Throughout the world, the demand for energy and water resources continually grows. With these demands, many residential and business consumers seek ways to reduce wasted energy and water consumption while becoming more efficient and improving their carbon footprint.
Today, many people understand why switching their conventional light-bulbs to more energy efficient ones make sense, why buying energy efficient appliances is a good choice or why purchasing products made from recycled materials (like the Century Lobby Dust Pan with Wheels) is a smart decision. But what if making these smart decisions are interconnected in some way? What if the little things we do today help in a major way tomorrow to improve our carbon footprint?
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists – Science for a healthy planet and safer world energy and water are very connected. “Producing energy uses water and providing freshwater uses energy. Both of these processes face growing limits and problems.” Because these resources are so intertwined, problems created in one will create problems for the other. “Using renewable energy technologies such as wind and photovoltaics (definition: the name of a method of converting solar energy into direct current electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect) means doing away entirely with water use for electricity production. Retrofitting old coal or nuclear plants with more water-efficient cooling technologies could increase water consumption, potentially even doubling it, but could reduce water withdrawals by two orders of magnitude.
Given the many connections between energy and water, the choices we make in the near future about how we produce and use energy will determine not only the extent to which we mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, but also how resilient our energy system is to the variability of our water resources and the many competing demands for it.”
If we choose, we can lessen the risks we face tomorrow and thereby creating a more secure energy future with beneficial environmental results for the generations to come.