Green Technology
Essay Preview: Green Technology
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There are many things in this world that are ever evolving in technology, from vehicles, television, cell phones, and even green technology. Some of us might not be too familiar with green; however, most people use green technology without even knowing the difference. The following will show what green technology means, benefits to going green, the available technology we use, the future of green, facts about going green, and last but not least, energy use around the house.
Green technology is the means of energy production that is environmental friendly or to a technology in itself that is considered less harmful than technologies that are more traditional. This means that there are products that are being produced which produce less CO2, or require less fuel to run them. There are also fewer chemicals in cleaning supplies which eventually means fewer chemicals that are being washed down the drain. This in return makes them environmental friendly. There are a several reasons why green technology is beneficial. A few of the reasons why we benefit are the reusable resources for future generations, spend less money on bills, save the animals, save valuable landfill space, and create opportunities for new industries. These are all great reasons to use green technology.
The first benefit is that green technology saves the animals. There are many ways to help the animals out. The first way is to use less water. There is no reason to water your yard in the middle of the day; this causes the water to evaporate before it can soak into the lawn, which creates less water for our water animals. The other way to save the animals is by recycling, not throwing trash in the ocean. The six pack plastic rings that used to hold soda would end up in the ocean and get around the animals neck. This would not just kill them, but would be painful. The animal will grow, and as they get bigger, they will slowly choke themselves to death. This was a serious problem until the company decided to go green and use alternate means.
The next benefit to green technology is to save the planet for future generations. Now everyone has either heard or was told to “save the planet,” which means to go green. The reason they are saying that is because if we live the way we are now there will not be this beautiful planet with all the reusable resources like fruit, and vegetables. All the resources will be depleted and our childrens kids will not be able to function as we have. They will then have to figure out a way to scientifically manufacture food.
The next benefit to green technology is by saving our precious land and resources from nasty sore eye landfills. The U.S. has 3,091 active landfills and over 10,000 old municipal landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. However, in the “good old days,” every town (and many businesses and factories) had its own dump. According to the 1997 U.S. Census, there are 39,044 general purpose local governments in the United States – 3,043 county governments and 36,001 sub county general purpose governments (towns & townships). One suspects that there are many more old and abandoned commercial, private, and municipal dumps than the 10,000 estimated by the EPA. (Goldstein. unknown)
The last benefit talked about today will be how green technology creates the opportunity for new careers. The jobs related to just solar power have exploded in the past few years. In 2009, at the height of the recession, the solar energy industry in the United States grew by 17,000 jobs. (Robertson. 2011) There are even more categories in which green technology has created jobs. In 2002 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assessed recyclings impact on our nations economy. The numbers were impressive. Recycling companies, as well as companies that rely on recycled material employed more than 1 million people, paid them more than $37 billion a year and had annual revenues equal to the auto and truck manufacturing industries. (Miller. 2009)
The green technology we have available is Biomass, Geothermal, Wind, Photovoltaic, Cleaning supplies, Hybrid/electric car, Recycling, and Hydropower. These have a wide variety of uses; however, they all have the same outcome, to be more efficient as their counterpart by being more environmentally friendly. Bioenergy is stored energy from the sun contained in materials such as plant matter and animal waste, known as biomass. Biomass is plant matter and animal waste that can be harvested to create bioenergy in the form of electricity, heat, steam and fuels. Biomass is considered renewable because it is replenished more quickly when compared to the millions of years required to replenish fossil fuels.
When people think about alternative or renewable energy, the first image that comes to mind is often large blue or black solar panels on rooftops or portable highway signs that have a small panel attached. These solar panels, also known as photovoltaic modules (or PV modules), convert sunlight into electricity, and they have been the backbone of renewable energy for decades. The Photovoltaic Effect (how sunlight is converted into electrical energy) was discovered over a hundred years ago! Yet widespread implementation of this technology has been very gradual. Only in very recent years has photovoltaic gained wide popularity as an alternative way to produce electricity. Cleaning supplies are something that has worried people for years with all the chemicals. Now that going green has become widespread, people are finally doing research into the damages from using the old cleaners. There are many ongoing studies looking into what if any effect the average cleaning agent is having on children. The results are beginning to trickle in and the initial news is not good at all. Chemicals in standard cleaning supplies are thought to be linked to many childhood illnesses including asthma, allergies and even a chance that they are linked to autism. These studies are not all complete and definite as of yet but the indications are frightening nonetheless. (Kirzno. 2010)
Geothermal energy is heat that comes from the earth. The power plant will pump water down a pipe to the core, then the water becomes anywhere from 300 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit, which the liquid is separated from the steam. The liquid is then pumped into different buildings to disperse throughout the city. The steam goes to a turbine which turns to produce electricity, and then the steam cools and