ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES

Alternative Energy Sources

Alternative Energy Sources

Introduction

Just like days come and pass, seasons start and end, years begin and end similarly, life on this earth in the reflection of human beings come in this world and go. But, one thing that remains attached with this change is the requirement and needs. God has bestowed a number of blessings on us to fulfill our needs that we want to live on this earth. God has given us a number of blessings such as water, minerals, salts, oil, gas etc. One thing that is stigmatized with these resources is that of scarcity. In a nutshell, scarcity can be defined as limited availability of a resource whereas the demand of that resource is unlimited. This means that these major resources have unlimited want and limited availability. In order to deal with this issue and issue of similar nature scientists, scholars and practitioners have devised the phenomenon of alternative energy sources. Another very crucial and important reason to reach to the decision of formulating and preferring alternate energy resources is that of global warming. Every day on this earth tons of carbon dioxide is produced. The emission of this carbon dioxide is the main cause of the pollution and global warming. The aim and objective of this paper is also to talk about same concept. The purpose of this paper is to discuss that option of alternative energy sources would end up the dependence of human beings on oil to fulfill their needs. This paper presents the arguments in favor as well as against on how the availability of the option of alternative energy sources can or cannot reduce the dependence of human beings on oil to fulfill their needs. This is a known fact that oil can be used for scores of purposes. Oil is widely used in transportation. It is also used for industries of different nature; it has commercial as well as residential usages. This paper presents arguments in favor and against of availability of alternative energy option in the field of the transportation. The reason to choose the field of transportation is that it is this fields in which United States use its oil most than any other filed.

Background of the Problem

In 2001, the gas price was around $2, and it has increased up to $4 in the year 2008. Following chart briefly describes the alteration in the gas prices (IEA, 2008).

Year

Price

1958

$2.32

1968

$2.18

1978

$2.22

1988

$1.81

1998

$1.39

2008

$3.34

2011

$3.51

Currently the price of the gas is fluctuating, and this is the critical issue for many oil companies as well as for consumers. Out of frustration consumers ask the reason behind this fluctuation in the price of gas. The phenomenon of demand and supply causes great impact on the price of gas. Gas prices increases when there is more demand than the supply and less investment in the field of development. According to Mouawad, “The demand of oil imports will be quadruple by China and India by the year 2030”. This is a huge increase in the demand ...