel, there is a high tendency of water meant for domestic and agricultural usage (irrigation, drinking), etc to be polluted upstream and downstream as we can see in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Thermal plants use a large sum of water to administer cooling to their systems. Considering all of these, we see that renewable energy is very beneficial to the environment.

In summary, the surest way to preserve the environment is by exploiting energy sources that do not emit harmful gases into the atmosphere which in turn harms the environment primarily solar and wind.

How Does Renewable Energy Save Money?

One of the ways renewable energy saves money is that you do not have to constantly pay electricity bills a personal and industrial scale. Let me cite an example, during my study in school, we had issues with our electricity supply. I went to visit a friend who had a small solar panel that could charge phones. All we had to do was to place the panel under the sun and we were able to power our phones. I did not have to pay any bills.

All you need to do is set up your solar panels, inverters, and batteries and you are good to go. So long as the sun is still in existence, you won’t lack power. You may only have to pay for maintenance of the equipment but, you will not pay energy bills.

At the industrial level, companies make use of power generators and in Nigeria, we use petrol and diesel to power these generators. The generators emit fumes that pollute the air around the troposphere, the layer where we find the necessary gases for human existence. The carbon monoxide that is released, damages the air quality and the ozone layer. Installing solar panels and integrating wind turbines in industries, depending on how big the company is, may cater to the energy needs for adequate operation while shutting down the prevalence of global warming.

In Nigeria and globally, there is a relative increase in the price of fuel. This fluctuation is detrimental to company operation. Having renewable sources of power will definitely severe the impact of overcharged energy prices for business operation.

Furthermore, the unstable power supply is the reason why many businesses especially the ones that deal with perishable goods, go bankrupt. Pairing your businesses with renewable power sources will save the money and stress of managing losses. In summary, renewable energy not only saves money but, prevents climate change and prevent public health problems that are caused by the use of fossil fuel.

Will renewable energy create jobs?

Yes, it will create more jobs. Because many nations have seen the light in using renewable energy in addition to the fact that, it is sustainable and creates long-term solutions to power problems, creating enabling policies will definitely create millions of job opportunities. I was taking a particular class on Campus, my professor taught me that based on reports received from International Renewable Energy Agency, the quick uptake of renewable energy usage among individuals and companies could shift the total available energy-related jobs to one hundred million by the year 2050.
In facets such as wind and solar, there is and will be a continuous demand for skilled workers to help in the manufacturing, developing projects, turbine installation, and maintenance, services related to finance, even transportation and logistics. In essence, as the investments in these fields continue to grow, the sector will be in dire need of manpower.

Will renewable energy sources stop global warning?

What actually is global warming? In simple terms, global warming occurs when greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide gas trap in the earth, heat that is meant to escape into space. This has myriad effects on our planet ranging from rapid movements of our wildlife, extinction of some of them, rising sea levels that cause floods, and so on. The major cause of this phenomenon is the emission of greenhouse gases primarily from fossil fuels. A system of cutting down the amount of these gases being emitted into the atmosphere will automatically and directly shut down the warming of the globe.

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There is no way we will switch our power usage from the traditional sources, and begin the use of renewable energy sources, that we won’t tone down the global warming rate. A great amount of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is sourced from power plants burning fossil fuels. That automatically implies that if we stop the use of these power plants the way we currently do, there will be a drastic reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Renewable energy has a lower impact on the environment because there is a minimum to no level of carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere. When we discuss climate change, the concept of renewable energy is always what comes next. It is a very viable solution to global warming because there is no emission of greenhouse gases. It doesn’t only have the capacity to end the ravaging menace of ozone layer depletion but, it has the ability to create jobs and lower energy bills of consumers thus, being economically friendly.

Fossil fuel has tentacles in almost everything we do as humans. From using our vehicles, powering our gadgets at home, and so on. The growing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is alarming. Remember, global warming is a facet of climate change. Greenhouse gases trap the heat that is meant to escapes into space, in our atmosphere which in turn has been causing the average increase in global temperate. Summarily, the way we can stop global warming is to reduce and stop the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. How can we do this? By embracing renewable energy sources.

Conclusion

Just like a coin has a head and a tail. We understand that there are tradeoffs in the operation of renewable energy. However, there is a large chunk of pros that outweigh the cons in this subject matter. The encompassing characteristic of renewable energy is that there is low or even zero-emission of carbon dioxide gas. I believe if we continue to explore and implement these new innovations, global warming will be dealt a serious blow.

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