Energy sources and their effects

Energy sources and their effects on the Environment

Today, nuclear energy, energy from fossil fuels, energy from biomass (mainly direct combustion of wood) and hydraulic energy, global energy demand met by a percentage greater than 98%, with oil and coal the most widely used (see chart).

The use of these natural resources involves, apart from his close and progressive exhaustion, a steady deterioration in the environment, manifested in emissions of CO2, NOx, and SOx, a worsening of the greenhouse effect, radioactive contamination and its potential incalculable, a progressive increase of desertification and erosion and modification of the major global ecosystems and the consequent loss of biodiversity and indigenous peoples, forced migration and the generation of isolated population centers tending to disappear.

These attacks are accompanied by great works of considerable environmental impact (difficult to quantify) such as hydro, water overheating coasts and rivers generated by nuclear power plants, creating deposits of radioactive elements, and a large emission of small particles volatiles that cause acid rain, further aggravating the situation of the environment: natural areas defoliated, cities with high pollution levels, health conditions in humans and animals, extinction of plant and animal species that can not continue the acceleration of the new requirement of adaptation.

The future threat to our environment is further complicated if one considers that only 25% of the population consumes

75% of energy production. This data, as well as highlight the injustice and social imbalance existing in the world, indicates a potential for being acquired by exporting tired and failed model of developed countries to developing countries.

The model is a paradigm in which energy production is based on a worldview in which man is the master of nature and the environment, rather than being an integrated part of it, and in which consumption expressed as a degree of comfort.