Energy Sources: Environmental Impacts and Sustainability Issues

Energy Sources and Their Environmental Impact

An energy source is any natural or non-natural system from which we can obtain energy in any form. That's because in our everyday life we use huge amounts of energy for factories, transport, and heating. Obtaining, producing, and consuming energy can have several impacts, usually negative, on the environment. This impact varies tremendously depending on which type of energy source we use: renewable or non-renewable.

Non-Renewable Energy Impacts

Non-renewable energy sources include fossil fuels and nuclear energy (fission). The use of these energy sources leads to several problems:

• Release of CO2: This comes from the burning of fossil fuels. The carbon dioxide increases the greenhouse effect and contributes to global warming.
• Release of waste products: Nitrogen and sulfur dioxides, organic compounds, and radioactive materials are released, causing issues like acid rain and damage to the ozone layer.
• Accidents: Accidents can occur during their operation, such as nuclear disasters and oil leaks or slicks.

Renewable Energy Challenges

The use of renewable energy sources can solve some of the problems mentioned above, but these sources of energy can cause others:

• Visual impacts: Solar or wind farms need large surface areas to be built.
• Waste products: The production of some renewable energy systems produces waste products.
• Land use: Huge surfaces of land are needed for planting energy crops.

Broader Environmental Concerns

Human activities cause several environmental impacts. Maintaining our lifestyle, quality of life, and consumerism are increasing the negative effects on nature. Let's have a look at some important problems.

Overexploitation of Resources

Non-renewable resources are being used faster and faster every day, causing their overexploitation (fossil fuels are being burned at a rate never considered before). But not only energy resources are being destroyed:

Soil Degradation

Soil is continuously degraded every year. Large amounts of productive soil are washed away, and agricultural production decreases.

Species Extinction

Each species has important uses: providing antibiotics, vaccines, genes for hybridization with commercial species, playing an important role in the ecosystem, and offering beauty. The extinction of a species is a drama.

Deforestation

Forests provide us with thousands of benefits:

• Produce oxygen
• Absorb carbon dioxide
• Give us food, clothes, and energy
• Control and regulate the weather