My Environmental Science Assignment of the week was to find an interesting article that had some relation to environmental science. With my article I will be summarizing and talking about some of its main points. Briefly I will explain my reaction to the article, and identify the articles main claim. To wrap up the assignment I will touch on the source in which I found the article and discuss the websites creditability.
While looking for an interesting topic an article that really caught my attention was an article involving the potential of wind power becoming a major global power supplier . The article is actually one that I found on our class website while looking at the topics that pertained to energy, and not long after I started reading, I knew I had found the article to report back to you all.
While looking for an interesting topic an article that really caught my attention was an article involving the potential of wind power becoming a major global power supplier . The article is actually one that I found on our class website while looking at the topics that pertained to energy, and not long after I started reading, I knew I had found the article to report back to you all.
Right off the bat I liked it because it grabbed my attention, even the title can get someone who doesn't care about the environment looking. "New research demonstrates that wind power could generate all the world's electricity needs without large atmospheric effects" by Charles Q. Choi an ISNS contributor. It was published on September 10th, 2012 so it can be considered relatively recent only being written a year ago. The articles main topic in precisely as the title addresses, that there is enough energy through wind to meet the worlds demands. According to two independent teams of scientists this is possible, and it wont put any major effects on the climate. At the beginning of reading this article I learned something new because I didn't even know that too many wind turbines could even effect our climate, and secondly I never knew how many different places turbines could be placed and how much energy they can harness.
As a renewable green energy it is gaining much popularity, and especially in the United States which is pushing to have twenty percent of their power converted to wind power by 2030. One team of scientists ran by Katerine Marvel at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, developed a global climate model that analyzed how wind turbines would drag on the atmosphere to harvest energy from winds at the planet's surface and higher altitudes. Her simulations showed that at least 400 terawatts or 400 trillion watts of power could be generated from surface winds, and more than 1,800 terawatts could be extracted from winds throughout the atmosphere. While people globally currently use about 18 terawatts of power. They conclude that if enough wind energy was extracted to satisfy current global power demands, there would only be minimal climate effects, as long as wind turbines were spread out. Being fully powered by wind might affect surface temperatures by about 0.1 degree Celsius and affect average precipitation by about 1 percent.
A second team of scientists, Mark Jacobson from Stanford University, and Cristina Archer from the University of Delaware used a 3-D computer model that analyzed interactions between the atmosphere, land and oceans on a global scale. They tested different heights, like surface winds, and the jet stream but found that the amount of wind power available at the height of most modern wind turbines is about 80 terawatts on all continents except Antarctica. Their realistic conclusion, was that if we 4 million 5-megawatt turbines operating on the planet's surface they could supply as much as 7.5 terawatts of power without significant negative impacts on the climate. This means that more than half the world's power demands in 2030 can be met.
Researchers suggest half of the wind turbines should be placed in the ocean, while the others would require a little more than 0.5 percent of the Earth's land surface. They believe that he area used for wind power does not have to be solely for that purpose, but could possibly also serve as farmland, ranchland or wildlife preserves. It is important to spreading out ground-based turbines in windy locations worldwide and they believe that locations such as the American plains and the Sahara desert would increase efficiency by keeping them from stealing wind energy from each other, and would reduce their overall environmental impact. More study is needed, as both teams concluded but they didn't deny they fact that it wouldn't be a bad idea to push toward total wind power. Archer said, "the findings suggest that even heavy use of wind power is likely a smart, safe and clean way to generate energy."
I found this article to very interesting, and I learned a lot from it. My first reaction to the articles main idea was, "Why don't we use wind to power the world?" If studies are showing that is possible then why aren't we doing it? And as the article somewhat addresses, is that we don't indulge in wind power because of the cost of doing so. It all boils down to the issue of money, and although it would be a clean and renewable way to generate energy, no one is willing to put out the money. I found it awesome to think that there is potential for a renewable energy source, and all it comes down to is just starting the push towards wind power. For the most part you can say that my reaction to this article was surprised because I enjoyed the fact I was able to learn something new from it simply by reading the first paragraph.
The claim of wind power having the potential to supply the world with renewable energy was extremely backed and supported by both groups of scientists. The article gives sufficient evidence that supports the main topic by describing the findings of both groups of scientists.
The website in which I found my article was:
http://www.insidescience.org/content/studies-show-wind-powers-massive-potential/782
http://www.insidescience.org/content/studies-show-wind-powers-massive-potential/782
It is a creditable website, and the information found on the website can always be found reliable considering that Inside Science is a science news organization that provides editorially independent research news and information on science, engineering, mathematics, and related fields for general audiences through television, print and the web. It also produces articles on research news and related topics for the general public, which ready to run for syndication and attributed reporting by other news organizations including US News and World Report. Inside Science is supported by the American Institute of Physics a nonprofit publisher of scientific journals, and is a division of the News and Media Services department within the Institutes Physic Resource Center.
