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Kody Pryor

Professor Bedell

CAS 137

5 November 2018

What a Wonderful World

Picture that it is the year 2100. The world population is about 9 billion and early in the

21st century renewable energies and geoengineering were invested in heavily. Systems for

extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it underground have been built and

fossil fuels are virtually obsolete. Carbon emissions have also plummeted and atmospheric CO2

is dropping, sea ice has been saved and ocean acidification has been slowed. That’s the best case

scenario. Now, picture a much different 2100. The world population is about 12 billion,

economies are booming but fossil fuels dominate world energy production still. Emissions have

skyrocketed, leaving the environment and health as casualties. Biodiversity crashes threaten

natural processes such as water recycling and pollination. Emissions and temperatures continue

to sharply rise as droughts and floods are more frequent and fatal. Ocean acidification is severe,

and getting worse and the Arctic has not had ice during the summer for several decades. That is

worst case; very worst case and very scary. Now more than ever Americans are embracing new

ways of thinking about energy sources in their personal lives through changes in governments,

technology, and public perception.

Americans embrace new energies through changes in politics and legislation. The U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970, and the Department of Energy in
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1977. Together these agencies, among other things, help gather info on our energy production

and consumption as well as enforce environmental standards. While their creation took place

many years after the mass production of energy and electricity in the U.S., nonetheless they were

and are a big step towards energy accountability and sustainability. As those were created, new

representation in the U.S. had arisen, the Green party. The effort to form a national Green Party

began in 1984 and extended over several years of start-up work, drawing inspiration from

national green parties in Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. By the

early 90’s, candidates running under the green party started to win local government seats and

whole percentage points in national seats, a substantial showing for a third party candidate in the

two party dominated system. In 2016 Green Party candidate Jill Stein won 1.07% of the popular

vote in the presidential election. Americans are wanting, and will continue to want, people in

office that not only keep the people’s well being at heart, but also the well being of our

environment and future.

However, resistant ideologies still find footing everywhere, with the U.S. especially

being no exception. In 2017 the current President of the United States, Donald Trump, withdrew

the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. According to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), “The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention

and for the first time brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to

combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing

countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.” However,

President Trump seems to disagree. He has never publicly acknowledged that climate change is
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happening and is mainly caused by human beings, a consensus shared by most U.S. scientists. In

fact there are many that agree with the President and claim global warming and climate change,

at least defined as human-caused, aren’t real. In his withdrawal speech, Trump stated that “the

Paris Accord is very unfair at the highest level to the U.S.” in reference to the principle of

common but differentiated responsibility in global climate cooperation, or the idea that all are

responsible, but some more than others and they should therefore contribute more. It would seem

that he disagreed with the U.S.’s responsibility and role in climate change. It’s hard to be a world

leader when you don’t work with the world.

As newer and cleaner energy technologies are developed, Americans embrace these

products. Various types of alternative energies exist; although in theory many aren’t really that

“new”, a lot of improvements have been made as technology advances. Nuclear energy is one

viable alternative energy source. While it still creates a harmful byproduct and isn’t renewable,

our safety around nuclear waste and energy is much better than fossil fuels and less Uranium is

required for the same energy output as coal and only needs to be mined every 18-24 months.

Right now, France has 58 nuclear reactors producing around 72% of their national electricity,

and much of the energy produced is exported. Only about 8% of their electricity is produced by

fossil fuels, the rest of the approximate 20% is in renewable energies such as hydro, wind, solar,

or geothermal energy. Unlike France, much of the United States’ energy production, well over

half, is from coal and natural gas, but some places still use alternative energies. Places such as

California, where about half of their electricity production comes from geothermal, solar, wind,

hydroelectric and nuclear energies. The first windmill used to generate electricity was built in
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Cleveland, Ohio. In the 1970’s solar energy was made more effective for use on earth instead of

just in space, but ironically mostly gas and oil companies bought solar panels for electricity at

their sites that were far from power lines, such as oil rigs.

An emerging technology that many Americans embrace is the electric car industry.

American based auto company Tesla produces only electric cars and has an enormous

“Gigafactory” in Nevada powered by solar and wind energy that produces Tesla’s energy needs

and the batteries for their vehicles. Tesla built this factory out of necessity, as they plan to

produce about half a million electric cars every year, which means they alone would require the

entire world’s current supply of lithium-ion batteries. The factory will have nearly 5 million feet

of operational space, and also produces the powerpack and powerwall products to power homes

and businesses. Although the factory is only about 30% complete, production within the

completed parts is underway and already it is the highest volume battery plant in the world. Tesla

doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon either. In Q3 of 2012 Tesla produced and

sold about 312 cars; 6 years later in Q3 of 2018 Tesla produced and sold over 80,000 cars. Some

companies have a problem of over estimating demand for their product, but in the case of Tesla

it’s almost as if they underestimate their demand, as their sales increase more and more orders

are made, and practically waiting in line for Tesla to finish production. They attained a sales

increase of nearly 26,000% in just 6 years, an unheard of achievement especially in the auto

industry, and Tesla has no plans of stopping. They are currently working on the new Model Y

and are looking for a location to build a European Gigafactory. However Tesla doesn’t solve

harm from cars, as the lithium ion batteries that many electric cars use aren’t very good for the
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environment once disposed, they do still cut on gas emissions from cars and are charged by

renewable energy; also, combustion powered cars still require a battery to operate, so it is at the

very least a step in the right direction.

