school energy&environment

Effects on the environment

The energy issues arose in relation to the environmental issues. Use of energy greatly modifies the state of the environment and the effects can be of a local, regional and global nature. In this perspective, that is valid on a planetary scale no less than on a national and regional scale, right up to each one’s home,  the protection of the environment becomes a primary objective  to be  achieved  in the development of the different energy systems.
In order to guarantee the future generations the wellbeing that has been obtained up to now, a type of development that is different from the past is necessary,  a development that utilizes energy better (rational use), less energy (efficient technologies and less waste) and that uses forms that are substantially different from the present ones.
With regard to the environment and energy, one of the most important problems, which is the most well-known, is the problem regarding the decrease in gas emissions that provoke the greenhouse effect, which are caused mainly by the production of energy when burning coal, oil and gas.
The way to find a solution to this problem of environmental pollution is still a long one, but the steps that have already been taken to reach an agreement on an international scale are many. From 1972 to date in fact a number of conferences have been held and numerous international agreements have been signed to protect the environment, and in many of these topics related to the utilization of energy and sustainable development have been discussed.
Possible solutions
We can act on many fronts:
Firstly,  the economically developed countries can decrease their emissions from the production of energy, as follows:

• improving the performance of the  combustion processes (less combustible burnt in order to obtain the same level of energy) and reducing wastes, introducing new technologies that  “hold back” the polluting substances, avoiding their dispersion in the air;
• replacing sources of energy that are highly polluting with others that are less polluting or not polluting at all (among which almost all the renewable sources). In this way the level of economic wellbeing of these countries would not decrease, instead there would be a decrease in the impact on the environment.

Secondly, the developing countries can be helped by supplying them with better technologies that are currently available, those with a low environmental impact and high performance. There however still is the problem of the depletion of fossil fuels in the long term, which is the real challenge for “sustainability” that mankind must face, and its solution can only come from research and large scale utilization of renewable and clean sources of energy.