Energy Resource

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Recommended: Introduction (Recycling

While researching for this project, I realized that Earth provides us with all the energy we could possibly need so that we can live our everyday lives. Fossil fuels have been a major resource for energy for quite some time, but now we are running out of them. To fix this problem, we must find new sources to meet our energy needs. Earth has many different features that can produce not just fossil fuels, but also clean burning and renewable energies. There are many different options for getting energy, and if we explore each method, we will find benefits and drawbacks for each one.

One of the major fossil fuels the world uses is natural gas. This colorless, shapeless, and odorless gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel in the world. It gives off the lowest amounts of by-products that are harmful to earth and its atmosphere. This energy source that is found in the ground is made from hydrocarbons including methane, ethane, propane, butane, and pentane and is highly flammable. There are a few types of natural gas, but “dry” natural gas is a mixture of the hydrocarbons that is almost entirely methane, this is the type we use most commonly as our energy source. (naturalgas.org, 2004)
The hydrocarbons that make up natural gas are made from the remains of plants, animals, and other microorganisms that have decayed and gone through immense amounts of pressure. The large amounts of pressure break down the carbon bonds in the organic matter to produce the fossil fuel. The matter produced from this pressure is called thermogenic methane. Oil is produced in the same way, if less pressure is put onto the organic matter, it will become oil, not natural gas. Another way the hydrocarbons can be formed is through microorganisms chemically brea...

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...13, September 13). China's dam-building: a rigged game. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/topics/hydroelectric-power-generation

• Jobson, E. (2013, July 13). Hydropower politics: The struggle for control of the world’s longest river . Retrieved from http://www.afronline.org/?p=29823

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (2013). Recycling saves energy. Retrieved from http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=589519&mode=2

• Naseem, S. (2011, April 12). No trees.. no humans. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/our-science/no_trees_no_humans

• DoSomething.org. (n.d.). 11 facts about recycling. Retrieved from http://www.dosomething.org/actnow/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-recycling

• Pydipati, T. (2010, October 24). Energy use of print vs. electronic media. Retrieved from http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/pydipati1/

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