Today you hear a lot of talk about how you should conserve energy. What you don’t hear so much talk about is why it’s so important to do so. However, you should know that there are lots of reasons – probably many more than what you’d even imagine.
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The Risk of Depleting Energy
The American Energy Information Administration and the International Energy Agency both believe that the universe will continually consume 2% more energy per year unless something is done about it. We’re literally consuming more energy than the amount of oil we discover. This means that we’re slowly depleting our oil reserves each day.
Since most of our oil is located in nations that are experiencing a lot of political turmoil, they’re unsafe. Nevertheless, some nations still consume a lot of oil – including the United States and China. We’re too dependent on these oil supplies and need to learn how to conserve energy. This is dangerous because we never know when an emergency may occur.
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Saving Yourself Money
It’s not only good to conserve energy to help the environment, but also because it will save you money. This is because you won’t use too much energy, while also installing energy-saving appliances and investigating other alternative energy sources, including solar energy. You may also qualify for certain tax incentives and rebates. Each of these activities will help conserve energy in hopes of eliminating shortages. This is important because when shortages happen you pay more money for your electricity usage. If you’re on a variable rate plan when this happens, you never know when you’ll pay more money for your electricity bill – or save money because there’s more electricity available.
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Constructing Fewer Power Plants
Power plants greatly impact the environment, in a negative way. Not only are they ugly, but they pollute the environment because they generate a lot of noise while producing electricity. Additionally, the fumes they produce are hazardous. Studies show that inhaling their fumes create respiratory diseases over time. Unfortunately, wind energy production isn’t the answer because the turbines kill birds who fly into them. The only real answer here is to conserve energy so we don’t need to build new power plants and wind turbines.
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Improving Human Health
Coal, natural gas, and oil cause pollution that results in severe medical issues, including asthma and lung cancer. Fewer respiratory diseases will only occur when we conserve energy.
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Help With Global Warming
A lot of the energy providers generate their supply from fossil fuels. When these fuels are being refined into gas for our cars and electricity for our homes, a lot of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. This carbon dioxide is the chief contributor to the greenhouse effect, which is behind global warming. We see the impacts of this today in our rising sea levels, increasing the number of cancer cases, and changing weather patterns – including an increase in our atmospheric temperature. By conserving energy we lower the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, lowering the possibility of global warming.
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Take Social Responsibility
People will notice when you conserve energy, because you’ll pay lower electric bills. When this happens they’ll wonder how you’re doing it. Since they’ll want to cut down on their bills, they’ll follow your example. This is only the beginning of a chain that will help our world today.
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Destroys Fewer Habitats
Habitats are destroyed when we don’t conserve energy. This is because we have to extract the fossil fuels that are used in producing power from somewhere. The “somewhere” is home to plants and animals who must move because large areas are cleared. Wildlife then loses their natural home.
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Helps Things Continue “Normally”
Although people are taking steps to create more renewable energy, fossil fuel is still what’s mainly being used today. If these fossil fuels were depleted, our world would be at a standstill. This is because things like our transportation systems and vehicles run on gasoline that comes from these fossil fuels. Of course, this would affect commerce too.
When you conserve energy you not only keep this from happening, but you help them save $500 billion in energy costs. This is money these businesses can then reinvest in energy efficiency projects, which creates jobs – just 830,000 jobs alone in 2010.
Additionally, manufacturers also have breakthroughs in regards to energy-efficient innovations and policies. An example of this is our energy-efficient light bulbs that save 25% more energy than a traditional, incandescent light bulb.
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Make a Great Return on Your Home’s Investment
When you buy a home you give at least some thought to its resale value. Once you’ve bought a home you can add to its value by adding renewable energy systems like solar panels. This not only saves you money, but it also attracts prospective home buyers when the time comes, which could result in a quick sale.
Although you may be tempted to see these purchases as an unnecessary cost, it’s actually an investment that adds up over the life of the product. These savings can actually offset the initial cost, because there’s such a significant return on investment. You’ll continue seeing even greater savings over time as energy prices continue rising.
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Help Your Children
When you conserve energy you’re helping future generations grow up in a healthier environment. If this is important to us, we must work at minimizing global warming today.
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Help Keep our Military Safe
Taking steps to conserve energy and use less of America’s energy resources means we’re less dependent on foreign nations. This is something that our armed forces is also working on today, so they can save money and then reinvest it into defense programs. Additionally, most people don’t realize that 80% of our military action on the ground in areas like Iraq and Afghanistan are for fuel. During these missions, one out of every 50 soldiers dies. Simply by taking steps to conserve energy, we’ll have fewer convoys, which results in fewer casualties.
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Enhance Your Quality of Life
As you conserve energy you improve the quality of your life – as well as those around you. These changes will keep your home more comfortable, save you money, and protect your future. By making your environment more enjoyable you also become more productive at work. This results in more money for them and hopefully for your paycheck too. Clearly, energy conservation is a win win situation for everyone, which is why it’s so important for all of us to start conserving energy today.
