Renewable Energy is Doable!

Farmington fifth grader Amanda Rodrigues as one of the winners of an annual essay contest sponsored by the Farmington Rotary Club in collaboration with West Woods Upper Elementary School. Read her essay, "Renewable Energy is Doable!" below. 

By Amanda Rodrigues

Imagine this… you are in a peaceful meadow.  The tall, green grass sways in the gentle wind.  The sky is dotted with birds and clouds.  This is the kind of future we deserve, our children deserve, and their children deserve.  Everyone deserves a beautiful environment.  Crystal clear oceans, sparkling white tundra, and burning orange deserts - don’t you want this?  We can create this image, by using renewable energy.  Renewable energy is good for the environment, and it helps preserve nonrenewable energy.

Have people ever told you that there is no alternative to nonrenewable energy?  They are wrong, because there is!  The answer is called renewable energy.  Renewable means that you can use it more than once.  As a matter of fact, renewable energy never runs out, and little pollution is involved in the process of changing it into a functional supply that can power our homes.  Another good thing about using renewable sources to create energy is that not only is it impossible to use up, but it is always there!  Of course, we humans must still be careful when converting to renewable energy because we could cause drastic changes to the environment and use up our resources faster than they can reform.  For example, using hydro energy could lower water levels, therefore killing fish.  Using renewable energy means using less machinery.  For example, to retrieve oil from the ground, we clear land to build drilling sites.  Once the drilling sites are installed, the collected oil can send harmful fumes into the air.   Wind is a source of renewable energy, and we don’t have to use machines to get it, do we?  Speaking of harmful fumes, I have something to say about how renewable energy can benefit our one and only planet Earth.

Do you ever wish that you could be of assistance to the world?  There are many ways you can, and using reusable fuels is an important possibility to consider.  Renewable energy does not produce hazardous chemicals like coal does.  This is because renewable energy is clean - it comes from nature.  Using solar panels or wind turbines does not require clearing vast amounts of land to construct mining sites (for coal) or drilling sites (for oil).  Also, clearing immense quantities of land to build these unfriendly eco settings causes domino effects that disturb ecosystems greatly.  We humans would be affected by this chain of events as well.  Fortunately, if everyone on Earth could accept the beneficial change of altering energy sources, pollution emitters would decrease in number.  But what if your solar panel gets damaged in a storm?  Or the engine in your wind turbine breaks down?  You might think it’s OK to use natural gas once in a while, right?  Read on!

If you have a wood burning furnace, there won’t always be someone to tend to the fire.  Sometimes, you have to use natural gas to heat your home, even if it does raise your heating bill.  It’s the same thing with clean energy - there is not always going to be someone at your fingertips to fix your solar panel or wind turbine after an awful storm.   It actually is OK to use fossil fuels once in a while.  However, you should choose a more dependable (rather than nonrenewable) source only when needed. 

You shouldn’t be using as many fossil fuels, period.  Imagine that your average heating bill is $200 in the month of January.  In February, your heat bill escalates to $400.  If you were using solar panels, your whole house could be heated with the gas bill reduced to $0!  Using renewable energy costs less money than fossil fuels when it comes to providing heat and hot water.  Now you know how reusable energy has an endless supply, that is good for the environment, and that it preserves fossil fuels.  Do all these details convince you that renewable energy is a better choice for you, your family, and your environment?

Picture this… a permanent stain of gray smears the sky.  The air is not fresh, but quite the opposite.  The atmosphere is thick with assorted smokes and acidic chemicals from factories.  This is our future if we don’t take action now.  One at a time, person by person, we can start building the blocks to an exquisite environment.  But it is up to us to take responsibility and be in charge of our choices.  A dream of lush meadows and sparkling oceans is possible if everyone converts to renewable energy.  But everyone begins with one person.  You can be the one that makes the first difference.  The question is, will you?