energy

Electricity is produced by many different sources, a lot of which currently have very harmful effects to the environment. From this, there is an energy war going on between the most economical, environmentally conscious, and publicly accepting methods of obtaining energy, which is necessary for almost all countries on earth. One of those harmful methods is coal burning and a common method of extracting coal is through mountaintop removal. It is the process of digging through the tops of mountains to access the resource that can damage biodiversity, water supply and local communities. As well as coal burning, the effects of nuclear power are also damaging to the environment since there is no completely safe way to get rid of nuclear waste. We can make a difference though. When we however use more renewable resources like wind, solar, and hydropower to satisfy our power needs we are one more step away from methods like mountaintop removal and harmful effects of nuclear waste. Although we must understand that it will take a while to completely stop using coal and other less renewable power sources, we can do our part to take simple acts like turning off the lights when we exit a room, run outside rather than on a treadmill, and unplug electronics we aren’t using. Often times it’s the little steps we can take each day in our homes that when added up not only save us power and natural resources, but also save a lot of money.