Op-Ed: Let’s find alternative sources of energy
In my last position as a public school teacher I was teaching only science. That was over 25 years ago when I was teaching at the William M. Meredith School in Queen Village. I was there for five years, and in that time, I taught the entire science curriculum from kindergarten to eighth grade.
Of course we did lessons on the water cycle and how temperature affects changes from evaporation to freezing to melting. It is all about how hot the air is. As the year goes by, that interaction is supposed to result in four seasons: summer, fall, winter, spring. Of course all that is due to the earth’s orbit around the sun.
As everyone knows, this year’s spring in Philadelphia was more like the middle of summer. We have had one heat wave after another. Now we are already past the summer solstice, which began on Sunday, June 21. So we are officially in summer. So far we continue to experience some very hot days and an increase in stormy weather resulting in power outages and flash flooding.
Sadly, there have even been cases of death by overheating due to the absence of air conditioning.
Scientists everywhere are agreeing that all this overheating is the result of climate change. Also they agree that this is all the result of burning fossil fuels, which include coal, crude oil and natural gas. The word “fossil” means they were formed over many centuries from the carbon-rich remains of ancient plants, animals and microorganisms.
The main problem is that burning carbon for energy produces a gas called carbon dioxide, which can pollute our air and our water. All this atmospheric pollution has caused our climate to change. These heat waves we are experiencing in Philadelphia are signs of just such a condition. Very scary.
The most sensible answer is to find alternative energy producers. It is very possible. The Dutch, for example, have used windmills for a long time. There are also sources like giant waterfalls to generate electricity.
It would also help to plant more trees and other greenery to absorb the CO2 and turn it into oxygen. Yes, there are ways to control the amount of pollution and make earth’s environment safer. Those ways include recycling, reusing and reducing waste. Above all we must keep educating our students on the vital importance of protecting our environment so that they can adapt to a better way of producing and using energy.
And do I really have to remind readers that we must be extremely careful whom we choose to make and enforce our laws? The future of our planet depends on having wise, knowledgeable and unselfish leaders.
Gloria C. Endres
