Dear Future President,

        For as long as anyone can remember, humans have needed Earth's resources in order to create energy to sustain themselves in their daily lives. The use of these nonrenewable energy sources are one of the most principal reasons humans are harmful to our environment. Thankfully, the Earth has also provided us with "alternative energy," namely wind power, hydroelectricity, solar energy, biomass, and geothermal energy to use instead to improve our world.

For as long as anyone can remember, humans have needed Earth's resources in order to create energy to sustain themselves in their daily lives. The uses of these nonrenewable energy sources are one of the most principal reasons humans are harmful to our environment. Thankfully, the Earth has also provided us with "alternative energy," namely wind power, hydroelectricity, solar energy, biomass, and geothermal energy to use instead to improve our world.

While natural sources of the Earth are numerous, they are also nonrenewable, which means that these types of energy have a finite amount, and when they run out, they are gone forever. Types of this kind of energy include fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Petroleum and uranium are also included in this specific category. These natural sources of energy cause numerous problems for the world. According to David Suzuki, an environmentalist, “If we want to address global warming, along with the other environmental problems associated with our continued rush to burn our precious fossil fuels as quickly as possible, we must learn to use our resources more wisely, kick our addiction, and quickly start turning to sources of energy that have fewer negative impacts.” When Suzuki mentions “negative impacts,” he is talking about energy not being renewable, causing massive pollution, and majorly contributing to the greenhouse effect. The pollution is so bad that an average of 30,000 Americans die from electric utility pollution, and 60,000 people die from coal-burning electricity plant emissions each year. In the long run, these nonrenewable resources will end up being a greater detriment to the world as a whole than a benefit.

Fossil fuels, while still harmful to our environment, are also still useful to our society. They have numerous sources and easy to find. Unlike renewable energy, fossil fuels can be transported. However, that creates the expensive task to actually transporting the fuels. Also, while they generate thousands of jobs just to collect the energy and manufacture it, the people manufacturing those energy sources in the factories can become seriously ill due to pollution. Just by collecting the fossil fuels, the environment is being degraded.

However, the Earth also was thoughtful enough to provide us with alternative energy sources. Wind power, hydroelectricity, solar energy, biomass, and geothermal energy, namely are the most major categories of this particular energy source. These various types of energy are quite beneficial in helping reduce pollution, global warming, and prices. Alternative energy creates little to no wasteful emissions, which reduces the greenhouse effect, pollution, and in turn keeps people healthier. For reference, the greenhouse effect is the process of gases such as carbon dioxide trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere, similar to how a greenhouse works. The energy “plants” can be distributed over large areas, and can keep power running, even if the weather was bad in one or two areas. In the United States, wind would be the most effective source of renewable energy, and is the most cost-effective. In fact, renewable energy costs significantly less than that of fossil fuels.

Future President, I implore you to critically think about the future of our country’s environment and state of being. Do you want to run a country whose people are sick because they try to keep the country running? Or do you want to ensure the people’s healthy, happy faces as they no longer are bound by the illnesses that accompany pollution made possible by fossil fuels?