Alternative Sources of Energy

Alternative Sources of Energy

As the population of the world increases, so does the need for energy. At the moment we are using fossil fuels as the main source of energy. According to sciencedaily.com Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from the remains of dead plants and animals.

A fossil fuel is any naturally occurring carbon or hydrocarbon fuel formed by the decomposition of prehistoric organisms. Fossil Fuels were formed as a result of geologic processes acting on the remains of plants and animals that lived and died hundreds of millions of years ago. These dead plant and animal matter sank to the bottom of swamps and oceans and was covered by sand and rock (greenstudentu.com).  Ecokids.ca claims that the process of fossil fuels formation involved the exposure of these biological remains to extreme pressure and heat, and also took hundreds of millions of years. When these fuels are burned, they release energy. The main types of fossil fuels are coal, oil and gas. (www.thesolarspark.co.uk)

The earth has a limited supply of fossil fuels, they are burnt and finished that is why they are called non- renewable resources. According to Wikipedia “A non-renewable resource is a natural resource which cannot be produced, grown, generated, or used on a scale which can sustain its consumption rate, once depleted there is no more available for future needs.” This means we are using Fossil fuels much faster than the nature can create them for us. It takes millions of years for the earth to transform dead organic material into these fossil fuels. This is different from renewable materials, like wood, that can be planted again, so the supply can be renewed. When the last barrel of oil has been pumped out of the ground there is no more. Due to the extreme conditions and the time frame of the formation process, recreating it by humans is practically impossible. Hence the fossil fuels are considered the non-renewable ones.

According to greenenergychoice.com “Fossil fuels are the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, contributing 3/4 of all carbon, methane and other greenhouse gas emissions”. In other words fossil fuels are harmful for the environment because they release carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases cause the greenhouse effect, which according to news.bbc.co.uk is “the natural process by which the atmosphere traps some of the Sun's energy, warming the Earth enough to support life”. Simply put Carbon dioxide helps warm up the earth but the problem is that there is too much of these greenhouse gases, which is causing the earth to heat up more than it should. Greenhouse effect is a major contribution to global warming and if this continues then ice caps will melt, Sea levels will rise and Islands may drown.

Fossil fuels are not the only source of energy; there are alternative sources of energy, which are called renewable resources.audioenglish.net states that a renewable resource is “any natural resource that can be replenished naturally with the passage of time” this basically means that renewable resources are sustainable. There are several different types of renewable resources including tidal energy, solar energy, hydroelectricity, wind energy, geothermal energy, biomass, natural gas and nuclear power.

A very significant economic advantage of tidal energy is that it is predictable, and A Tidal Barrage has a very long life of around 100 years, which is much longer than that of even Nuclear Power Plants. On the other hand Tidal Barrages require massive investment to construct a Barrage or Dam across a river estuary.

No fuel is required in solar energy like it is in wind energy and the costs of operation and maintenance is extremely low. However, Solar energy can’t be utilized in cold countries, as there is barely any sun there. (greenworldinvestor.com).

Hydroelectricity is extremely reliable and consisting, but hydroelectricity needs a large reservoir and consisting it is a major challenge in terms of time and money (buzzle.com).

 Geothermal energy can be used for both heating and producing electricity on the contrary, when digging for geothermal energy can release hazardous gases, which are trapped underground (climatedebtagents.com).

Biomass converts waste into fuel and helps in dealing with waste yet, if biomass is over used, than deforestation and other environmental problems can develop (whatabiomass.weebly.com).

Natural gas industry employs 1.2 million people and is Widely used contributing to 21% of the world’s energy production today (triplepundit.com).

Nuclear power is readily available, it does not have to be developed first, on the other hand, the waste from nuclear energy is extremely dangerous and it has to be carefully looked after for several thousand years (timeforchange.org)

Now I would like to focus on different aspects of Wind energy-

Wind is the movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. Because the sun unevenly heats the ground, warm air, which weighs less than cold air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow (weatherwizkids.com). Wind energy is called a renewable resource because As long as the sun shines, there will be winds on the Earth and we will never run out of wind energy because it is free since no one can own the sun or the air (http://www.need.org).

