Book Review: "Bridging the Energy Gap"

        Bridging the Energy Gap by Andrew Langley is a great educational book that discusses briefly about the history of energy, and also informs the reader about the lack of resources that provides us energy, and the pollution they cause. Fossil fuel oil, gas, and coal are the three main sources that provides electricity that powers our world. Today, we are currently in a situation where we are consuming more electricity than we can produce. This inverse rate is known as the energy gap. 

       Langley doesn't only present us a problem, but he also includes many various ways we can solve these problems. The solutions mainly fall under the umbrella of transitioning to renewable energy. Nuclear, wind, water, sunlight, and bio-fuel energy are all great solutions that Langley discuses further into detail in the book.

       What gives this book its uniqueness and value as compared to other books about the same topic, is that it's interactive and refers to websites to further your understanding in renewable energy. For example, when Langley talks about hydroelectricity, he uses the "Three Gorges Dam" located in China as an example. He then submits a link that is an online article about the dam.

       Once again, this is a great educational book about renewable energy and as to why we should switch to it. There is no biased opinions, nor do you even get the sense that the author is biased. It is just pure hard facts that is also interactive and uses many references. I give this book a two thumbs up and highly recommend it. If you are interested in reading the book, then you can order it off amazon.

What Government can Do

         The government has already recognized the importance of becoming renewable. But we as the people and as a whole can influence the government to dedicate more funds into renewable energy. Renewable energy is quite costly to initiate. The material and cost per material is very expensive. For example, when building a solar panel home system, the typical 5kW residential solar installation cost is $14,000. Commercial-scale turbines installed today are 2 MW in size and cost roughly $3-$4 million installed. We can reduce this cost by having government dedicate a certain tax percentage towards renewable energy, and thus it will make these costs decrease. This may seem like a major sacrifice and cut into the United States budget, but it will pay off in the long run like a season ski pass.
        The cut in taxes towards renewable energy could not only reduce the cost for installing renewable energy, but it can also effectively create ads and stress the importance of making the change for renewable energy.
       Goldman Sachs' Stuart Bernstein, global head of clean technology and renewables group, expresses why we need to switch to renewable energy in this following video:

This video isn't the only way of showing the government our need to transition to renewable energy, but you can purchase our T-Shirt, Sticker, and become part of our Facebook group in showing that the people of the United States are in this together.

Take Action

Order our bumper sticker to show your support for transitioning to renewable energy and sustaining this world.

http://www.facebook.com/TransitionToRenewableEnergy?fref=ts

Join our Facebook page to become part of the community that has already taken the initiative in transitioning to renewable energy.

Show off your swag and checkout The Custom White T-Shirt I designed on CafePress.com. Not only are you swagilicious with this shirt, but you also show your support for transitioning to renewable energy.

 Bike week

       Start the month of May by being more green. While the season of Spring is at its peak and Summer is coming, there is no excuse to not go out and enjoy the beautiful weather of biking. We are dedicating the first week of May to exclusively biking rather than driving. An average person spends at least $55 dollars per week on gas due to the sky rocketing gas prices. If you can dedicate one week out of the 52 weeks in a year, you can save yourself $55 dollars. What can you do with those $55 dollars?

• Bring a date on a nice dinner.
• Watch an IMAX 3D movie with friends or a date
• Purchase Itunes card
• Save up for Starbucks for a week
• Or you can even get a week's worth of gas

Global Warming and Pollution

         Fossil fuels contain large amounts of carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur. The burning of these fuels produces large amounts of carbon dioxide as a byproduct. When automobiles and coal-burning power plants, burn fuels, high concentrations of carbon are released. The carbon reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere, producing carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide contributes to global warming by absorbing heat energy from the Earth, trapping it and preventing its release into space. However, carbon dioxide does not absorb the light energy from the sun. In short, carbon dioxide lets in the light energy emitted by the sun but traps the Earth's heat energy. Rising levels of carbon dioxide mean that more of the Earth's heat energy is trapped, and thus there’s a rise in the global temperature. The burning process doesn't only emit excessive carbon into the air, it also pollutes the air with poisonous or dangerous substances to the human health. These clouds of pollution can easily spread affecting others from different regions.

Our Resources are Depleting

       81.4% of the world’s energy comes from natural gas, coal, and oil. Gas will last 50-60 more years, fossil fuel oil will last 40-50 more years, and coal will last 180-240 more years  The production and consumption of barrels of oil has gone into an inverse function as we are consuming more barrels of oil than we can produce. In 2010 consumption exceeded production by over five million barrels per day for the first year ever This does not only put us in destitute for oil, but it also increases the demand for oil. When demand goes up, price goes up; as a result on June 8, 2010 prices shot up to a one-month high of $118.59 per barrel Today it sits at $111.32 per barrel.
      The U.S. is now suffering an oil deficiency. At this time, we are now in the downward slope of a bell curve graph (Vinti). Oil is one of the U.S.’s main import that powers almost everything that is now beginning to lack. In 40 years the U.S. will run out of oil

This bell curve graphically demonstrates the decline of production in oil.

This graphically presents the price of oil going up as it has slowly become a scarcity.

The Energy Gap

      One of the largest controversies today is that we are running out of energy to power the planet. This is because many of these resources, that provide energy, are depleting. The majority of our energy comes from natural gas, coal, and oil; all which are from fossil fuels. Fossil fuel is non-renewable due to the rate at which their depletion is greater than their regeneration. For example, fossil fuels are from ancient and deceased plants and animals that have been eroded down by many years of weather. Unfortunately even with the technology that the human populace control and own, we cannot create new supplies of gas, coal, or oil at the rate in which we consume it. This inverse rate is known as the energy gap: when the situation in which we cannot produce enough power for our needs. Not only is there a gap of energy within these resources, non-renewable resources also emit an excess of carbon into the atmosphere, which has resulted to a rise in the Earth’s temperature. The problem states itself clearly; the human population is running out of energy and nonrenewable resources are polluting the world. The solution is, we must switch to renewable energy.