*Debate* Should we stop using fossil fuels and move on to a new energy source?

[Billay]

Well yeah obviously, but renewable energy power plants are so expensive to make and so unefficient that they take up looooooooooooads of space and look ugly.

People are happy to say "YAYAYAY renewable energy" but would they really want the fields around them full of windmills or solar panels?

I would really rather have solar panels and windmills imo. Why can't people accept the fact that somethings aren't gonna be pretty in life? I mean seriusoly i see people everyday at my school that wear expensive clothes and they always make fun of people becus they have cheap clothes. IT DOESNT HURT TO ATLEAST HAVE SOEMTHING THAT WILL GET YOOU THROUGH A DAY. solar panels will help us without running up your gas bills and will also help preserve the scarce amount of fossil fuels. in doing that, we can save the scarce amounts and use them for times when we really really need them.

[The Voice]

I would rather have a field full of windmills or solar panels rather than a shorter life expectancy because we're breathing in carbon monoxide etc. because of pollution.

I compltely agree. Pollution will in the end make everything look ugly because it's plants and animals. A few white windmills in a field with lots of flowers around will make things look clean and nice(er).

[bubble79]

I know I'm going to get some stick for this, but I feel that nuclear is probably, for a short term thing only, the way to go. Very few alternatives to fossil fuels are efficiet, therefore making them not really alternatives at all, as some things such as wind need around 4000 turbines or something to replace just 1 power station or so i've ehard. We've done a ot of this in science, so here is my rough guide to my ideas of the pros and cons of different forms or energy.

FOSSIL FUELS
Pros: these are efficient and produce a lot of energy
They are relatively inexpensive comapred to a lot of other things.

Cons: they pollute the environment and this is a problem that is not going to go away, we can only try and impriove, so we need to think about how to reduce this quickly
They arre also all going to run out sometime, whihc is another reason why we need an alternative.


NUCLEAR
Pros: There's a lot of contreversy over this one, but the pros of nuclear have got to be that it is non-polluting energy.
It is also very efficient, so we'd only need to replace each fossil fuel power station with 1 nuclear station

Cons: There's the problem of where to dispose of nuclear waste, butr the main con that people worry about is terrible nuclear disasters such as the one in Chenoble. I personally feel that this is very rare, and could be avoided if we were careful, but I do see poeple's point of view as a major drawback. However more research has gone into nuclear, so it must be fairly safe. I think thatthis still makes nuclear a lot better than fossil fuels, which will also kill people but in a longer space of time. My view on nuclear is that until we have better renewable energy sources, this shoyuld really be the way forward as a short term solution.


SOLAR
Pros: this is a clean, quite efficient way of making energy. It also doesn't use any space as panels can be attached to people's houses, or even have solar roofs.

Cons: this is mainly the cost. Solar panels are expensive, however I think that this could be overcome if more research went into finding cheaper waysto make them, because I really think solar panels could be a long term solution to a lot of energy problems. There's also the problem that ion places like Britain there isn't always enough sun, but this could be overcome by supplementing it with other less efficient ways.


WIND
pros: well, it' clean. I'm not a big fan of wind, so I cna't really think of much else to say about it. to be honest.

cons: turbines are ugly, expnsive and damaging to habitats and birldife. Birds can get trapped in these turbines. Wind is also very inefficient. I think off-shore wind farms are slightly better because they're more efficient and not an eyesore, so maybe these could be used to supplement other energy resources, as when there isn't sun, then there's often wind.


Hydroelectric
Pros: I think this is quite effiicent, and very cheap to run, once the inital cost has been paid. These are already used in the higlands of scotland where they seem to work quite well. They are also non polluting.

Cons: These have a very high initial cost, and they are damaging to habitats, but I think this could be overlooked, because of the fact that it's not much space they cover. You also need rushing water, so they're certainly not a solution for everywhere.



Biomass

Pros: Another one I think is worth a look into resarching. This is burning organic materials in the same way that we burn fossil fuels. This is better than fossil fuels, becuase for example, a tree willonly release the amount of carbon dioxide that it took in during it's lifetime, so although carbon dioxie is released it's not that much, and if we sustain forests and things then this won't affect us much. They are also quite efifcient. Not as good as fossil fuels, I don't think, but fairly good.

Cons: I think this is quite expensive. I can't think of many cons, because I don't know too much about this.



So that's my rough list of a few energy sources and theur pros and cons. OI haven't mentioned less welll known and used ones, such as tidal or geothermal, becausethey could not be done anywhere and especially things such as ytiddal are not widely used.

[Rawr]

Yeh global warming will happen it's just a matter of when exactly it will happen. We need to find a new energy source such as wind power than can still create electricty and everything we need for our lifes. It would be great to find things like cars running simple on air as it wouldn't cause any greenhouse effects.

I think now is the time to move on and find a renewable source.

[alexxxxx]

Yeah, we also need to ease off the oil too. I don't mind if there are more hydroplants/wind/solar.

[Oracle:]

I think fossil fuels should be banned as they're polluting our atmosphere, and as Stephen Hawkings recently said due to problems such as this and global warming we will have to find new solar systems to inhabit as Earth will become un-inhabitable.

Also people are selfish when they don't want Fossil Fuels to be extinguished as they're not looking towards the future for their children and grand children who will suffer the consequences of a crap Earth after we have polluted it to the max so people have to live underwater due to the fact we wanted to find the quick way of killing ourselves and also getting energy to power our cars.

[Nemo]

I would rather have a field full of windmills or solar panels rather than a shorter life expectancy because we're breathing in carbon monoxide etc. because of pollution.

Right on dude :8

[MBond]

should we **** u over **** face

[FlyingJesus]

Hydroelectric's pretty decent, as far as I'm aware it's used in Britain quite a lot when we need extra power for a short while (ie: during ad breaks at peak times where people often get up and boil the kettle, people doing that around the country uses quite a bit of electricity, so in some areas hydroelectic is used for any "extras" needed).

As the bubbly chap said, nuclear is easily the best type of power in terms of efficiency, despite taking a long time to set up initially. Still, time's hardly an issue if we start making the switch soon, someone said we have about 40 years until fossil fuels run out, that's quite a long time really to set up some alternative power. Problem of course is waste, but if we can work out a way to store nuclear waste and possibly speed up the process of its corrosion then we can stop that problem, or at least cut it back.

Solar I don't think is as great as many people say it is. It's extremely expensive to set up, and you're never assured of how much energy you'll be able to get. Also, in winter (when you'll need more energy) there'll be less to go around, as there'll be less sunshine.

Biomass I believe is used already in a few places, mostly by burning chicken poo ^_^

[djcafc]

what fuel shall we use you have to wait ages for fuels to apper or you have to find oil in the 1st place