Wind power involves converting the kinetic energy of wind into electricity by using wind turbines. A wind turbine is made of 3, 60-meter long propellers-like blades called a rotor, which is attached to 20 story high, pole like tower (environment.nationalgeographic.com). The wind spins the blades, which turn a shaft connected to a generator that produces electricity. The wind turbines don’t run all the time, most wind turbines run between 65 and 90% of the time (need.org).

Small wind turbines erected in a backyard can produce enough electricity to pump water or provide power to a home and larger turbines can be used to a power an entire community or to provide power to the electricity grid (eere.energy.gov). The biggest wind turbines generate enough electricity to supply about 600 U.S. homes! (environment.nationalgeographic.com).

 There are a few Natural advantages to wind energy. Wind energy is green. Using wind to make electricity does not pollute the nature like fossil fuels do. Remote areas that are not connected to the electricity power grid can use wind turbines to produce their own supply. Although wind turbines can be very tall each takes up only a small plot of land. This means that the land below can still be used. This is especially the case in agricultural areas as farming can still continue. (hobbyfarms.com) Much of the energy used to manufacture turbines is contained in the rotor and nacelle. One-third of the total energy is consumed in making the concrete foundation and tower. However, The energy generated by wind turbines balances with the energy used to make them in a matter of months (mge.com).

Although there are many environmental advantages to wind energy, there are some natural disadvantages too. “Wind is unpredictable and the availability of wind energy is fluctuating. If the wind speed is too slow, it is not economical to run the turbine. If the wind speed is too high, the wind turbines must be shut down due to safety concerns.” (howtopowertheworld.com) This basically means that wind turbines are not entirely reliable. Wind turbines kill 10,000 -- 40,000 bats and birds per year, which of course is not sustainable (http://science.howstuffworks.com).

There is an economic advantage to wind energy that it creates job opportunities. People are needed to manufacture, set up and maintain the wind turbines; also, the energy produced may be used to run businesses, which can create jobs. Another disadvantage is that several people complain about the noise pollution from the wind turbine and some complain about how wind turbines are ugly. (http://energyinformative.org)

Citing from Slideshare.net, the newest designs for wind turbines allow 70 to 80 % efficiency of creating power using the wind. According to decc.gov.uk “In 2011 onshore wind generated 10,372 GWh of electricity, enough to power 2.4 million homes. This represented about 44% of UK renewable electricity production, and just under 4% of all electricity produced. “

“Although wind produces only about 1.5% of worldwide electricity use, it is growing rapidly, having doubled in the three years between 2005 and 2008. In several countries it has achieved relatively high levels of penetration, accounting for approximately 19% of electricity production in Denmark, 11% in Spain and Portugal, and 7% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland in 2008” (listverse.com) Industry experts predict that if this pace of growth continues, by 2050 the answer to one third of the world's electricity needs will be found blowing in the wind (http://environment.nationalgeographic.com) and claims that “by 2020 it is estimated that onshore wind could provide 24-32TWh electricity, enough to power up to 7.7 million homes”.

A combination of solar, hydroelectric, wind power and others can provide a totally reliable supply of renewable energy. With the advancement in technologies related to various renewable resources of energy, the “right” mix of these resources is rather dynamic. Geological, Social and Economic considerations would decide the optimal mix of these renewable resources for a specific location and time. It is heartening to see that the renewable resources of energy are gaining more focus from the powers that be.

Children's Right

Inspired by the speech given by Hillary Clinton on women’s right, I would like to emphasize on children’s right and child labor too.

As we know Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. During the Industrial Revolution, children as young as four were employed in production factories with dangerous, and often fatal, working conditions. But Child labour is still common in some parts of the world, it can be factory work, mining, prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents' business, having one's own small business. Some children work as guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and restaurants. Other children are forced to do tedious, tiring and repetitive jobs such as: assembling boxes, polishing shoes, stocking a store's products, or cleaning.

