Climate crisis and clean energy
The world population growth clearly indicates a drastic increase after 1950. As a result the demand for energy is getting higher and in order to fulfill this energy requirement more and more energy sources are being consumed globally. Most of these energy sources leave emissions which cause a destructive impact on the human health as well as the environmental well-being. Majority of these emissions contribute to the greenhouse effect and other negative impacts on the environment and they lead to the climate changes which is one of the major environmental challenge we face in the present world. Some of the common global climate changes due to the energy consumption related pollutions are rising sea level, extreme weather conditions like flooding, droughts and storms, change of raining cycle and etc. The global climate changes do not only impact on life and property but also add a severe risk for ecosystems, human health and economy. Therefor this would become a huge threat on the global journey of sustainable development such that not only being consuming non-renewable energy sources but also indirectly shaping the life span of the planet.
The main reason for these climate changes is releasing a large amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere due to worldwide human activities including combustion of fossil fuel. Greenhouse effect is not an enemy if it remains to a level for keeping the required temperature of the planet because otherwise the planet will be an ice berg. But nowadays greenhouse effect has exceeded its red line because of the huge Carbon emission. To prove that, after the industrial revolution it is found that the temperature of earth has been increased by 10C. A noticeable climate change we experience currently is the change of rain cycle. With the increasing greenhouse effect the surface temperature starts increasing and as a result vaporization from the surface also gets increased. It will result on more rain in short intervals in large amounts. They can result in flooding and earth slips as well as a huge economical degradation in agriculture. Temperature increase also results in melting glaciers and thereby increasing the sea level even until it is a Tsunami condition. Hence the human lives and properties are in the danger and the fisheries industry is in a corruptive situation. Thus, the global climate changes have the ability to affect not only the day to day human activities but also numerous industries and thereby give a negative contribution to the worldwide social and economic development.
To avoid the worst impacts of climate changes an immediate action needs to be taken to minimize the greenhouse gas emission related energy consumption. This can be done in two ways: reducing the consumption of energy to reduce the harmful emissions and shifting to emission free clean energy consumption. The first solution is difficult to achieve with the increasing population and also it is not an efficient way to reduce the effect on climate crisis because from that solution there is still environmental effect up to a certain level. Therefore the necessity of shifting to clean energy is obviously emerging. Clean energy normally comes from renewable sources that do not pollute the atmosphere or emit greenhouse supportive gases when used. In order to meet future energy goals people are coming up with innovative technologies to accelerate the usage of clean energy sources such as solar, wind, tidal and piezoelectricity. For an example travelling and transportation is getting electrified rather than using fossil fuels. Next, the building industry where the majority of energy is consumed is now being highly focused to power with solar energy. To illustrate solar energy can be used to generate electricity for lighting and heating purposes of the buildings. At least if we can use that energy for backup power systems, we can reduce the operations of diesel generators. Sri Lanka is specially blessed with heavy sun rise over majority of the year and considering that we have to agree that we are not sufficiently taking the usage of such a widely available free and clean source of energy. Then the wind energy is another plentiful clean energy we can use to generate electricity. Apart from that piezoelectricity is another clean energy source which is still in the research level. Piezoelectric materials can be embedded to the pavements, dance floors, and shoes etc. in order to harvest energy from the vibration and pressure. Researchers are also studying on taking benefits from the body heat of human beings through various wearable.
Thus the planet is blessed with plenty of clean energy sources even though it is not easy to harvest the consumable outcome from them. But as the most appropriate solution to meet the future energy goals while reducing the climate changes due to releases of energy consumption, it is essential to accelerate the usage of clean energy. Because, clean energy solutions not only stop climate changes but also lower the consumer bills. Let’s gather to clean our planet by energizing it in a clean manner and to bring back the beauty of its balance.
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