The essay discusses why Midwest does not use the natural resources to generate electricity. The use of most natural resources leads to various effects in the environment and this may affect the quality of human life. The Midwest is very rich with fossil fuel and renewable resources. The resources can be utilized in a way that will improve the region’s economy. The Power Almanac has a design that allows the user to conduct explorations that can create opportunities to people. The thesis statement for the essay is; why are we as human beings not using natural resources in the Midwest to generate electricity?
Coal is not commonly used in the Midwest to generate electricity because it has a lot of harmful effects. It is known accompanied with a characteristic of a low energy density. Coal energy is a type of a non-renewable source of energy and it can easily get depleted. It is very bulky, therefore, leads to a high cost of transportation from the site where it’s excavated to the coal plant. The parts of Midwest which does not have coal will spend more resources in importing and storing coal. This have made Midwest region to avoid generating electricity from coal. The coal dust is also disastrous since it can cause explosions that might lead to fires. The costs of storage are always high, and this forces the Midwest to look for better alternatives. The storage of coal for a number of years is very expensive and this might cause inconsistencies in power productivity.
The major problem with coal is that it causes global warming. This is because the process of burning the fossil fuel will emit the carbon dioxide gas. The gas is a dangerous and powerful greenhouse gas that leads to global warming after it accumulates in the atmosphere for a long duration. The Midwest avoids coal in electricity generation because it can lead to causation of irreversible damage to the environment. The Midwest have taken in mind that the Nonrenewable resources will be there in fixed amounts and when they are depleted, they take many years to be replaced. This means to them that, when the resources are depleted, they are gone forever.
The construction of the coal power plants may lead to massive displacement of people. This is because the land that is suitable for their shelter will be taken to provide space to build the coal power plant. The plants are dangerous as they will release 93% of sulfur dioxide and 82% of nitrogen oxide gas emission. The released emissions may lead to an acid rain that corrodes forests, rocky hills and mountains in the Midwest. The emissions are dangerous as they can cause respiratory problems due to the change of global climate. The coal power plant also releases mercury emissions which can lead to respiratory defects.
The Midwest does not use coal to generate electricity because of the available Federal laws that dictates that air pollution is supposed to be regulated within certain limits. The Clean Air Act will scrutinize all coal power plants to ensure that the damages that are caused by human beings are reduced and the ecosystems are fully protected. The Midwest governments are tired of the environmental degradation that is caused by coal because of its complicated procedures of mining and transportation. The combustion of coal also results to increased magnitudes of solid wastes that use large amounts of water for cooling.
Geothermal power is safe and environmental friendly though it comes with a lot of disadvantages. It is not used in electricity generation because it is not a widespread energy source. This is a reason for its unavailability and difficult generation in the Midwest. This means that the Midwest experiences a capacity shortfall of generating geothermal power. Geothermal power cannot be used to generate electricity due to high installation costs, difficulties in transportation, release of harmful gases, running out of steam, and the excavation is suited in a deep region underneath the earth surface.
The Midwest is a habitat to wealth of fossil fuel and renewable resources, which alternate considerably by federal government. The natural resources deployed will have impacts on the region’s landscape, economy, environment and public health. The pollution and problems with energy sources and supply have a significant in conservation. The alternate sources of energies such as water, wind and solar have been explored. In United States, only a fraction of energy that comes from these alternate natural resources. This is due to negative impacts and degrades the natural environment, human beings, and economic instability of the region.
Fossil fuels consist of ancient organic matters which include coal, oil and natural gas. The fossil fuels are extracted beneath the earth’s surface. Usually done by drilling through the earth’s rocks to where the resources are trapped. The extraction disrupts and displaces people’s habitat. It destroys the biodiversity of the environment by creating potholes. The burning of these natural fuels only a fraction of their energy is utilized but a lot of it is return back to the atmosphere a heat and carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide. These bring up pollution and disrupt the carbon cycles which have immediate effects by limiting airflow, in turn results to breathing problems on the native people. Usage of natural gas at home may worsen the occupant’s allergies since there are increases of risks of asthma or may worsen the healthy and symptoms for those having the disease
The nitrogen oxides are known to contribute in formation of acid rain. The acid rain falls down to earth and causes soil acidity which brings up infertility of the soil. These discourage agricultural activities and as a result discourages population hence employing natural resource to generate power is discouraged in Midwest. The acid rain kills the plants, since acid rains attack the plant roots. In prone areas of acid rain plant growth is affected more so the forests. In extraction, there is effect of greenhouse effect. The generalized optimality condition suggests that the greenhouse effect implies over extraction in the sense of leaving future generations some fault composed wealth portfolio with too few natural resources relative to man-made capital. This judgment is independent of society's ethical preferences concerning the well-being of future generations.
