Future of Energy Sources

Throughout the 21st Century, human's reliance on petroleum has increased throughout the years while many sources of gasoline have been disappearing at an alarming rate. On top of this, the realization that gasoline is extremely harmful to the environment pushed the masses towards a call for a new reliable energy source. In the past ten years, scientists have heavily focused on research towards possible alternative energy sources, and the progress towards a new source of energy is evident. Although the problem of the detrimental effects of gasoline developed throughout the 20th century, it is obviously existent in today's world, let alone America; everyone must take into consideration the time and steps needed to solve this crisis, regardless if the probability of solving this energy source problem is low.

As a result of the Industrial Revolutions that the US took part in so avidly, the role of coal and petroleum in the world has increased exponentially. The US Government, at the time, heavily supported the uses of new automobiles and inventions that relied on petroleum or coal because of the fact that industrialization improves the nation in general (Blossom). However, as the emphasis on industrialization remained the same throughout the years, so did the levels of harmful chemicals and its presence in the atmosphere. Scientists did not know it at the time, but the world's excessive use of petroleum would start a crisis in the atmosphere waiting to explode. Fast forward to the 21st Century, and we still have the same problem; the only difference is now we have the tools and knowledge to fix it, and that the US is one of the biggest consumers of petroleum in the world. Granted, pollution has decreased over the last twenty years due to car manufacturers making a change in fuel, turning it to unleaded. However, this does not mean that this fuel crisis is no longer a problem. Today, the US produces about ten percent of the world's petroleum, but consumes about twenty-six percent of the world's total production ("Pollution"). Due to this, it should not be surprising that environmental scientists consider forty percent of American rivers and forty-six percent of American lakes to be over polluted and unsafe, which is largely due to the use of cars in this country ("11 Facts"). Boston, Massachusetts ranks fifth in our nation for premature deaths due to annual levels of diesel pollution, and carbon dioxide is rising at an alarming rate in the same region ("10 Pollution"). Throughout the 1990s, carbon dioxide emissions increased approximately one percent each year ("10 Pollution"). But since 2000 and the start of the century, the rate has increased to three percent per year, with an estimated annual increase in CO2 emissions of thirty-five percent from 1990 to 2006 ("10 Pollution"). These emissions as well as others contribute to the smog problem clearly evident in America and they can be extremely dangerous up to the point that they are fatal. However, it is not only because of the harmfulness of petroleum that we need to find a new energy source, but it is also because we are running out of petroleum. Contrary to previous thought, "the petroleum supply will be fully depleted anywhere from 2028 to 2070, with the highest probability range being between 2036 and 2050" (Morgan). With all this information in mind, one can note that the problem of finding an alternative energy source is evident in today's world.

There are a vast amount of advances being made in the field of making a new energy source that the world can depend on. The biggest and most famous new alternative fuel source is hydrogen, which can be directly derived from water. Some of the