Global warming has arrived, bringing with it a demand for more of the very thing that provoked it in the first place: energy consumption.
Climate change and its environmental impacts are being felt worldwide. People reach for energy-hungry air conditioning during heat waves. Floods and hurricanes require carbon-intensive materials for the rebuild and see colossal crop losses.
Rising global populations and economic development equate to growing power demands. And a whopping 84.2% of this worldwide energy comes primarily from fossil fuels. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to be released into the atmosphere.
A shocking 99% of the world lives in areas that don’t comply with World Health Organization air quality guidelines. Worse is that air pollution contributes to nearly seven million deaths annually.
Many despair at the world’s seemingly inexorable journey to extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and the tragic effects on life. Let’s examine the impact of energy production and consumption on the environment, including climate change.
What Is Climate Change?
Climate change represents long-term shifts in weather patterns and temperatures, be those warmer or cooler. Some changes in climate are natural, provoked by solar activity or a volcanic eruption.
The climate change we’re currently experiencing is caused by human behavior. The average global temperature is more than 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1°C) higher than in the 1880s. The primary driver of this climate change has been burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil.
A warmer climate means the atmosphere can hold more moisture for longer, leading to extended periods without rainfall and stronger storms.
What Are Examples of Climate Change Happening Right Now?
We can see climate change happening on a worldwide and local scale. Temperature rises have led to glaciers melting from high-altitude mountains to the sea ice at the North Pole. Permafrost is melting, sending methane into the heavens.
Warmer oceans have increased the severity of storms and hurricanes. Heat waves and droughts are causing chaos for people, farmers, and wildlife. Extreme weather episodes — like the Texas storm of 2021 — are longer and more intense and much more frequent than before.
Sea levels are rising, putting entire countries, communities, and ecosystems at risk. Many scientists fear that a 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit / 1.5 degrees Celsius rise in temperatures will trigger tipping points from which there is no return.
How Does Energy Production Drive Climate Change?
Humans have burned coal for millennia as a way to get heat. The Industrial Revolution upped its use. However, the latter half of the 20th century experienced a global energy supply and consumption boom.
That’s because coal, oil, and natural gas provided power plants with the raw material for electricity generation. Automobiles have become more affordable and have revolutionized lifestyles. Natural gas boilers heated homes and electric power lit them. Energy demand soared, particularly in developed countries.
Burning fossil fuels released greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide and methane wrapped the Earth in an emissions blanket. This trapped the sun’s heat and raised temperatures, something that continues to this day. Every year, we burn more and more fossil fuels to sustain the energy generation driving economic growth.
Environmental science has shown unequivocally that human activities have kickstarted Earth’s latest round of climate change. Our exploitation of energy resources like fossil fuels is responsible. And despite all the clean energy noise, worldwide emissions are due to keep rising until at least 2025.
How Much Does Energy Production Contribute to Climate Change?
Globally, energy production is embedded in carbon emissions exacerbating climate change. In 2016, some 73% of global total energy use came from the energy sector. Agriculture and forestry followed with 18.4%.Globally, energy production is embedded in carbon emissions exacerbating climate change. In 2016, some 73% of global emissions came from the energy sector. Agriculture and forestry followed with 18.4%.
Broken down, the worldwide emissions by selected sectors are:
- Industry: 24%
- Energy use in buildings 17.5%
- Road transport 12%
- Livestock 5.8%
- Deforestation 2.2%
- Aviation 1.9%
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. has a different CO2 emissions footprint.
Transportation, from cars to planes, accounted for 28% of the country’s 2021 greenhouse gas emissions, with 94% of fuel being petroleum based. Electricity production brought a quarter of those emissions, with 79% of electricity generated coming from burning fossil fuels.
Industry comprised 23% of emissions, residential and commercial sectors, some 13% combined, and 10% from agriculture. Livestock emits methane, and farming techniques produce emissions.
If global warming is occurring because of burning fossil fuels, then it is the environmental impact of energy that is driving climate change. And remember that rising populations and economic growth in developing countries mean more people than ever will have access to power in the coming decades.
How Is Energy Production Harmful to the Environment?
Earth is finite; there is only one planet. Once its resources are gone, they’re gone. Case studies suggest that we’re using natural resources 1.7 times faster than the world can generate.
Shockingly, if everyone lived the average American lifestyle, we’d need more than five Earths, the worst record of all nations. Japan needs almost eight Japans to meet its energy needs. However, if people consumed energy like Pakistan, we’d be using only half the world’s resources.
The Earth’s delicate ecosystem is threatening to break down. And not even renewable energy sources are a panacea. Almost all energy technologies have downsides. The challenge is to promote sustainable energy sources alongside energy efficiency and make the most of energy.
What Types of Energy Production Are Harmful to the Environment?
The impact of energy production and consumption on the environment, including climate change, is clear. Sadly, all energy systems have downsides, from air pollution to solid waste disposal. The impact of energy production and consumption on the environment, including climate change, is clear. Sadly, all energy systems have downsides, from air pollution to solid waste disposal.
Burning fossil fuels spews greenhouse gases and toxic particulate matter into the atmosphere. After burning fossil fuels, power plants release sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). These air pollutants react with substances in the air to create sulfuric and nitric acid, better known as acid rain. This acid rain falls to Earth and pollutes rivers, land, and soils.
Most fossil fuel power plants require water for cooling, impacting local wildlife. Coal mining, natural gas, and oil extraction can pollute groundwater, particularly fracking. Oil spills, gas explosions and leaks, and the intense energy required to extract these fuels add to their environmental cost.
