Indeed, the duty of generally ’saving’ -as the term is nowadays- planet Earth belongs to each and everyone of us. Slowly people should be adapting their ways of life to slow the on-marching process of Global Warming.
While this is all true, the main responsibility lies in our approach towards energy production, where governments are the ones who have the power to actively enforce climate-fr ➔
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Indeed, the duty of generally ’saving’ -as the term is nowadays- planet Earth belongs to each and everyone of us. Slowly people should be adapting their ways of life to slow the on-marching process of Global Warming.
While this is all true, the main responsibility lies in our approach towards energy production, where governments are the ones who have the power to actively enforce climate-friendly policies for both the power production and other industries. They are the ones who need to take the lead in this, as companies will obviously not prefer taking climate-friendly decisions over cheap though polluting methods because the latter is simply easier and less costly.
Stronger and stricter government policies on the subject of environmental changes and emission patterns might scare off industries and cause them to relocate to less strict states leading to a loss of jobs and less economic growth, the only real solution to that would be a world-wide body recognised and obeyed by all states to ensure companies are obliged to follow environmental legislation.
As governments are enforcing ’green’ policies on companies, the companies will be forced to come up with environmentally-friendly solutions. This brings us back to the topic: Renewable energies. I would think it’s safe to conclude neither of all current renewable energy sources are developed enough to be a good replacement for fossil fuel energies, meaning a lot of work needs to be done to be able to exploit these fully.
A concept that would be interesting to examine more closely is exactly what my colleague Ludo Bolling posted on "Climate change and energy supply"’s debate page, concerning the pan-european energy network. Currently the national grids are linked only slightly and regionally (on a European scale), and even though last year the Dutch grid got connected with the British grid and the French and the British already have a connection, this still needs lots of work. Plans have been made and agreed upon for connections between Great Britain and Spain for example, a big step in the right direction.
Often when the European super grid is suggested, the issue of the storage of power is brought under attention. What I mean by this, is that even though the wind mills may produce energy and solar panels do what they are designed to do, if there is no energy demand, this power is basically wasted (perhaps if you count the heating of wires and grid components as useful, one could argue against this). Solutions? A huge chargeable battery like the ones we find in our notebooks, phones and cars? Not likely, as this would be far too costly considering the sheer size and storage capacity required.
Sometimes a solution is closer than it may seem, as we’re dealing with renewable energy sources, hydroelectricity is one of our subjects. If we take a closer look towards this, we could see a great power storage potential, pumping up water in the lakes in times of power surplus and using the potential energy of the water in times of high energy demand. Nature’s rechargeable battery!