Energy. We all need it. We
use it to power our modern technology, our transportation, give us light and
heat our homes. Without it we’d be back to horse drawn carriages, candles as
light sources, and wood burning stoves. Without it, we’d be back to the dark ages. In fact, without energy, no life on our planet would even be possible.
With electricity being such a crucial
aspect of modern life, it’s critically important to know where all this energy
is coming from, what it costs to produce, and the consequences around using it. Whether or not you believe that mankind is drastically altering
the planet’s climate by burning fossil fuels, pretty much everyone can agree
that heavy pollution is not a good thing for any environment. But is there a way to produce energy without harming the environment?
Understanding what energy is, how it works,
and how it is used must be at the start of all such discussions because without
this foundation it is impossible to have a truthful and realistic perspective.
Energy In All Things
Energy is all about physics and chemistry.
All matter is made up of and built by energy, but not all the energy contained
within matter is easily accessed or unleashed. Essentially, if the cost of
tapping a source of energy requires more energy and effort than is produced,
then the effort is a waste because it creates an energy negative. There is no
such thing as “creating energy”, only storing energy, releasing energy,
and making use of the released energy.
The sun,
a burning ball of gas far away in space, produces all kinds of energy in many
different forms and sends that energy hurtling out into space. The intense gravity of the huge star crushes and rips apart various gas molecules, destroying and burning them up. This energy passes over our planet and
gives us natural heat and light, allowing for the existence of life itself. All the excess "pollution" (unwanted "left overs") that also
belches out of the sun disappears into space. This “pollution” in the form of
harmful energy (gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet light, etc.) is mostly blocked
from reaching us thanks to our planet’s atmosphere and magnetic field (think of
them like our planet’s invisible shield).
Life itself (ALL life), is
constantly harnessing, storing and using up energy in order to survive and
power itself. Life uses sugar as its main energy source. You may have heard
that carbon-based fuels are “evil” because they cause pollution, but the
reality is that carbon-based energy is at the heart of all life on
earth. Without it, nothing could live or survive. Plants suck in carbon
dioxide and with it (as well as other materials) create glucose, a complex sugar (a
carbon-based fuel/energy source). Plants then spit out the left over oxygen that was produced in the conversion. Humans breath in
oxygen, to help chop apart glucose (sugar) that we digest by eating those plants,
and this powers all the cells in our bodies. Then we breath out the left overs
of the chemical reactions involved, carbon dioxide, which plants breath in to help them form glucose… And
so on.
It is ESSENTIAL that you understand this
simple fact. ALL life requires and uses energy! Most life uses a combination of
carbon and oxygen to help harvest, store and utilize energy.
Life then burns this energy (stored in sugars) to power itself. Life uses special enzymes (and acids)
to split sugar, ripping it apart and burning it up to generate
our required heat and electricity.
Energy is a result of a usually destructive
chemical reaction. The easier it is to release that energy (as well as store it
safely for later), the better and more effective the energy-use system will be.
Harnessing Energy For Technology
Our technology requires energy to function just like our bodies and all life requires energy to live. Because of this constant need for energy, mankind has to have a way of
generating or harnessing vast amounts of energy to power our cities.
There are generally two main ways of
producing electrical energy in large enough quantities for people to use.
Releasing Energy From Fossil Fuels: Ever since the industrial revolution,
energy produced (released) by the burning of materials such as fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas,
etc.) have been the mainstays of modern energy. This is how our cars run, our
planes fly, and how most of our power plants/stations work. They burn up
carbon-based fossil fuels because the vast amounts of
easily accessible energy released when these materials are heated up is exactly what our technology needs to work.
Note that
these carbon-based fuels are usually made by life as a means of storing energy
for later. When a living organism dies, the energy it stored up in its body
gets left behind, to be used by other living organisms (such as us).
Harnessing Already Active Energy: More advanced methods of harnessing energy attempt to do away with the requirement of burning fossil fuels, since burning fossil fuels tend
to cause a lot of pollution. Instead, these other methods try to capture and use some
of the naturally occurring energy in the environment around us (heat,
light, the sun, weather, wind, rivers, moving objects, etc.). For instance,
wind turbines generate their electricity by strong winds turning propeller-like
blades, hydro dams generate electricity by the movement of water, and solar
panels collect the heat and light from the sun.
Carbon Dioxide Is Not A Pollutant
If you know anything at all about physics
and chemistry, you’ll know that energy always costs something. Energy requires
the destruction and ripping apart of molecules. There’s no way around that, no
escaping that hard fact. This means that there will ALWAYS be left over
by-products produced by such molecule-sized violence no matter what anyone
does. It’s part of the very laws built into our universe, and part of life
itself.
Carbon Dioxide is not an evil pollutant.
Carbon dioxide is plant food, and it’s what humans and other creatures exhale
from our lungs as a by-product of the energy we use in the form of sugar.
Carbon dioxide is not only entirely natural, it’s essential! To
label Carbon Dioxide a pollutant would by like labeling water a pollutant.
However, too much of
anything, even a good thing, can be harmful. THAT is what everyone needs to
understand, and keep in mind.
The trick is to meet our energy needs without costing us an arm and a leg and without severely damaging the planet beyond repair in the process.
Conclusion
All energy is born of violent chemical
reactions somewhere, whether way out in space (as is the case with our sun),
within our own bodies (sugar), or the burning of fossil fuels in a power
station or fireplace. Active energy can be generated by heating materials that
easily and consistently release energy or it can be harnessed from the
environment around us in the forms of heat, light, and motion (wind, rivers,
tides, etc.). But no matter what your energy source, it always comes from the
destruction of molecules somewhere. It’s simple physics and chemistry, the laws
at the heart of our universe.
Energy is essential, and it’s messy. The
trick is to use it as efficiently and make it as clean as possible, while also
making it affordable and stable.
Stay tuned for my next article about…
Power Stations we use to generate heat
and electricity for our modern civilization. The costs and energy output of
these necessary services are crucial to the future of mankind and our
technology as we push forward into the 21st century.
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