Americans embrace new energies through changes in economics. As alternative energies

become more accessible, a new concept of a “green economy”, or eco-friendly, sustainable and

clean energy powered industries, has taken hold. Investments in alternative energies reached a

record of $257 billion in 2011, 600% more than in 2004 and 93% higher than in 2007; fueling

unprecedented growth in the sector globally as governments support the use of clean energy. The

International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that renewable energy will attract a substantial $5.9

trillion in investment between 2011 and 2035, significantly furthering the potential to convert to

a cleaner “greener” economy in the coming decades.

Many companies seek to have less of an environmental impact when it comes to energy

consumption and waste disposal, not only for positive public relations, but they’re also

incentivized by the government and receive perks in the form of tax incentives and/or subsidies

for complying with certain standards. In general, these subsidies and incentives are categorized

into a few broad categories: tax incentives (credits, deductions and exemptions), loan programs,

feed-in tariffs and rebates and grants. The U.S. utilizes most of those except for the feed-in tariff,

which are payments to the owners of qualifying energy projects for each unit of energy produced

from those projects, and is more popular in Europe. Many in the energy sector enjoyed such

incentives and subsidies from The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
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Signed into law by President Barack Obama, it was designed to help aid in recovery from the

recession in 2008. Under ARRA, the U.S. Department of Energy invested more than $31 billion

since 2009. Much of this funding supported renewable energy projects, but by the fiscal year of

2016, most provisions of ARRA energy programs had expired. Direct federal expenditures for

renewable energy decreased 90%, from nearly $9 billion in the fiscal year of 2013 to about $1

billion in the fiscal year of 2016. As they are often intertwined, the same political and legislative

ideologies are resistant to environmental economics. A climate skeptic, President Trump puts

overwhelming weight on mitigation's economic costs in the Paris Agreement and belittles its

ecological and economic benefits. The President believes that the Paris Agreement undermines

the U.S. competitive edge and impairs both employment and traditional energy industries. While

it’s goal is to essentially impair “traditional” energy industries (coal and natural gas), many new

jobs are created in the research, development and deployment of cleaner energy sources.

Americans embrace new energies by taking public action. In recent decades

environmentalism, or at least being environmentally conscious and aware, is more and more

becoming a part of people’s lives. Many phrases like “renewable resources” and “alternative

energies” to refer to most energies that aren't fossil fuels, “climate change”, and “global

warming” became popularized in the 1970’s and 80’s, and are now commonplace in

contemporary daily life. More and more people have adopted lifestyle changes, such as going

vegan to help reduce methane emissions from factory farming, in order to “do their part” in their

day to day life. Another facet of life that in general is a daily factor for most people is their car.

Electric cars are becoming much more common on today’s roads as the technology advances and
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becomes more affordable. At the New York International Auto Show in March of 2018 “Drive

Electric” launched. Automotive companies such as BMW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford,

General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi,

Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo decided to team up and support a new

advertising venture with the aim of getting Americans to buy more electric cars. In 2010 the

electric car market was non-existent, but today there are more than 2 million electric cars on the

roads worldwide.

Waste disposal also affects many people's daily lives. Recycling has become much more

important to many people, and places like college campuses have different types of recycling

easily available for all to use. Although recycling has never been as popular in the U.S. as it has

in many European nations, with recycling rates in the U.S. not exceeding 15% until 1990, the

2015 U.S. recycling rate was 34.7%. The EU average recycling rate is 39%, with Austria,

Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands being the only countries with rates above

50%; the EU’s current recycling goal is to have european countries recycling at least 50% of all

municipal waste by 2020. As that deadline draws nearer, newer generations in the U.S. will, in

general, tend to support more environmentalist views as well. According to PEW research center,

47% of millennials that identify as republican believe the government isn’t doing enough to stop

climate change, compared to 27% of republicans in the boomer or older generations. This is a

very significant disparity, and one that will change the face of the republican party in the years to

come as millennials start to take seats in local and state governments as well as Congress with

more environmentally concerned viewpoints on certain policies.

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In conclusion, with changes in governments, technology, and public perception

Americans are embracing new ways of thinking about energy sources in their personal lives.

While energy and the environment are two different things, they often impact each other in many

ways, and these impacts in turn affect the people that use them. There’s a scary reality in climate

change, one that makes everyone as equally mortal as the next. It doesn’t matter how much

money you have, how you look, or what you believe; when the Earth turns on humanity it is

indiscriminate. But the very foundation of hope is that nothing is set in stone, it’s that there is

still time, that as long as someone cares enough for everyone then things can change. The only

difference between 12 billion and 9 billion, between sustainability and mutually assured

extinction, is one shift.

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