The fossil fuels helped humanity to progress for many years, but unfortunately they are highly polluting, so many countries have pledged to stop using them in the short term, although not many have started and the global warming is proof of it. However, is it possible to drop these types of energy sources quickly? The answer is not very complicated.
Some experts believe that it could at least take a few decades, even as green technologies and energies are increasingly being replicated. And although within the collective imagination it is thought that the energy transition is very simple, the reality is that no and change climate will continue.
For instance, Jose Luis Rodriguez Gallego, professor, at the Institute of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning of the University of Oviedo, Spain, points out that: the production of steel still requires coke (pyrolyzed coal) in a process that does not differ much from that already used in 1846 in Sabero, Spanish territory.
“It is very complex to stop using mineral substances to which the development of the contemporary world, its economy, its demography and, ultimately, the current way of life is largely due. Do fossil fuels really deserve so much discredit and such an abrupt end? ” Rodriguez Gallego in an article for the British media BBC.
Can you do without fossil fuels?
Charcoal: Many point out that there is no estimated time to be able to abandon it as a source of energy, since it is a very powerful industry. There are millions of tons under the ground and big powerful companies, backed by governments, are in a hurry to grow their markets before it is too late.
Some types of coal have even been declared by the European Union critical raw materials, which implies that their exploitation is favored due to their strategic nature. While it is true that the same industry has sought to pollute less, some environmentalists consider that these efforts are not enough.
The oil: Although his employment has achieved great applications, such as fertilizers, plastics, pharmaceutical products, lubricants, asphalt, rubber, textile fibers, etc., the truth is that the way it is removed is highly polluting. The big oil companies have begun to look for alternatives such as green hydrogen and biofuels, and they are mutating into providers of clean and renewable electricity.
Natural gas: It is cleaner than el oil and coal, and it is believed that before nations accept and can switch to cleaner energies, it will be natural gas that will dominate the market, it is even estimated that it will be the most used by 2050. However, it has a huge “but”: its exploitation presents high risks to the environment: it contributes to climate change; it consumes and pollutes millions of liters of surface and subsoil water.
While it is true that an accelerated and radical transition against the use of fossil fuels could create economic problems and imbalances in energy production, many ask: is it worth saving the economy at the cost of the environment?
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These activities contribute to global warming and ecological crisis, do you do any of them?
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