Energy Case

People depend on energy everyday for cooking, lighting, cooling, and warming our homes and automobiles. People consume a great amount of energy. Energy is generated from non-renewable fuels. When people use non renewable energy harmful pollutants are let loose into the air and water. The more people operate ones vehicle the energy power plants produce gasoline that burns which releases pollutants. Another problem is the cost; people are noticing that ones public service utility bill is on the rise. People need to get the information that is needed to conserve energy. People need to realize that the negative effects that non renewable energy has on the planet. Non renewable energy resources are coal, oil, and natural gas. Coal resources are too expensive to expand and have the possibility to supply an efficient amount of coal to last. Coal use has risen in the last 4 years. Coal is a difficult non renewable resource to obtain because it is accessed by mining. Oil is a combustible energy that is access by drilling and pumping. When non renewable energy has been used up it can not be replaced.

The living factor is that mining damages existing vegetation and the land is sensitive to the wind destruction causing air pollution. There is also water destruction which causes pollution to the waterways and destruction to aquatic habitats. Farmers are concerned about the water depletion in the underground due to the open-pit gold mining which uses a large amount of water. The deeper the miner dig it is likely the pump will pump out the water making the pit dry. The Environmentalists would prefer that mining operation would reinjection the water back into the ground. Mining has contaminated rivers and streams. Rocks that contain minerals are highly concentrated with metals that contain arsenic and lead. Sulfuric acid that dissolves the metals is a toxic substance that seeps into the spoil bank. A highly toxic acid which is called acid mine drainage is washed into the water and soil. When the acid seeps into our lakes and streams from springs and thunderstorms, and melting snow negatively affect the aquatic life. An impurity which is waste that is processed is contained in mining ore. This waste is called tailing which is left in ponds or on the ground in big piles near processing plants. Tailing consist of harmful toxic materials such as mercury, sulfuric acid, and cyanide. When these harmful acids are exposed they pollute the soil, water, and air. When mineral are processed through smelting plants a large amount of sulfur may give off air pollutants which may form into sulfuric acid that releases into the atmosphere. The toxic pollution can harm humans, animals, soil, and water. The waste from mining are dumped into local rivers everyday which is causing highly toxic cyanide which contaminates the water and aquatic life. A large amount of energy is required to refine and mine minerals.