Play critical ops facebook10/25/2022 ![]() ![]() Renewable wind and solar, however, only provide about 7.6 percent of our electricity needs (6.3 percent wind and 1.3 percent solar) - and this is only when the sun is shining or wind is blowing. About 63 percent of electricity generation comes from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases), with about 20 percent from nuclear energy. The challenges are clear: 80 percent of energy consumed (transportation, manufacturing and electricity) in the U.S. ![]() Some suggest that we can replace fossil fuels with renewable resources to meet our needs, but they never explain how. In fact, these carbon emissions have been reduced primary through the fracking revolution - in which hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling have made huge domestic quantities of natural gas available for electric power generation, off-setting dirtier coal. carbon emissions from power generation have reached a 30-year low. Since 1980, ozone is down 33 percent, nitrogen oxide down 57 percent, sulfur dioxide down 87 percent, carbon monoxide 85 percent and lead down 99 percent. Since 1973, emissions have dropped 90 percent, even with a 123 percent increase in coal-fired electric generation. But what is often not reported is how human ingenuity has reduced emissions. There is no doubt that the burning of fossil fuels has caused pollution. Natural gas, oil and coal help supply the electricity to pump clean, running water to our homes and allow us to operate wastewater and sewage plants so we don’t pollute our rivers. Likewise, consider running water and sanitation. From fertilizer produced with natural gas to tractors powered by diesel engines, and irrigation systems that pump water and refrigerators that prevent food from spoiling, natural gas, oil and coal are the energy that feeds America. About 3 percent of the population now produces all the food that over 300 million Americans consume. In the United States, energy allows us to produce three times as much food as we did a century ago, in one-third fewer man-hours, on one-third fewer acres, and at one-third the cost. In fact, many in developing countries can’t save premature babies because they don’t have access to the reliable electricity that fossil fuels provide Americans.įossil fuels have also allowed us to address hunger. Without oil, natural gas, and coal, none of this would be possible and available to so many people. ![]() Fossil fuel use for machines, transportation, electricity, and plastics allows us to build complex devices, travel longer distances, illuminate our homes, and build everyday products from toys to computers.Ĭonsider this one example: gasoline in a car is used to transport an expectant mother to a hospital coal and natural gas powers the electric lights and medical devices in a delivery room that same electricity ensures that a pre-maturely born baby is kept warm in an incubator 24 hours a day, seven days a week and petroleum-based plastics are used for tubing to supply that tiny baby with air and food. #Play critical ops facebook manual#Fossil fuels have allowed people to be more productive, to engage in less backbreaking manual labor, and to grow more food. When one thinks about it, it makes sense. The facts are that life expectancy, population and economic growth all began to increase dramatically when fossil fuels were harnessed - and have continued to do so for the 200 years since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. We have been told that fossil fuels are wrecking the environment and our health. But like most things in life, the data does not always reflect the popular narrative. ![]() In particular, we should honestly assess the data as to how fossil fuels impacted our planet, the environment, and quality of life. Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day ( April 22) has been a strange mix - a celebration of springtime and the great outdoors, combined with doom-and-gloom prophecies of destruction, centering on overpopulation, pollution and capitalism.īut because Earth Day is an opportunity for reflection about our planet and the people who inhabit it, we should consider how man’s use of natural resources has affected the environment and the human condition. ![]()
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