Global Warming

             "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now it's though as if they"re here to stay, oh I believe in yesterday (The Beatles)". I can remember as a child learning about the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. All the environmental problems seemed so out of my reach, never realizing how my small efforts could help on a whole. Today, people are completely reliant on fossil fuels for their energy needs and are finally feeling the repercussions of our actions. Due to our mass usage of coal, oil and gas we have punctured a hole in the ozone layer and have propelled global warming up the hierarchy of environmental concern. Global warming, or the increase in temperature and change in climate, can cause dramatic weather events such as droughts, floods, melting polar areas, rising sea levels and loss of coral reefs (Greenpeace.org). The answers to solving this problem are staring us right in the face, wind and solar renewable energy sources. If we don't start now the future doesn't look good. .
             Today, technologies already exists to help reduce the risk of catastrophic environmental problems, at a relatively low cost. The government just needs to pass policies that allow this new technology to be implemented. People seem to think that these new ideas will be a sacrifice to them but in actuality this will allow us to bring about an age of "economic growth, new jobs, technological innovation, and most importantly, environmental protection (Greenpeace.org)." Wind power is already being used in many other countries and it could supply 10% of the world's electricity within two decades (Greenpeace.org). Wind energy can be converted to power most everything from homes, to businesses, to schools. The advantages to wind power greatly out weight the cons. It's free, always renewable, non-pollution electricity. One of the qualms people have with it is that the start up cost is higher then that of a fossil fuel plant.