Climate Change Persuasive Essay

Climate change has had its own spot in the scientific debate landscape for years. From being recognized as a potential issue in the mid-19th century to becoming one of the most polarizing scientific topics of recent years, this issue is far from concluded. The scientific consensus is that carbon dioxide emissions that are a direct result of human consumption of fossil fuels have caused a recent spike in global average temperatures. Temperatures will continue to increase unless global carbon dioxide production is decreased, and the achieving the rate in which carbon dioxide needs to be cut only becomes harder as time passes. This essay is not attempting to convince anyone that action needs to be taken to combat climate change; at this point,

Renewable resources and clean coal pose engineering challenges that have not been solved. In regards to the renewable resources of wind and solar energy, the issue is obvious. These forms of energy are not controllable; their ability to produce electricity varies wildly. The solution to this aspect of renewable energy is storage. If excess wind and solar energy can be stored efficiently, electricity can be provided when natural forces aren’t providing enough at the moment. Forms of energy storage currently include odd methods like pumping water up into a reservoir while energy costs are low, and letting it down to generate electricity when there is more demand. These are all analogies of a battery, which is exactly what the proposed solution is to storing wind and solar energy. Currently, battery technology is not close to the scale needed for effective energy grid storage, and even if it was, the cost of such batteries would not be economical. In regards to renewable energy, it is a very effective form of power that has no carbon emissions. Currently, renewable energy accounts for 10% of energy consumed in the US, but only 27% of that comes from solar and wind. It is in the interest of the US to increase their use of renewable energy, but it does not provide the reliability of nuclear energy, because nuclear energy is already available. There are no technical hurdles like batteries that are in the way of nuclear power’s