Sustainable Development and Conservation

• The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as meeting present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their own.
• The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as a blueprint for a better, more sustainable future.

Conservation

• Conservation is essential for resolving the energy crisis; collective small actions save a lot of energy.
• Energy conservation reduces production costs and inflation, saving consumers' money.
• It also leads to the slow depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuels and reduces environmental pollution and waste.
• Economic savings from energy conservation involve improving the efficiency of machines and appliances, which reduces the energy demand.

Cogeneration

• Cogeneration captures waste heat from industrial processes for useful purposes like electrical production, improving the energy situation.

• In some U.S. industries, cogeneration has increased energy efficiency from 80% to 90% and is expected to supply about one-third of the country’s electrical needs.

• Breaking consumption habits, changing lifestyles, recycling, and avoiding unwise consumption will create changes.

• Sustainable energy systems can be built by harnessing indigenous sources, like geothermal, biogas, solar, hydroelectric, wind energy, coconut oil diesel fuel, and charcoal.

• Sustainability involves harvesting or using resources in a way that avoids depletion or permanent damage.

• Driven by increasing oil prices and shortages, the Philippines adopted a ten-year energy plan in the 1970s.

• The energy plan focused on exploiting and developing indigenous energy sources, like geothermal, biomass, solar, hydroelectric, and wind energy.

• Alternative sources, such as coconut oil diesel fuel, charcoal, and green charcoal are also being researched and developed.

Resource Consumption

• Increased use of primary resources is a result of growing global population, economic improvement, and lifestyle changes.
• Goods like fossil fuels, metals, and minerals are limited, while renewable resources like water are often mismanaged.
• Sustainable resource use is essential for current economies to maintain a clean environment long-term.

Environmental Concerns

• Since the second half of the 20th century, studies have focused on environmental issues like air, water, and soil pollution, excessive mine extraction, deforestation, waste mismanagement, and unplanned land use.
• This is due to increasing events from human activities, especially industrialization and resource mismanagement

Circular Economy

• The "Circular Economy" is seen as a key solution for future management.

• This encourages change from a linear economy (buy-use-waste) to recover and reuse materials.

• Solutions include reusing recyclable materials, using renewable energies, treating wastewater, adopting green policies to reduce energy consumption, and using low-value materials.

• Many efforts have been made internationally and locally to integrate these proposals into new management policies.

• Further studies are needed to advance sustainable technologies and projects.

• Increasing population and demand for energy resources, along with advances in technology, contribute to rising energy consumption.

• Increased energy use leads to exhaustion of energy sources.

• The described exhaustion may cause economic problems like inflation, economic stagnation, and unemployment.

Environmental Effects of Energy Use

• Acid rain is corrosive, causing rusting in metals, fabric deterioration, and corrosion of buildings and sculptures.

Radiation Pollution

• Radiation pollution comes from the use of nuclear energy.
• During nuclear fission, radioactive products with varying lifespans are created, making nuclear waste disposal a problem.
• Nuclear wastes cannot be treated to reduce radioactivity and improper disposal causes contamination.
• Radiation causes cancer and abnormalities.

Health Hazards

• Health hazards from energy-related pollution include mutagenic (abnormal growths), carcinogenic (cancer-causing), and teratogenic (birth defects) effects.
• Addressing environmental effects involves costly clean-up efforts and social consequences.
• Reducing certain pollutants to acceptable levels requires expenses.

Energy Impact

• While energy provides conveniences, it also has environmental impacts.

• Increasing population and increasing demand contribute to escalating energy consumption.

• Similarly, technology advances contributes to energy consumption, leading to resource depletion.

• The most relevant point is that sustaining earth's resources is important for future use.

Soil Destruction and Erosion

• Fossil fuel exploration/extraction causes soil destruction and erosion.
• This is because excavated soil is displaced, leading to landslides and severe erosion.

Greenhouse Gas and Thermal Pollution

• Fuel and power consumption generates heat, raising ecosystem temperatures, which impacts organisms.
• Examples include fossil fuel combustion and automobile emissions.
• Increased river temperatures lower dissolved oxygen, resulting in organism death; this results in global warming.

Water and Material Pollution.

• Energy in fuels is associated with material substances that transform into waste like ashes, smoke, and gaseous products.

• These wastes, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, pollute the environment.

• Sulfur dioxide causes throat irritation and respiratory diseases.

• When sulfur dioxide combines with oxygen, it forms sulfur trioxide.

• When sulfur trioxide is combined with water, it forms sulfuric acid, which is highly corrosive.

• Energy is essential for survival, progress, and comforts.

• Major energy applications: food production, agriculture, transportation, lighting, cooling, heating, mining, smelting, industrial processes, and electricity generation.

• An increase of population, demand for resources, and rise in technology contribute to increased energy consumption.

• Energy resource exploitation began in the 19th century, with rapid increase in the 20th century.

• About 80% of global energy consumption relies on fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas.

• Man also exploits non-renewable subsoil minerals used in producing industrial commodities.

Depletion of Fossil Fuels

• Oil, coal, natural gases, and other nonrenewable energy sources are finite.

• Fast-growing population, rising resource demand, and technology, increase energy consumption.

• Energy resources are essential for numerous uses like cooking, heating, and electricity.

• They are broadly categorized into renewable and non-renewable types.

Renewable Energy Resources

• Renewable energy resources are easily replenished, including:
• Hydropower
• Biomass (e.g., plant fuels like wood)
• Wind
• Wave
• Tidal
• Solar
• Geothermal
• Some biomass-derived fuels (from plants and animals) also fall into this category.

Non-Renewable Resources

• Non-renewable energy resources, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, are formed over long periods from dead plant and animal deposits.
• While vast, they are limited and not renewable; they have been a primary source of energy.

Nuclear Energy Considerations

• Radioactive elements deposits in the Earth's crust are classified as nuclear energy resources.
• These are used as fuel in nuclear fission-based power plants.
• The availability of rare radioactive elements is limited and non-renewable.
• While research is ongoing, fusion power, which aims to produce energy from the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium, is not yet a practical energy source.
• Utilization and exploitation relates to energy resources.