Natural Resources

For many years, the planet´s natural resources have been used improperly. The people exhaust all possible natural resources without being available to regenerate them, creating global warming pollution. As the population of the world grows, the eagerness of improving living standards without destroying the environment is a global challenge. The way human beings are leading towards destroying the planet´s environment, without the necessary care and precaution, their contamination is going to cause numerous damages in the world. The problem can be solved by preventing pollution, improving the practices that increase efficiency in the use of natural resources. Building a clean energy economy will reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Go green environmentally will help maintain the natural ecological balance and preserve the planet and its natural systems and resources.

The situation with preventing pollution must focus on its control rather than its prevention. There are government regulations that have been made in hopes of creating some sort of standard method to control pollution.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the main authority figure that ensures the acts are being followed and makes sure to hold those who disobey responsible. EPA regulates household, industrial, manufacturing solid and hazardous wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) 1. RCRA's goals are to protect people from the waste disposal, reduce or eliminate the waste and clean up waste which may have spilled, leaked or been improperly disposed of. 1 Hazardous waste is potentially harmful to people´s health and the environment. They can be discarded commercial products and products of manufacturing processes. 2

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of dangerous substances that may endanger public health and the environment. Over five years, $1.6 billion was collected and the tax went to a trust fund for cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. 3 Those among others are implemented laws that help in the prevention of pollution industries, but not necessarily enough to overcome the pollution. It is essential to agencies like EPA to reinforce existing acts to ensure possible leaks, and keep creating more acts. Waste is not the only contamination industries contaminate with and industries are not the only existed pollutant.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. In 2010, 84 percent of all United States CO2 emissions were from human activities. The main activity that emits CO2 is the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) for energy and transportation. 4

Altogether the nation roughly have 500 fossil fuel-fired power plants and 150 oil refineries that emit some 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases per year; nearly 40 percent of total U.S. emissions. "We are following through on our commitment to proceed in a measured and careful way to reduce greenhouse gas pollution that threatens the health and welfare of Americans, and contributes to climate change," EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said in a prepared statement to announce the effort. 5

Climate and energy experts at NRDC have created a revolutionary proposal that will help the Administration create jobs, grow the economy and curb climate change by going after those emissions from hundreds of existing power plants, being those the country's largest source of climate-changing pollution. NRDC's proposal shows how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in partnership with the states, set new carbon pollution standards under existing authority in The Clean Air Act (CAA) the first of the major federal environmental laws. 6 The Clean Air Amendments of 1977 developed provisions for prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) of air quality, in order to protect areas with already clean air. 7

The plan would cut CO2 pollution from America's power plants a 25 percent that will result in reduction of more than 500 million tons of CO2 slowing the accumulation of climate-changing gases in the atmosphere. 8

Certainly, the coal and utility industries are concerned about the closing of coal mines and the reconfiguration of the electric industry. The study by the Natural Resources Defense Council estimated recently that reducing emissions by at least one-quarter over the next seven years would cost $4 billion in compliance expenses in 2020. 8 The reduced hospitalizations and fewer days of work lost to illness and other health and environmental benefits would save $25 billion to $60 billion, the study said. The approach would also stimulate investments of more than $90 billion in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, according to the analysis for the NRDC by the consulting firm ICF International. 8

Besides preventing the emission of greenhouse gases the acts themselves help to implement renewable energy technologies. By reducing dependence on fossil fuels and slowly changing them to an eco-friendly sustainable source of energy, this will build a cost-effective and sustainable energy future.

The movement of wind and water, the heat and light of the sun, the carbohydrates in plants and the warmth in the Earth are energy sources that can supply needs in a sustainable way. A variety of methods are used to convert these renewable resources into electricity, each method comes with its own unique set of technologies, benefits and challenges. 9

For most people the concept of clean technology, or “clean tech”, is relatively new. Clean tech refers to any product, service or process that delivers value using limited or zero nonrenewable resources and/or creates significantly less waste than conventional offerings. Clean Technology comprises a diverse range of products and services, from solar power systems to electric vehicles (EVs), which harness renewable materials and energy sources or reduce the use of natural resources by using them more efficiently and productively, Clean Tech devices, make an equal or superior performance compared with conventional offerings, provide companies investors and costumers reduced costs and lower prices. 10

Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available. The U.S. has some of the richest solar resources in the world. Solar technology can harness this energy for a variety of uses, including generating electricity, providing a comfortable interior environment and heating water for domestic, commercial or industrial use. 11 Some of its implemented technologies are Photovoltaic (PV) devices

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