|
|
FOSSIL FUELS: CONSEQUENCES AND CHOICES ‘Fossil fuels will be all but consumed by the end of this century, leaving in its wake major climate, economic and social change as well as irrevocable damage to the environment’, (Backstrom, 2002). Hydrogen and fuel cells have the potential to solve several major challenges facing Australia today: dependence on petroleum imports, poor air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions. I am going to argue that Australia is currently failing to take the necessary steps to ensure clean, healthy and sustainable energy for the future. I will be discussing the detrimental impacts of fossil fuels on the environment, economic factors influencing renewable energy investment, and hydrogen as a renewable energy source in the future. Australia is the second worst polluting nation per person in the world and its refusal, along with the US government’s refusal to ratify the Kyoto protocol has stalled the implementation of the treaty. The Kyoto pact, signed in Japan in 1997, requires industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 8% of the 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The US is credited with producing 36.1% of greenhouse emissions in 1990, yet the world's biggest polluter had decided to back out of the pact last year, arguing that its economic interests would be threatened. Australia followed suite with Prime Minster John Howard quoted as saying, "For us to ratify the protocol would cost us jobs and damage our industry," he told parliament. With an economy so reliant on polluting industries it is imperative that research is undertaken to exploit the wide variety of energy efficient technologies readily available, utilize a large potential of cost-effective measures and create greater competition through increased energy efficiency.
|