Nuclear energy requires vast amounts of water in its cooling process, affecting local wildlife in rivers and oceans. Some nuclear power plants have already had to close due to rising sea temperatures.
Geothermal energy requires substantial amounts of water, causes air pollution, and creates hazardous waste. India has already suffered geothermal power plant shutdowns due to water shortages.
Solar energy is clean energy but has drawbacks. Large-scale solar farms bring habitat loss and affect local ecosystems. Photovoltaic panels require hazardous materials that must be recycled or disposed of properly when their 25 to 30-year life cycle ends.
Wind turbines need vast natural resources to build and transport, change landscapes, and harm birdlife. Wind power generation sometimes draws complaints from neighbors about noise.
Hydropower reservoirs flood land, disrupt animals, and may not work during droughts, a weather phenomenon increasingly common due to climate change.
Biofuels may use biomass materials that may have been used for fertilizers or may result from deforestation. Felled trees reduce the Earth’s capacity to capture CO2 emissions. Some biofuels create monoculture land use areas that are harmful to biodiversity and are water-intensive in their production. Indeed, the biofuel industry may use more water in 2030 than coal mining in 2016.
What Are the Consequences of Increased Energy Production?
We’ve seen that energy production in its current form increases global temperatures, creates acid rain, pollutes the environment, and alters landscapes. Sea temperatures and levels rise while animals’ habitats change, pushing them toward extinction. Some have disappeared, including Père David’s deer, the Hawaiian crow, and black softshell turtles.
Extreme weather events can cut our access to sources of energy. The deadly Texas winter storm in February 2021 immobilized the state’s power grid, killing hundreds. Power outages may increase as grids come under increasing strain from extreme temperatures. Other grids will need help to keep up with demand as people switch on the heating or cooling to stay comfortable.
The 800-mile Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, one of the world’s largest, may start to buckle and bend as the land beneath it shifts thanks to melting permafrost. In the Pacific, five islands that form part of the Solomon Islands have disappeared under rising sea levels.
Elsewhere, water shortages may become common. Crops are failing more regularly worldwide due to climate change, threatening food security. These are just some of the consequences of increased energy production spilling into the natural world.
How Can Energy Consumption Help the Environment?
Energy policy can change the course of climate change. Sustainability can reduce our energy consumption’s environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions.
Clean energy like wind and solar energy are critical to reducing CO2 emissions and keeping global warming below 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit / 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. Nascent industries like battery storage, tidal power, biofuels, and energy harvesting may all play a role alongside the expansion of established sources of energy like hydropower, nuclear energy, and geothermal.
For example, one case study shows the Earth receives enough potential solar energy to meet the world’s electricity demands. More likely is following the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) roadmap.
By 2050, IRENA thinks we need to reduce global emissions by 70% compared to current levels. Renewables could meet 60-75% of that, depending on energy policies worldwide. Switching to electricity and ditching burning fossil fuels, such as converting to electric cars, further reduces emissions. A mix of large-scale projects with microgrid solutions like home solar panels would work and give more people access to clean energy.
IRENA also states that the clean energy revolution would boost global trade by 2.5%, create more jobs than are lost in the fossil fuel industry, and improve global health through less pollution.
Energy efficiency at home and for business is another critical pillar. Switching to energy-efficient appliances — like those certified by Energy Star — reduces energy consumption and can lower energy bills.
How Does Energy Consumption Help the Environment?
People can help the environment through their energy choices. These include:
- Reducing energy consumption through energy-efficient appliances and lowering overall energy use
- Switching electricity suppliers to one that uses renewable energy sources
- Swapping a gas-driven automobile for an electric vehicle
- Installing a heat pump instead of using a natural gas or oil boiler to heat a home
- Improving a home’s efficiency through insulation
- Installing solar panels
The less power someone consumes, the fewer toxins go into the environment. This helps to protect vital ecosystems and conserve the Earth’s natural resources. Using less energy means helping to protect the planet.
The Impact of Energy Production and Consumption on the Environment
The impact of energy production and consumption on the environment, including climate change, is irrefutable. Environmental science has shown that humans burning the fossil fuels of natural gas, coal, and oil has changed the world’s weather.
Technological advances meant the 20th century saw a boom in access to energy. Fossil fuels met that demand. Countless tonnes of harmful carbon dioxide, methane, and other substances soared into the atmosphere. Less than a century later, the results are in: land, sea, and air temperature increases have led to drought, deadly storms, heat waves, and even the loss of land to rising oceans.
The energy production boom brings new issues. No politician wants to be the one who lets the lights go out or take away the freedom that cars and planes have given us. But the world has reached a tipping point and may have already gone past it. Change is coming.
The positive news is there is a way to avert the worst effects of climate change. Energy production will remain vital to the global economy. It’s a question of how we produce it as much as how much we want — and if we’re prepared to make small changes to make it work.
Renewable energy and clean energy sources can help reduce the impacts of climate change. Ecosystems and biodiversity can be protected. Human health and lifestyles can be preserved. We’ve accepted power plants polluting rivers, oceans, and the environment for decades. Are we prepared to accept solar farms and wind turbines to facilitate our desire for energy?
Switching energy suppliers to a clean energy source sends a message to politicians and industry alike. Let’s produce energy, but let’s do it in a way that protects the environment, ourselves, and future generations.
Brought to you by amigoenergy
All images licensed from Adobe Stock.
Featured image: