Energy Assignment Part One

Coal, Nuclear, and Solar Energy

Coal: The advantage that using coal as a source of energy is that it is the easiest to utilize and the most affordable source. It also employs nearly 340,000 people and is therefore beneficial to the economy. In addition, for every person employed in the coal industry, this directly results in 3.5 people obtaining another job as coal is heavily relied on. Canada and America were both founded on the use of coal especially in the industrial revolution and are therefore still quite reliant on it. However, coal is not a long-term source of energy as it is not a renewable resource and the earth is damaged for it's obtainment. Workers in this industry are negatively affected by health effects including black lung and chronic bronchitis. From the heavy metals and dangerous elements that they are exposed to, workers are known to have a decreased life expectancy. Coal is also very damaging to the environment. Furthermore, strip-mining of coal destroys the genetic profile of soil, alters the lithosphere, and creates a hostile, unlivable environment for flora and fauna. Rivers also come polluted from the limestone ash associated with coal-mining. The burning of coal releases 20+ toxic chemicals into the air and ruins the atmosphere with the greenhouse gasses it emits.

Nuclear: In contrast to coal use, the utilization of nuclear power does not involve nearly as much greenhouse gasses to be released, nor does it release significant amounts of carbon dioxide. The operating costs of nuclear power plants are generally relatively low and from a single plant, huge amounts of energy is able to be generated. The issues with this method include the fact that high levels of Uranium are required although it is a rare resource. Furthermore the waste that nuclear-energy production leaves behind is dangerously radioactive and must be dealt with in the most cautious of ways so as not to release toxic chemicals and radioactivity into the world. This form of energy is very risky to use as there is no room for an accident to happen. If one does, it could effect the whole world. An example of a power-plant accident would be the incident in Fukushima in which over 100,000 people were forced to evacuate and 1000 were killed in the process of maintaining the evacuation.

Solar: Of the three, Solar energy is by far the most ideal method. Solar energy is both renewable and sustainable as there are no radioactive or rare materials needed and the utilization of sun-rays does not involve the release of harmful substances. Sunlight readily available for absorption and is so safe that its generators can be conveniently placed on rooftops. The disadvantages of this source of energy is that solar cells can be rather expensive to obtain and they require large amounts of surface area to be effective. Furthermore, if there is too much pollution already in the air, it can hinder the effectiveness of these fuel cells. Another issue is that they can usually only absorb energy in the daytime and in areas with minimal periods of daylight, this form of energy will not be the most abundant.