Sustainable Energy by Ronnee Ruselle

Sustainable Energy
by Ronnee Ruselle

Sustainable energy is a crucial subject for all people to recognize as it is linked to all parts of our existence. It allows us to maintain clean, temperate living conditions and in turn our health. It allows us to produce enough food for the world's population and creates jobs and prosperity. Most of all, it allows us to do these things without destroying the environment.

Those of us living in the modern western world are used to getting up and using power to make our morning cup of coffee or tea, take a hot shower, get to work etc. We use it without thinking because we're used to it, but this is not the case for many billions of other people worldwide.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002 found that 1.6 billion people had no access to electricity. Even more staggering, was that on the basis of the situation at that time, in 2032, there would still be 1.4 billion people without electricity, owing to the expected substantial growth in global population. 2.4 billion people relied on it for cooking and heating, and that figure would increase by 2030 to 2.6 billion.

The summit looked at why this was the case and how to go about changing it.
It was revealed that:

It has not been possible for the poor in the least developed countries to have suitable sources of power leading to serious problems with food security, water and health as well as income issues and employment.
Much of the energy policy implemented worldwide has been detrimental to indigenous people. For example, most of the nuclear waste in the United States was destined for indigenous lands.
Government policy around the world offered no subsidies or encouragement to businesses and energy suppliers to look for a sustainable energy source that was not harmful to the environment.

Obviously this is an issue that will take many years and many changes to achieve. Perhaps you know of some ideas that can help these changes come about or perhaps you can contact your government to see what initiatives are being introduced. Although initiatives have been put in place to turn the situation around, it's a sad fact that many governments today still fail to act adequately. Consider writing to your government to suggest possible alternatives. Most of the important inventions that come about are created by members of the public and scientific communities. By putting our minds to it, we can develop new ways to have energy without harming the environment.