One out of six children in the world today is involved in child labour, doing work that is damaging to his or her mental, physical and emotional development. These children work in a variety of industries, and in many parts of the world. The vast majority are in the agricultural sector, where they may be exposed to dangerous chemicals and equipment. India accounts for the second highest number where child labour in the world is concerned. Africa accounts for the highest number of children employed and exploited. The fact is that across the length and breadth of the nation, children are in a pathetic condition. It is a very scary thought when each year statistics show increasing numbers. And this is not only a problem afflicting under-developed or developing nations, but also developed countries, though the numbers are comparatively less.

The leading reason is poverty. Families need additional sources of income. And unfortunately their poverty-stricken way of life makes them so ruthless that they sell their children as commodities to exploitive employers. Most such employers pay a lump sum for the child and then keep him or her imprisoned within the factory unit till the child cannot work due to deteriorating health as a result of harsh living and working conditions. A hard and terrifying truth about child labor in India!
Most traditional families believe that a child is born to them to earn more money for the family. The child is just another source of income. And traditional business families in fact put the child into the business rather than sending them to school. Under the pretext of training them, they make them work long hours, sometimes resorting to physical torture in case the child makes mistakes.

Some of the preventive measures which may be taken to stop child labour are:

1. Make the education free for all the children, Education is most important. If people will be educated they will never do these kinds of things and never put their kids in jobs.
2. Government should provide more employment so that parents never send their children to earn money. If they will have enough money they will stop sending their children to hazardous jobs.
3. Government should keep the watch on the child labor and have to make heavy penalties on who employ children.

A time when new ideas were developing, well a new one is developing now.  A foundation keeps people safe and free.  It gives people rights.  Kids need to be free, so they can make their kids freer, because today's children are tomorrow's adults. If child labour continues, the children will not be able to get a good education and our society cannot improve. So, let's put our hand together to stop child labour. Thank you.

What was the main cause of the Russian revolution?

What was the main cause of the Russian revolution?

