Governments are willing to invest in research and the development of sustainable energy sources. We all are ready to become a cleaner society, using materials and chemicals that are bio-degradeable. We decide to become efficient, recycle more, and waste less.
Even with those advances in thinking and action, it is not enough. The point that I want to make is that maintaining the balance of nature requires a number of difficult choices. We have to do what is best among the different possible solutions, and in some cases settle for an intermediate solution.
For example:
Whenever we make a purchase such as, a home, a car, how to travel, etc. People usually follow one of these criteria:
1. Economics.
2. Efficiency.
3. Cleanliness.
Unfortunately, economics is the number one drive of most human interaction. The initial cost and/or the on-going costs are the most important components. For example: the use of solar panels and windmills. These are both energy sources that are clean. People expect that since the wind and sun are unlimited, free resources, that they will only pay a little in order to produce energy. Today, we are seeing more windmills and solar panels because the initial investment and cost of ownership are lower than previous years.
Efficiency. When you go for efficiency, many times you sacrifice the features, comfort, and price. Sometimes the most efficient way to do something is not the cleanest or cheapest. An efficient car, with a tweaked engine and composite materials frame, can run well over 100,000.00 dollars. The kind of resources required for a person to get that kind of money, is not necessarily friendly to the environment and can defeat the purpose of the machine, especially if the person is going to produce a lot more damage to acquire one machine.
The use of gas over coal. Gas is very easy to transport and contains a very high level of energy per unit of weight. Today it is a very efficient source of energy.
How Clean? Many people are advocates that the use of hydrogen cells to power electric cars is the way to go. However, so much energy is wasted producing hydrogen, that today it is not clean to use it. The use of vegetable oil can be more polluting than continuing to use diesel. The use of alcohol, which is considered a viable substitute of oil, produces methane- which is a greenhouse gas. The quantity of corn needed to supply the current fleet of vehicles would require so much land, and could generate a lot methane.
When we travel, go shopping, select a particular method of cooking, etc., we always have to do what’s best. Usually the most efficient and economic methods are not the best, unless, you only have one choice. For example, if there are no alternatives, go for the most efficient way to get what you want to be done. However, when there are cleaner alternatives, you should go for the cleaner alternative as long as producing the clean alternative and using it does not leave by-products which defeats the purpose.
