The need to develop and efficiently use new and reliable sources of power has become one of the most important considerations facing the first world. The slow and gradual improvement of our power generation approaches has been steady over centuries of development. The ultimate goal to this pursuit of clean energy is a power source which does not produce harmful waste.
Strangely enough, the most primitive of all power generation is perhaps the most environmentally responsible. In many parts of the world, particularly in Asia, livestock is still used to perform many tasks.
Fields are worked by teams of oxen, and mules may be harnessed to turn grinding stones or operate pumps. At its most basic level, human effort is still one of the best ways to perform work.
That is all very well and good, but it really doesn’t help a person in New York make their supper. The sheer size of an ox driven power station sufficient to supply even a small apartment building with electricity would be utterly untenable.
Even today in the United States, the reliance on coal burning electricity generation is high. One of the big problems with coal as a generating fuel is that the smoke produced is highly polluting. Some reports estimate that the number of Americans who die each year from mercury and other toxins thus produced is in the thousands.
While the generation of power by means of hydroelectric projects is substantially more environmentally sound than coal fired plants are, the paradigm is not without its own problems.
Building dams and redistributing water flow can have serious consequences for the local water tables and other water courses. The inherent danger of destroying the habitat of indigenous water animals is also quite high.
A third, more modern option involves the use of nuclear generating stations. Unfortunately, many people oppose nuclear power on paranoid and uneducated grounds. They think that the plant will blow up and ruin everything.
They only know the name Chernobyl and not the name Darlington. Nuclear stations hardly ever fail. The actual problem with this sort of generation is that we don’t know what to do with all the highly dangerous radioactive waste.
The two most promising contenders for the crown of ecologically sensitive power generation are wind farming and solar collecting. There is some interest in tidal power generation, but this is obviously only going to be any good in places that have coastal areas.
Trying to build sufficient wind and solar generating centers is not as easy as it might sound. Even though these are environmentally friendly, or as much as they can be, there will always be negative consequences from human development. Migrating birds might be affected by a wind farm, and little indigenous lizards might find themselves out of their food if a photovoltaic array is built.
There are always consequences. Luckily, we seem to be at a stage in our development where we recognize this and do our best to minimize any bad outcomes in our search for clean energy.
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