The Current Global Energy Crisis

With modern technology, it is clear that there is a global energy crisis. The Earth is simply running out of resources to create energy from. A clear indication of this is the dramatic raise in price of fossil fuel oil for gasoline. In order to keep the amount of energy consumption the human population is doing without lowering living standards, something must be done.

            There are many causes to the global energy crisis. For example, 70% of energy is made from fossil fuels. These fossil fuels include coal and oil. The issue with these fossil fuels is that they are depleting drastically. Another cause is that modern technology, such as laptops and personal computers, use up a lot of energy. Since most of the voltage is lost within the transformer of most plugs, most of the energy is simply wasted in the plug. This is a major issue within the energy crisis. Also, most people leave chargers and most plugs plugged in even when they are not using them. When a plug is plugged in, whether it is connected to something or not, it extracts energy and electricity from the port. Therefore, even more energy is simply being wasted in the houses of many of the world’s people.

            Nuclear Fission is the modern day solution to part of the energy crisis. The issue with nuclear fission is that it is dangerous. The Uranium that breaks down leaves radioactive material as waste after the reaction. The alternative is nuclear fusion. However, the technology to obtain energy through fusing atoms does not exist yet and probably will not exist for a while.

            A possible modern day solution other than fission is to use the ocean as a way to extract energy. There are many sources in the ocean to get energy. There is water power from the currents and waves to turn a turbine. There is also extracting heat from the temperature differences at different depths of the ocean. Most machines work off of a temperature difference and from the second law of thermodynamics, the energy transfers. This transferring energy could, in turn, spin a turbine coil to generate electricity. The electricity would then be put into storage. There is no form of pollution in this example, but there is no guarantee that the ocean temperature will remain constant and not change the ecosystem. However, a manmade lake could be made to use this. Therefore, a natural marine ecosystem is not disturbed in the process of extracting energy from the water temperatures. Artificial lakes and water sources can be built throughout the entire world and then these generators that use the temperature difference of the water source could be build on these artificial lakes.

Works Cited

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