All of these solutions have many issues. Hydrogen needs more technology and about fifty years to become cheap and available. Bio-diesel would do more harm than good using food for fuel instead of for worldwide hunger. Solar and wind power would take a lot more development of gathering this natural resource and would take time. The only way to face this problem is head-on.
No civilization has ever lasted that long. Is it ethical to be creating a form of waste that will require careful storage for a timeframe longer than any civilization has lasted? Also managing the waste is expensive. There are expensive ways to dispose of long-lived radioactive waste. Sweden , for instance, has spent $14 Billion and rising to manage its radioactive waste and is now decommissioning its reactors.
Period-7 Pros: If the Yucca Mountain is used as a nuclear waste depository then it will help store the large amount of nuclear waste that has been piling up in the nuclear power plants for many years. This build-up of nuclear waste poses a hazard to the areas that surround the power plants (such as New York City). The Yucca Mountain Depository resides is in a sparsely populated area and lies over 100 miles from the nearest city. Also the government already owns the land so it would be a waste if they did not use it for anything. The government has spent 10 billion dollars on the Yucca Mountain project already so it would be a waste to not use it, don’t we want our tax dollars to be well spent?
The toxic waste can be managed by treating it well and burying it underground. Also new technology has made it possible to run Nuclear Power plants with thorium. To use thorium the Nuclear Power Plant needs to be driven on the Accelerator Driven System. This system may have a large price tag but it will pay itself back within fifty years or so. Thorium compared to Uranium creates less toxic waste and also unlike Plutonium (the by-product of uranium) the toxic waste created by Thorium will only takes 500 years to be declared safe.
Although we may be able to sustain a planet with some kind of civilization, the earth that we knew is gone. Oil and fossil fuels are attributed to manual labor and why we are prosperous and why our economies have grown. It is also why we have global warming and acid oceans. Rising temperatures and depleting oil reserves go hand in hand. Modernity may cease with global warming as half the biggest companies are oil companies, and oil is the essence of life.
Fracking is bad for the environment. People still need natural gas or oil to live their life. It will take time to get all of the bugs worked out of fracking. Fracking companies are using the new technology to insure the protection of the environment. Fracking is a cheaper way of obtaining gas.
Bobby Carl Neal Peters English 102 26 April 2012 What a Fracking Opportunity The United States has an energy problem. We are dependent on Petro-dictators for the energy needed to fuel our economy. But recently, due to a new technology called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, new estimates of accessible natural gas reserves have increased dramatically. Used throughout the United States and worldwide, this process has profitably unlocked Trillions (emphasis added) of cubic feet of natural gas here at home in just the past few years. Concern about this new technology spans the political divide.
The 21st Century Energy Boom: An In-depth Analysis of the Benefits of Hydraulic Fracking The controversy of hydraulic fracking is mainly funded by energy corporations and environmental organizations, with the government slowly encroaching after public outcry. With the bias of pro-fracking from energy companies wanting to make money from newly found American natural gas prospects and the anti-fracking claims from environmentalist who are against drilling or operations on American soil wanting very restricting regulations on fracking that would make the process cost more and thus not have the economic benefits that are present now. Through the use of several databases, I have found several different articles that strengthen both sides of
He said that the worldwide population will triple over the decades; so, nuclear energy would be essential for many lives that have come a costume and rely on this source of energy. He also points out the fact that nuclear power plants are essential because it is a powerful source of energy. It is relatively cheaper and faster compared to other alternative sources. Nader counters with the possible devastating outcomes that could be created by leaked radiation from damaged nuclear power plants would result in inhabitable lands. He also points out the fact that people should focus on the present consumption of energy, rather than the future for energy conservation.
Benefits of Fracking Fracking could change the way Americans live. Hydraulic fracturing is an extraction process used to get natural gas, oil and geothermal energy. The drillers, drill thousands of feet down through the bedrock and then inject a mixture of chemicals and grit into shale below. The mixture fractures the rock, allowing natural gas to seep back out through the drill hole. Even though there are people against fracking, the opposites consider that it could be good because it will create jobs, Americans could have their own energy and the U.S.A will use less coal.