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ENVIRONMENT & QUALITY OF LIFE
source: www.actgreen.com/
SavingEnergy.asp
www.feasta.org/documents/wells/
contents.html?two/hohmeyer.html
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Choosing renewables is also fundamental for the environment and our quality of life. This is true everywhere, but especially in advanced economies. For instance:- if the USA increased their use of renewable energy to 20% of their electricity generation by 2020, it would be the same as taking 77 million cars off the road, or planting nearly 130 million acres of trees, an area the size of Colorado and Wyoming combined;
- North Americans are expected to use 27% more energy in 2020 compared to 1998, with electricity use being the main driver. Without a significant commitment to energy efficiency and renewable energy, high electricity consumption could result in 1,000 new power plants in 2020 , the vast majority (97%) powered by fossil fuels;
- for the European economy, according to a German study, it is possible to phase out the use of both nuclear energy and fossil fuels by 2050 while maintaining living standards. The LTI project* assumed that, on average, each person in the EU15 would reduce their total primary energy consumption to 1700 W/cap in 2050 (in 1990 it was 4500 W/cap). Power as nuclear energy would be phased out by 2010, coal was not to be used after 2045 , and oil and gas would only be used in rather small quantities. While renewable energy sources supplied only about 3% of all primary energy in 2000, their share increases to 95% of all energy used in 2050;
- as a consequence, the CO2 emissions due to the use of energy in EU15 could be reduced by 90% in 2050 as compared to the starting point in 1990. Thus, more than the necessary reductions in greenhouse gases (80%) is possible within the given time frame.
* In 1993, a European research consortium, the LTI-Research Group, reported on what might be involved if the fifteen countries that were then members of the EU, the EU15, attempted to develop a sustainable, renewables-based energy system by 2050.
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