Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

Why Are We Still Wasting So Much Energy?We Get What We RewardLow-priced oil and gasoline and lack of governmenttax breaks for saving energy promote energywaste.With such an impressive array of benefits (Figure 18-2),why is there so little emphasis on improving energyefficiency? One reason is a glut of low-cost oil and gasoline.As long as energy is artificially cheap because itsmarket price does not include its harmful costs (Connections,p. 384), people are more likely to waste it andnot make investments in improving energy efficiency.Another reason is a lack of sufficient governmenttax breaks and other economic incentives for consumersand businesses to invest in improving energyefficiency.Would you like to earn about 20% a year on yourmoney, tax-free and risk-free? Invest it in improvingthe energy efficiency of your home and in energy-efficientlights and appliances. You get your investmentback in a few years and then make about 20% a year byhaving lower heating, cooling, and electricity bills.This is a win-win deal for you and the earth.xHOW WOULD YOU VOTE? Should the United States orthe country where you live greatly increase its emphasis onimproving energy efficiency? Cast your vote online athttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller14.18-3 USING RENEWABLE ENERGYTO PROVIDE HEAT AND ELECTRICITYWhat Are the Main Types of RenewableEnergy? Solar CapitalSix types of renewable energy are solar, flowing water,wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydrogen.One of the four keys to sustainability (bottom half ofback cover) based on learning from nature is to relymostly on renewable solar energy. We can get renewablesolar energy directly from the sun or indirectly frommoving water, wind, and biomass. Two other forms ofrenewable energy are geothermal energy from theearth’s interior and using renewable energy to producehydrogen fuel from water. Like fossil fuels andnuclear power, each of these renewable energy alternativeshas advantages and disadvantages, as discussedin the remainder of this chapter.If renewable energy is so great, why does it provideonly 16% of the world’s energy and 6% of theenergy in the United States? One reason is that renewableenergy resources have received and continue toreceive much lower government tax breaks, subsidies,and research and development (R & D) funding thanfossil fuels and nuclear power have received fordecades. The other reason is that the prices we pay forfossil fuels and nuclear power do not include theirharm to the environment and to human health.In other words, the economic dice have beenloaded against solar, wind, and other forms of renewableenergy. If the economic playing field was mademore even, energy analysts say that many of theseforms of renewable energy would take over—anotherexample of the you-get-what-you-reward economic principlein action.Here are four encouraging developments favoringincreased use of renewable energy. First, in 2001 theEuropean Union (EU) adopted nonbinding agreementsfor its member countries to get 12% of their totalenergy and 22% of their electricity from renewable energyby 2010.Second, California gets about 12% of its electricityfrom renewable resources (7% of it from wind turbines)and wants to get 20% from such resources by2010. Third, a 2001 joint study by the American Councilfor an Energy-Efficient Economy, the Tellus Institute,and the Union of Concerned Scientists showedhow renewable energy could provide 20% of U.S.energy by 2020 if given sufficient government R & Dsubsidies and tax breaks. Fourth, according to theWorldwatch Institute, all U.S. electricity could be providedby farms of wind turbines operating in just threestates—Kansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota—orwith solar energy on a 260-square-kilometer (100-square-mile) plot in the Nevada or southern Californiadesert.How Can We Use Direct Solar Energyto Heat Houses and Water? Face the Sunand Store Its HeatWe can heat buildings by orienting them towardthe sun (passive solar heating) or by pumpinga liquid such as water through rooftop collectors(active solar heating).Buildings and water can be heated by direct solarenergy using two methods: passive and active (Figure18-16). A passive solar heating system absorbs andstores heat from the sun directly within a structure (Figure18-1, Figure 18-16, left, and Figure 18-17, p. 392).See the Guest Essay by Nancy Wicks on this topic onthe website for this chapter.Using passive solar energy is not new. For thousandsof years, many people have intuitively followedthe first principle of sustainability (bottom half of backcover). They have oriented their dwellings to take advantageof heat from the sun and used adobe and thickstone walls to collect and store heat during the dayand gradually release it at night.In today’s passively heated buildings, energyefficientwindows and attached greenhouses face thehttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller14391