Natural resources form an integral part of human existence. Human civilization and day-to-day activities rely wholly on these resources for their existence. These resources include renewable sources, non-renewable sources, and perpetual resources. To begin with, perpetual resources are those that are not affected by consistent human beings. These include solar energy from the sun and wind energy. On their part, renewable resources are those that can be restored after use. Finally, non-renewable resources are those that never restock immediately after use. Consequently, this paper will highlight the benefits of renewable energy and how this valuable resource can be used to sustain human civilization.
At the outset, it is necessary to consider some of the major examples of renewable resources. These include tidal power at vast masses of water, bio-fuels which are remains of plant materials and animal matter, solar power from the sun, hydroelectric power derived from dams, geothermal energy generated by the exploitation of high temperatures underneath the earth crust, wind energy derived from the wind as well as wave energy from the surface of seawater (Barnes & Halpern 3).
The use of power plants that function using fossil fuel has greatly contributed to air pollution in the urban centers. On the other hand, the use of renewable resources of energy has helped reduce these cases to a great extent. The improvements in the quality of air have had significant health advantages to the urban inhabitants. The poor urban dwellers who happen to be the greatest victims of unhealthy living conditions created by factories that use fossil fuels would therefore be salvaged by increased use of renewable sources of energy. This is especially true given that the urban poor tend to have no other option or other places to which they could move to avoid pollution. Change to renewable sources of energy would thus be a welcome idea (Halcrow, Spitze & Allen-Smith 134).
In addition, the use of renewable energy allows a country generate income while at the same time saving on its expenditure. Capital accredited from the gains in the use of renewable resources remains in the individual countries. The countries’ economy is at large boosted especially if the country starts producing energy from the resources found in the country as opposed to depending on some other countries that import these resources.
It can be generally agreed that if a country relies on imports from other countries, it tends to suffer great negative economic implications. Finance that would have been retained in the country is lost to other countries to boost their economy. The growth is nonetheless boosted if native resources of energy replace the imported resources of energy in a country. Conversely, overdependence on other countries’ economies may lead to a large drop in economic development as most of the money that would have been used on infrastructural development is channeled to the other country (Dovring 78).
Renewable resources savings in different regions lower the service bills in the concerned place. For instance, renewable resources lead to cutting the cost of providing power or availing electricity at cheaper costs. The benefits of renewable resources of energy go beyond benefiting the local region to benefitting the nation as a whole. The intensive spread in the choice of using renewable resources of energy is attributed to the absence of sufficient reserves for fuel and also the unavailability of widespread networks of electricity. However, Brower, Tennis, Denzler, and Kaplan (78) argue out that over-dependence on the resources of energy within the country could affect the financial stability of exporting nations.
Renewable resources of energy release low levels of greenhouse gases or sometimes no gases at all this can help in alleviating climate degrading impacts worldwide. Research has pointed out adverse negative impacts of climate change on persons especially in developing countries. These are regions that are underdeveloped and are characterized by high cases of poverty among individuals. Some of the mentioned tendencies in climate transformation are the major causes of extremities in weather conditions such as heat and cold waves, drought, storms and floods. These conditions have disadvantageous consequences on the people’s health, ecological units as well as agriculture.
Conversely, the use of renewable sources of energy would avoid such extreme weather conditions resulting in the growth of the regions economically as well as the decline in the cases of poverty. These assertions were researched and proved before the cropping up of renewable resources of energy (Dovring 78).
Reliance on renewable sources creates employment either directly or indirectly. Renewable resources of energy have taken part in boosting the economic growth of different countries. Since they are labor demanding, many job opportunities are made available to the citizens as compared to the principled electrical energy companies. The diversity of requirements and skills involved in the production of this form of energy hence give a wide array of people employment. It has been proved beyond doubt that savings in locally available resources to produce energy in a country bring immense impacts in the individual countries as the number of job opportunities are increased.
Salaries given to the workers also increase. This increase consequently translates into the general well-being of the country’s economy. The production potential of a country is boosted and thus immense economic growth. Countries with less renewable resources are encouraged to engage themselves in trading activities through imports and exports. In this activity, citizens acquire their jobs in firms that work to produce goods in exchange for renewable resources. If not, they should try to exploit these minerals where workers in the country engage in operations of digging and construction as well as maintenance of non-fossil producing plants and other connected industries (Cropper & Oates 56).
