Record high prices at gas pumps and continuing trouble and instabilty in the Middle East, Nigeria, and other oil-producing nations have made it clear to the industrial countries of the world that they are in need of developing a variety of new sources of energy, alternative energy. In short, the world needs to reduce its dependence on oil because oil supply is finite and the reserves of cheap sources of crude oil are running low. Energy consultants and analysts insist that cheap oil has “peaked” or is very soon going to peak.  What this will mean for us is that life will become increasingly expensive —unless alternative forms of energy to oil can be found to power our mechanized and electronic civilization.

 We need to switch to renewable, alternative forms of energy because oil-based society is damaging the environment and impacts negatively on the atmosphere. The damage it causes is reflected in global warming, climate change, the melting polar ice caps and so on.

Coal is another source of energy that we need to wean ourselves off — again, supply is finite, and it is highly polluting when it burns. Mining coal is dangerous and environmentally disruptive.

Hydro-electric power, especially when the ever-greater demands for power dictate that enormous dams be built so that enough power can be generated, is environmentally destructive.  Entire eco-systems get wiped out by the rising water of the new dam. Small scale run-in-river hydroenergy systems are good renewable sources of energy for small communities.

Developing nations undergoing rapid industrialization in recent decades will benefit from alternative energy research and development because they are presently contributing much to world environmental damage. The older industrialized nations such as United States, Japan, and many European nations have had policies in place to aid the development of alternative energy sources. The rapid industrialization taking place in China and India make it urgent that their respective governments address the consequences to their environments caused by vast quantities of industrial and vehicle emissions being released into the atmosphere.

BioFuels  from things like “supertrees” and soybeans, refined hydroelectric technology, natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells, the continued development of solar energy photovoltaic cells, more research into wind-harnessed power—all of these are viable energy sources that can act as alternatives to the vast quantities of oil and coal that we are dependent on for our very lifestyles.  The energy of the future is green.

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