The use and progression of eco friendly products must be considered first to curb the results of global warming around the world. If you take all the abandoned and categorized former industrial sites and dumps throughout the U.S. and put them together, you get 14 million acres of inexpensive, accessible land that could be used as sites for brand new solar installations as well as wind farms. Right now the U.S. EPA is pushing ahead with just such a plan, with the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) helping to assess brownfields and Superfund sites for renewable power. The program is called Re-Powering America's Land. It also has a green jobs angle, through Recovery Act financing. Many of the potential places can be found in or near existing communities and could provide new work opportunities for local residents.
But wait, there's more. In addition to supplying brand new green jobs and thoroughly clean power for local use or perhaps the wider grid, the program additionally targets eco-friendly remediation, which makes use of renewable energy to power up products used for site clean-up. When you add that up - gathering clean power from land that is blighted and functional for nothing much otherwise, while generating jobs and restoring the particular site, you gotta wonder why anybody would like to keep on blowing up America's mountain tops, compromising our water supply, and doing damage to the Gulf of Mexico in pursuit of fossil fuels.
Getting Back Land for Renewable Power
Among the actual fourteen million acres of categorized land in the U.S., circumstances in the sites can differ extensively. Together with brownfields as well as Superfund sites, EPA and NREL are looking at land classified within the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. That means the sites can range from individual forgotten industrial facilities with minimum hazardous resources involved, to a portion of a poisonous stew which blights an entire location, such as the Hazleton area within Pennsylvania which contains the Jeddo Mine Tunnel, infamous for expelling countless gallons of contaminated water from abandoned mines every day within the last hundred years.
Finding a Place for Solar Arrays as well as Wind Farms
In addition to evaluating the places for factors that would improve (or obstruct) power gathering coming from the sun and wind, EPA and NREL are looking at the kind of installation that a specific site could sponsor. The conventional solar set up, for example, doesn't need a cornerstone to be dug, so it could easily be installed over a capped land fill. For wind generators, a system of concrete footings and supporting wires can be constructed, instead of drilling directly into contaminated soil.
A New Energy Future
It may be stated - therefore I'll say it - that at one time fossil fuels rescued the U.S. from turning into a barren wasteland devoid of trees. Seriously, it's difficult to think about how we might have powered up until now without burning up every stick of wood across the nation. But times shift, and our fossil fuel friends have outlived their stay. They were of little use during the birth of this particular country, and as we continue into a new energy future they'll return to that condition. It's merely a question of when, not if.
In case you definitely care about your future, be eco friendly. We could accomplish this by utilizing eco friendly products and engaging in environment friendly activities. We just have one world to exist in so let us stand up for this!