The environmental impacts of oil extraction include oil spillage at sea; deep sea drilling has the potential of leaking oil into the ocean. As result, devastating effects are ruining habitats and killing hydro-organisms. Oil spillage destroys food sources as well as poisoning the food. On the hand, there is economic effect since the pollution attacks the fishing industries. The economy is declined steadily since the inflow of tourism is affected this is because the environment is tampered with, making it ugly and the impacts on the wildlife where they are affected since there is air pollution. These also cause impacts on agriculture which is the backbone of a country’s economy. In Midwest, the natural resources are discouraged in generating power or energy this is because human being cannot conserve that is using natural resources wisely and not contributing to pollution of the land, water and air. These reduce severe impact that imposes on the natural environment.
The renewable resources such as solar, water and wind are the most advantageous sources of power as they cannot be deployed with their effectiveness being relatively equal to the synthesized sources of power. However these resources have been associated with many social defects that make them not commonly used. The Midwest region of United States of America is an open region where wind energy could be utilized very well. However, siting a wind plant that generates electricity would require a large area. The establishment of the project thus displaces people. Therefore the plant does not benefit the current residents but the neighbors an aspect that leads to the resident’s rejection of the project. Moreover this displacement could also be extended to wildlife.
Although wind as a source of energy does not produce waste products and thus is not associated with pollution. Those who reside near the plant would still complain about noise pollution due to the rotating of the turbines. Moreover the production of energy is probabilistic since wind is an unpredictable resource as well as its strength. This calls for establishment of energy storage devices which are not only expensive but also cause pollution when disposed. Consequently these influences together with the high cost of installation and the negative effect on individuals vision who reside near the station has made it impossible for the Midwest region to install the wind equipment and maintained consumption of the chemically processed sources of power.
The inexhaustible nature of solar energy as well as, free, availability, with no nose and emissions refers solar to be the best source of energy. However its initial cost requirement together with other limitation has made it inefficient and thus people making it less used. Although we consider solar rays as free the high cost of installing panels that converts the sun rays to useful. Studies on semiconductor technology have tried to reduce the cost price of producing solar panels but their price relative to other sources has remained high.
The other limitation is the area coverage. Although there are actually small sized solar panels, large production of solar energy that would be sufficient to satisfy most machinery and household would require not only a large placement area but also an expansion from trees and buildings to allow solar access. More over the productivity of solar depends on the climatic and weather conditions that can only be controlled by nature. Most of the mid-west region lies away from equator and thus they receive fairly sufficient rays, therefore the production of solar energy would require a lot of space. The weather conditions are also not reliable with most times being cloudy especially in winter season and these results to inefficiencies.
Solar panels are very unreliable as production is totally zero at night. These make them not of great use as energy is mostly used during their night for lighting. In an effort to cover these storage devices such as solar batteries are used. These storage devices negatively affect the demand for solar energy as increase the fixed cost of production as well as introducing some operational costs that discourage the use of solar energy. Moreover these batteries have pollution effects mostly on water especially when they are disposed when they are disposed.
Another very useful source of power is water that can be stored in a reservoir and used to rotate turbines. The most limitation of this is the high construction costs of dams and installation of the turbines. However due to its effective nature the government takes the responsibility of setting the site. This makes the hydro-electric power readily available but it’s seen that most of the Midwest households have been seen not to use it. This mostly accrues to the high maintenance costs as the as well as the non-reliability due to blackouts.
The mid-west region is very rich in the fossil fuels in addition to other renewable sources of power such as water, sun and wind. However the residents of this region together with firms still use the chemically produced power sources such batteries and dry cells. These have majorly resulted due to the many disadvantages that are associated with the use of these sources. Moreover it’s very clear that if the use of these resources were to be started then the residents would suffer with non-residents benefiting more
References
Brosnan, K. A. (2010). Encyclopedia of American environmental history. New York, N.Y: Facts On File
Robbins, P., & Sage Publications, Inc. (2007). Encyclopedia of environment and society. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Sorensen, B. (2005). Hydrogen and fuel cells: Emerging technologies and applications. Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic Press
Spilsbury, R., & Spilsbury, L. (2012). Solar power. New York: PowerKids Press.
Tumber, C. (2012). Small, gritty, and green: The promise of America's smaller industrial cities in a low-carbon world. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press
United States. (2004). Blackout in the Northeast and Midwest: Hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Eighth Congress, second session, on the reliability of the nation's electricity grid, February 24, 2004. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.
World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, & Palmer, R. N. (2010). World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2010: Challenges of change : proceedings of the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2010, May 16-20, Providence, Rhode Island. Reston, Va.: American Society of Civil Engineers