“The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917. In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik government.” (Wikipedia.com).
There are several causes of the Russian Revolution. The poor economy and week leader is couple of them but the main cause was the impact of World War I on Russia. Russia had a huge but terribly led and poorly equipped military force.
(www.schoolhistory.co.uk). By the end of 1916 over 14 million men had been mobilized in the empire.   The most significant pressure fell on the peasantry: nearly 50 percent of the male rural labor force had been called up by the end of 1916, in most of the Russian regions anything from one-third to two-thirds of the peasant houses had lost their male workers.  Wartime development requirements brought about an increase in the amount of factory workers in the big cities: there were 242,600 workers in Petrograd in 1914 and 391,800 in 1917; in Moscow, during the same period, the factory labor force increased from 153,223 to 205,919. Russian military losses were tremendous.by the end of October 1916 the Russian army had lost between 1.6 and 1.8 million killed, with another two million as prisoners of war and over one million more 'missing'. Early in 1916 there had been reports of troops fraternizing with the opponent. (www.schoolhistory.co.uk).
The Russian army did not provide its troops with guns, because there was a shortage of guns, so only a third of the troops were armed. Another reason why the Russian army lost so many of its troops were because most of the people involved in fighting in the war were not trained. Most were farmers or factory workers who were recruited to fight in the war. (Essaydepot.com). Military leadership of Tsar and generals increasingly disillusioned troops. Growing agitation by small number of Bolsheviks within the army took place setting the scene for a revolution. (www.casahistoria.net).World war one was not the only war where the Russians lost land and military force; in fact The Russians were defeated in the Russo-Japanese war as well. This was a disgrace for the Russian Nationalists because it was the first time that a white Nation had lost a war to a non-white nation. After this, the Nationalists believed the power of the Tzar was weak and he didn't have the power normally associated with his office. (http://sointoprem.blogspot.dk/).
Another essential cause of the Russian revolution was the weak economy as it resulted in poverty, misery and exploitation of the peasants by the aristocracy. Prior to the revolution, 75% of Russians resided in villages. Until 1861 these peasants had belonged to their masters, who could buy and sell them like cattle. The peasants were liberated in 1861 and given small sizes of land for which they had to pay back the government. They therefore had small farms and hefty debts, with the result that they were very poor.
Most of the peasants could not read or write, so they knew very little about how to improve the land. They still used the old farming methods, working by hand on their plots.   They envied the nobles with their huge estates (johndclare.net/). Because of the weak economic system 70% of the Russian inhabitants were illiterate. The royal family owned most of the farming land. 70% of the peasants possessed between three and ten acres of land. In inclusion the peasants were required to use primitive tools, implements and methods of cultivation, which were not very productive and modern machinery was not provided.
 The laborers were treated roughly and were not given medical relief in case of an emergency in the course of their work time, which was 12 to 14 hours a day. These workers were given incredibly minimal wages and were not granted a weekly holiday. Great discontent and displeasure among the farmers generated, as they had to pay huge chunks of rent and tributes to their landlords every year. In order to end this economic and social system, these peasants were ready to rebel against the Tzarist government. (pinkmonkey.com. “The War took 15 million men from the farms in response; industrial workers went on strike and effectively paralyzed the railway and transportation networks. What few supplies were available could not be effectively transported. As goods became more and more scarce, prices skyrocketed.” (quizlet.com) (sointoprem.blogspot.dk/). And In the winter of 1916–17 there was famine and starvation. So it created the unrest, which unseated the monarchy – on 8th March the women went on a Bread March, which turned into riots. (www.bbc.co.uk/).If the leader is unable to see the problems his subjects are facing then he cant possibly solve them. A very significant cause of the Russian revolution was that, Russia’s emperor was blind to the issues in his country. In my opinion, Tsar Nicholas II was a decent man but a lousy emperor. He found the daily work of a monarch intolerably boring.  He could not stand listening long or seriously to ministers’ reports, or studying them. He never had a viewpoint of his own, constantly accepting the judgment of the last individual he spoke to. Nicholas would rather devote time with his loved ones than cope with governmental matters. He could be cruel and merciless.  He would not stand for resistance.  His answer was always the same – violence. Nicholas believed completely in autocracy.  He thought that democracy with elections and parliaments would lead to the failure of Russia.  Nicholas knew very little about the people.  He did not pay a visit to factories or villages, or go on tours.  His information about what was going on came from a small number of people, who were quite happy to protect him from the facts of life in Russia. Nicholas had no understanding of the world of men, of politics or government to help him make the major decisions that in the Russian system the Tsar alone ought to make. (docstoc.com) (ngfl-cymru.org.uk).
The Russian Revolution consisted of numerous causes, but I believe That the main cause was the effect of World War I on Russia as this had a major impact on the economy during mobilization and increase in the prices of goods, it also influenced the social structure as poverty increased and people started hating the emperor because he was throwing untrained and poorly equipped men into the war. In my opinion, Tsar Nicholas II was a decent man but a lousy emperor. finally, they all decided to revolt against the king, and improve their lives. This cause is important because this was a significant factor, which led to the Revolution in Russia.WORK CITED-"Causes of the Russian Revolution." Essay on. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://www.essaydepot.com/doc/34247/Causes-Of-The-Russian-Revolution>."Russian Revolution." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2012. Web. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution>.
"How Did World War I Bring about the Fall of Nicholas II? - Interactive Diagram - Www.SchoolHistory.co.uk." How Did World War I Bring about the Fall of Nicholas II? - Interactive Diagram - Www.SchoolHistory.co.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/lessons/russia/impact_wwi.shtml>.
"PinkMonkey.com World History Study Guide - 12.1 Causes of the Russian Revolution." PinkMonkey.com World History Study Guide - 12.1 Causes of the Russian Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://www.pinkmonkey.com/studyguides/subjects/worldhis/chap12/w1212101.asp>.
"Quizlet." Russian Revolution of 1917 Causes/Effects Flashcards. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://quizlet.com/11180526/russian-revolution-of-1917-causeseffects-flash-cards/>.
"EasternPrism." : Causes of the Russian Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2012. <http://sointoprem.blogspot.dk/2009/07/causes-of-russian-revolution.html>.