Renewable resources help in saving land cover. Exploitation and use of renewable resources of energy in producing electricity for lighting and heating through proficient utilization of biomass, wind pumps, solar panels plus the use of geothermal and hydroelectric power has led to the protection of land cover and thus the possibility of deforestation has been lessened. In addition to that, levels of stress related to climate as a result of drought, shortage of water as well as soil erosion have all been reduced as a result of the utilization of renewable resources of energy (Stern 46).
Non-renewable sources of energy do not only get depleted but also lead to injuries and serious accidents. While using kerosene lamps, some unwanted harsh impacts arise from this. For example, burn injuries. Most of these cases are reported from children. Fires also erupt from the use of kerosene. They may cause death of persons who are caught unawares. The use of kerosene lamps is mostly found in regions from rural places among the poorest family units.
Conversely, the enhanced eminence of electric lighting that is reliant on renewable energy would reduce these accidents. In addition, it would lead to improved opportunities in education and extended efficiency for expertise majorly based in homes. On totting up, time wasted on activities such as managing household power and lighting services can be freed up and the time inverted into educational along with productive activities through the use of renewable sources of energy (Jimenez & Lawand 458).
Renewable resources of energy have provided security to the nation with regard to energy. They widen the collection of choices for energy resources also diminish overdependence on fossil fuel materials that get depleted with increased usage. The prices of hydrocarbons have gone high as the supply of hydrocarbons is becoming too expensive in discovering and extracting. In some cases, the prices of oil and natural gas have become unpredictable. This character of unpredictability has adverse effects on the economy of the country. The beginning of using fossil fuels has helped at large since it has declined the future possible causes of prices being high as a result of instability.
The subsidiary charge of manufacture of renewable energy is not highly depicted to goods value instability since the repeated input costs are very low. Therefore the use of renewable resources can help provide security to other resources of energy that are not readily available (Yinjuani 146).
Renewable resources can be restored after use. As the global economy leads to increased competition for the available resources, pressure mounts heavily on the limited non-renewable sources that are used extensively to drive this economy. Therefore, need for a better form of energy becomes the order of the day. Consequently, the issue of recycling becomes handy. This is usually done to maximize the economic benefits.
Due to the absence of flexibility in demand and supply, it’s also imperative to dynamically sustain the recycling procedures in the manufacture of goods. Recycling of possessions is the coherent progression of ordinary resources in the manufacturing procedure through suitable sophisticated know-how dispensing power as well as unprocessed resources into products that are friendly to the surroundings. The ultimate merchandise undergoes balanced utilization then taken back into the manufacturing procedure. This necessitates a call for association along with the preservation of an individual’s resources (Yinjuani 148).
In conclusion, the use of renewable energy has significant impacts on the environment. The reason as to why the recycling of materials is recommended is because transport costs are less, carbon (iv) oxide emissions are reduced, the effluents drained in rivers are reduced thus water is made safe and available for consumption especially for the urban poor. In recycling, the use of available resources is well economized and conserved.
Emissions that cause pollution to the environment during transport are avoided. In addition to that, there are no hazards that are posed to human health. Since these resources are recycled, there are no cases of contamination and furthermore wastage of resources. The recycling process lastly reduces landfills as most products to be disposed of are re-used. It is therefore arguable that renewable resources have a wide range of benefits. Therefore, organizations should be formed in different nations to encourage and support the use of renewable resources to produce energy so that all the benefits of these resources are accrued.
Works Cited
Barnes, Douglas and Halpern, Jonathan. Subsidies and Sustainable Rural Energy Services. ESMAP Technical paper. 2000. Web.
Brower, Michael, Michael Tennis, Eric Denzler and Mark Kaplan. Powering the Midwest: Renewable Electricity for the Economy and the Environment, Colorado: Union of Concerned Scientists, 1993.
Cropper, Maureen and Wallace Oates. “Environmental Economics: A Survey”, Journal of Economic Literature, 6.2 (1992): 675-740.
Dovring, Folke. Farming for Fuel-The Political Economy of Energy Sources in the United States, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988.
Halcrow, Harold. Robert Spitze, and Joyce Allen-Smith. Food and Agricultural Policy-Economics and Politics, New York: McGraw-Hill,Inc., 1994.
Jimenez, Antonio and Tom Lawand. Renewable Energy for Rural schools. Colorado: Diane Publishing, 2000.
Stern, Nicholas. The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Yinjuani, Feng. “Asian Social Science” Study on Mechanism in the use of resources of Regional Economic Development. 5.9 (2009): 144-150.