For the past ten years, energy use has been consistently increasing with the increasing population of the planet, but also the increasing demand in industry, because of developing technology and industrialisation. The Middle East has seen the greatest increase in energy consumption, growing as much as 170% in the past 10 years.
But why save the energy?
It is common knowledge that non-renewable methods of generating energy such as fossil fuels and nuclear power are limited in supply. Without alternative methods, when such resources run out the planet will be left with no way of satisfying the ever increasing demand (as mentioned previously). Some of you might be thinking:
“But renewable power already exists. What about solar and wind?”
These alternative methods are not nearly as efficient in producing the same amount of energy as non-renewable methods. That is why, in hopes of sparking a new green revolution, scientists, architects, engineers and many other people are trying to stop relying on non-renewable energy and coming up with new technology that is more efficient and can sustain our planet continuously in the future.
This might all sound like boring stuff, but take soda bottle machines for example. You’ve most probably heard about it. It may not seem very impressive in terms of being eco-friendly. Pfft, it promotes the use of tap water, so what? Think again. The tap water in Slovakia is in fact of a very high quality and it is in fact much more eco friendly than buying plastic bottles. In fact, globally 206 billion liters of bottled water consumed in 2008 (Zenith International Global Bottled water Report, 2008). The energy needed to make these bottles is equivalent to 17 million barrels of oil. Additionally, a statistically more than 80% of bottles don’t even get recycled. An estimated 4.7 million tons of greenhouse pollution was produced in the process of replacing all the bottles that weren’t recycled in 2005.
Are you ready to do something for the environment? Start drinking tap water and stop buying drinks in plastic bottles.
Xinlu Mao, Year 11
Eco-Committee Member