Why do we need renewable energy? http://www.greenstudentu.com 0% 0 Votes

Most of our energy is currently produced by burning Oil, Gas and Coal. But these resources are finite; there is only so much of it in the ground, and when it%26#039;s all gone we%26#039;ll have nothing left to burn. We have to find other ways to produce energy; either use free natural energy, such as wind, water or sun power, or grow it as biofuel. Because these supplies are constant, or renewable, they will never run out, but they are difficult and therefore expensive to exploit. 0% 0 Votes

Are you blind?! have you seen the gas prices lately? that%26#039;s why we need a renewable energy source because it will last forever and it will never ran out! do some research before you ask a question like that.

Ross - so you%26#039;re basically saying that their raising their prices on purpose?! fossil fuel take a least 1000 years to produce so that%26#039;s why we need renewable energy. people should research before they ask a question.

%26quot;If somebody told you to step up your production and bring your costs down on whatever product you sold but you could only sell it until we replace you, how hard would you work on producing that product? If you wanted to stay in business you would probably look for a new product.%26quot;

That may be true Ross, but that doesn%26#039;t give them the right to make their prices so high that the food prices also increase! People do depend on those things to say alive and travel! google or yahoo is your friend no? 11% 1 Vote

We need renewable energy, in the next couple of decades, because:

- There are many, many more people on the planet than ever there were before.

- The people who are on the planet (pretty much everywhere bar sub-Saharan Africa) are using much more energy each decade than they ever did.

- The reserves of non-renewable energy are finite, and production capacity is decreasing.

There are only three possible ways forward:

- We expect the vast majority of the human race to use a lot less energy (Europeans and Americans, wave goodbye to your cars and overseas travel for a start - Asians, accept that you will never attain the level of lifestyle that we have in the West) - PROBLEM, no-one wants to do that.

- We carry on pumping oil until, erm, it runs out, and then suddenly the lights start going out - CUE famine, CUE disease, CUE riots

- We develop some alternatives that allow us to maintain the TYPE of life we have at the moment, but implemented differently (we still have cars, but they run off batteries charged through a mix of nuclear, solar, geothermal, wind and hydro-), thus saving the oil for uses like plastics... (And, by the way, we look at bio-plastics - plastics refined from plants rather than oil.) 11% 1 Vote

Because oil does not renew itself. It has taken a million years to get to the stage it is now (from rotting trees and plant life from way back then) - the conversion happening under heat and pressure deep in the earth. There are pockets of oil (just as we see lakes on the surface) underground which is what we find and pump out. Pools of oil do not happen everywhere (just like the fresh water lakes on top) and we have been pumping them out for the last 100 years at a rate of 130milliongallons/day. Obviously the pools (or oilwell) is gonna run dry. Has to find another pool of oil, and drain that dry, and again and again.
The oil companies already knew in 1969 how much oil there was on the planet (having drilled everywhere)...there has been %26quot;no new discoveries%26quot; since then.
Initially it was thought there was sooooo much oil that there was no way we could use it all up. That was then.
We can do anything....and we are using up that oil faster than we thought we could.

Renewable energy is good because we won%26#039;t get to the stage of %26quot;using it all up%26quot; 11% 1 Vote

Alex H gas prices aren%26#039;t high because of lack of oil. The supply of oil isn%26#039;t the issue ( I do agree we should find different source of energy). The price oil is inflated because those who sell it can do that. As far as gasoline, production is limited, it will be hard for companies to want to upgrade the refineries to be more efficient with all the environmental concerns and the push for new energy. With all the push to alternative energy they put there money there. As pressure for alternative fuel grows the less the need for them to find better cheaper ways to produce %26quot;old energy%26quot;. There will still be those who will produce gasoline, but they will control the price just like they control the price of oil.

If somebody told you to step up your production and bring your costs down on whatever product you sold but you could only sell it until we replace you, how hard would you work on producing that product? If you wanted to stay in business you would probably look for a new product. 0% 0 Votes

Fossil fuel is renewable source of energy. Plants take in the CO2 and give us the O2 ,but the plant keeps the C .The plant leaves die and wash down the river to the delta where it will deteriorate into fossil fuel. 0% 0 Votes

Because the planet has limited resources of the energy sources that we have mostly been using, like coal and oil. Eventually we will run out. 0% 0 Votes