Transportation Summit Renewable Energy Social Sciences Essay

Renewable Energy
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Renewable Energy
Introduction
Experts agree that climate change is unavoidable unless the world cuts the emission of greenhouse gases by moving away from using fossil fuels as sources of energy (Stauffer, 2016). Research has indicated beyond reasonable doubt that the burning of fossil fuels has led to significant climate disruption. There has been an increase in the severity of major natural disasters. The failure to take aggressive measures now will lead to more storms, fires, and floods leading to more homelessness, water contamination, food shortages and the loss of lives. Research has indicated beyond reasonable doubt that the burning of fossil fuels has led to significant climate disruption. As the planet warms, science indicates that it will trigger climate “tipping points,” which will cause irreversible new effects on the planet. At the current rate of emission, the planets will blow past the critical threshold set for the next five years.
According to The National Academy of Sciences (2018), the United States uses about 29% of all the energy in the country for transporting both people and goods. Different types of fuels are used for transportation in the country. These include petroleum products, biofuel, natural gas, and electricity. Of all these energy sources, petroleum is the main source of energy for transportation. For instance, in 2017, petroleum products in the U.S. accounted for about 92% of the total energy consumed. Ethanol and biodiesel contributed to about 5%, natural gas for nearly 3% while electricity offered less than 1%. The consumption of petroleum in transportation was 7.28 billion barrels giving an average of 19.96 million barrels each day (The National Academy of Sciences, 2018). Hence the U.S. is a major consumer of fossil fuels.
The focus of this paper will be the road transportation. The dependence on cars using fossil fuels has become an important part of American life. Although the country has less than 5% of the world’s population, it has more than one-fifth of the vehicles in the globe. The transportation sector in the U.S. includes many modes: personal cates, large trucks, public transportation, airplanes, and ships. Cars, light trucks, and motorcycles consume the largest share of petroleum fuels which is about 58%. Other trucks and aircraft follow with about 23% and 8% consumption (The National Academy of Sciences, 2018).
The paper will outline an alternative to the fossil fuels and indicate why the alternative should be used for transportation. Further, it will indicate the amount of energy produced by fossil fuels the new energy will replace. A map will indicate where the new energy can be produced and where it is already in use. A conclusion will follow, to sum up, the whole paper.
Energy Source
The main focus of this paper is on renewable energy and in particular wind energy. It refers to producing electric power using air flows that take place naturally in the earth’s atmosphere. Turbines are utilized to capture the kinetic energy derived from the wind which in turn generates electricity. The electricity can then be in electric vehicles (EVs). The EVs use electricity directly to charge ...