Environmental Impacts
The most discussed & debated environmental effect today is CO2 emissions. Half of our CO2 emissions come from coal and nearly all CO2 emissions are fossil fuels. Reduction of CO2 emissions is widely discussed internationally in hope of reducing global warming and seeing the results it will have on the atmosphere. We control sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are controlled to a certain degree internationally. Using water as power is beneficial but may become a problem in the future due to many people wanting to utilize utilize it. We have made progression in solar powered electricity, but it costs more money. The key to lowering the cost is to minimize environmental impacts while keeping the energy affordable. How is Oil Made Oil starts out as plankton which are tiny plants/ animals that live in oceans or lakes. When the plankton die they become apart of the sand, silt, and clay becoming apart of the mud. Over time, the planks and animals get crushed and heated into crude oil. (This process could take anywhere from 10 million years to 100 million years.) Once we get the oil we have to refine it. Half of the oil transforms into gasoline. A few other things produced from oil are jet/ diesel fuel, lubricants, propane, and asphalt. Oil is pretty much used in everything, from products to make clothes to products to make buildings. And, it all started out as little ocean plants and animals called plankton. Coal Coal is cheap and dirty. Nearly every country has an available available coal reserve, it is easy to find and cheap to collect. It is a very easy product to deal with in the fact that it is easy to mine transport and most importantly easy to turn into electricity. Because it is widely available it is cheap and beneficial for those who can't afford more expensive sources of energy, like solar power. The biggest downside to coal, however, is that it is dirty; and not only like the dirt that it comes from. Burning coal produces pollutants and large volumes of ash. Burning coal produces around half of all manmade CO2 emissions. It causes damage everyday, but it is the most affordable way of producing energy.
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