The 21st Century Addiction Rehab: Energy • 12/15/08
The Addiction
America’s addiction to energy will soon need to be rehabilitated, or we could have some serious consequences. America’s energy addiction is just as bad as any other addiction, so don’t treat it lightly. If gone untreated, it will have dire effects. Over the past few years, energy usage has been growing exponentially, and so has the release of carbon dioxide and the rise of global temperatures, all consequences of the energy addiction.
Every second, America is using an average of _______ of electricity. All that electricity, and only for America. The addiction is so bad that probably the majority of people would be unable to go three days without some technology, which is run on energy. Not only being bored, there would be no electricity, no car, no heating. This shows really how bad America’s, humanity’s, energy addiction is and how badly we need to fix it.
The Problems
If we stay addicted to energy, we could face more and more climate changes as a result of the burning of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels release tons of carbon dioxide, which is the number one gas that is linked to climate change and global warming. Although fossil fuels is the cheapest and most efficient way to get electricity now, it will destroy planet earth in the future. Fossil fuels is definitely not the way to go.
Energy addiction is a major problem because if, for some reason, we could generate no more electricity, all of humanity would be screwed. If we were living in sci-fi world, aliens would first destroy our energy-making capabilities and then after a few years of mayhem, just take over the world without difficulty. More seriously, it just goes to show that energy addiction might be humanities downfall.
The Answers
A great solution would be to reduce our energy consumption in general. If every person in the world used an hour of electricity less each month, we would be stopping billions of tons of carbon dioxide from going off into the atmosphere. Also, practicing reduce energy usage would help to get us off the addiction to energy.
Although reducing energy usage will slow down our addiction, renewable energy sources could be an option to help get us off the addiction to fossil fuels altogether. Renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and nuclear are great alternatives. They are clean and cheap to generate. A combination of renewable energy sources and reduced consumption will be the key to rehabilitating humanity off of the addiction to energy.
