Ask A Scientist General Science Archive

 
name         Chandice D.
status       student
age          10

Question -   Why should we conserve energy? 
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Chandice-
         People use a lot of energy, and we need to be careful about how much
non-renewable energy we use.  We rely heavily in fossil fuels, such as coal
and oil, and there is a limited amount of these in nature.  It takes a lot of
dead organisms and millions of years to make oil and coal.  We are using
these resources very quickly, and need to save some.
         Let us say that all the cookies that your family would ever have were
placed in one cookie jar (assuming they would never go stale).  Right now,
those cookies are disappearing very quickly because people really like the
cookies and they are not worried about the time that they are all gone.  As
the cookies disappear, your family will realize that they should save some.
That is what is happening with fossil fuels.  We are realizing that we are
using far too much, and some people are trying to save some.
         Another reason to conserve these forms of energy is that they are
very polluting to the environment.  If we use less of these forms of energy
the environment would not have as much pollution.
         Some people think that we should also use other forms of energy, such
as solar energy, hydroelectric (water) and wind energy.
Hope this helps,

Pat Rowe
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Dear Candice,

I am assuming when you speak of conserving "energy" you mean we should try
to save on fuel, gas, electricity etc; which are our energy sources.  If you
mean something else, write me back and I will attempt another answer.

Anyway, all the energy we use has to come from somewhere.  When we heat our
houses and make hot water to use, we might use natural gas, propane or
heating oil.  The electricity that runs our homes is usually generated at a
power plant that uses coal.  Some power plants use nuclear energy, some out
west are trying windmills.

The trouble is, most of these resources, (coal, natural gas, oil), are
non-renewable.  What this means is that once they are gone, they are gone.
For example, coal was formed underground millions of years ago.  Once we dig
out all the coal, we will have to find something else to use.  This may sound
easy but it is not.  If a power plant is set up to burn coal to transfer 
energy,
to change it over to burn something else would cost much money.  This
would be passed onto us in the form of higher electric bills.

There is a lot more to it than what I have written.  The gas for our cars 
comes
from oil.  We do not have much oil left in the world.  The oil that is
left belongs to other countries.  Many more countries are using cars now
than ever before.  We cannot expect to hog it all; we are going to have to
learn to share.  How do we share? By using less so other people can have
some.  Scientists and engineers are now trying to come up with cars that can
get a lot of miles per gallon, so we do not use as much gas.  This helps, but
we need to be aware of making little steps to save everything we have; not
being wasteful.

How do we do this?  Walk or ride a bike somewhere instead of riding in a
car.  Shut off lights, TV's, radios, when you are not using them.  If
everyone could just do a little bit, it would all add up to a big difference
and a great savings.  Another thing that is important: Reduce, recycle, and
reuse.  You have probably heard this at school.  Recycling is so important.
The plastic containers we use are made from petroleum, the same oil that we
need for heating, and running our cars.  These bottles should be recycled so
we can save a little on the oil we use.  The unfortunate thing is, most of
the bottles cannot be recycled as bottles again; but they are actually made
into other things.  So we keep on making more bottles.  With glass bottles,
we can wash them out and use them again, or they can be melted down and made
into new bottles.

Reusing is as simple as it sounds.  I reuse the plastic containers I get at
the grocery store, (like stuff macaroni salad comes in).  I wash them out
and use them to store leftovers.  I have no Tupperware or reason to buy it.
I reuse grocery bags for garbage bags.  They are also great for cleaning up
after the dog.  I am sure you get the idea.  the more we reuse, the less we
have to buy.  The less we buy, the more resources are saved and we have saved
a little money in the process.

There are many alternative energy sources; solar power, wind power,
geothermal power to name a few.  If you are interested in that, go to the
library.  It would be a fun and informative trip.

I hope this answers your question.  Go to the library for good information on
this.
Thanks for your question.

Martha Croll
====================================================
Chandice,

I would like to make sure that we both understand that energy is naturally
conserved. You might have heard of the expression that energy is neither
created nor destroyed - only transferred. That is true. Energy is transferred
from one place to another. This means that the total energy that is out
there, will always be out there. Let us say you were to burn gasoline to
drive a car, the energy that was in the gasoline is converted to kinetic
energy (the car is now moving), heat, other less energetic chemicals, and so
on. But if we added all the different energy locations (the car moving, 
the heat,
etc.) it would add up to the energy that was in the gasoline. So energy is
never lost, just moved to a different place.

The problem is that as we transfer energy to different places, we make the
resulting energy less easy to collect. For example, when we burn gasoline to
drive our car, the heat that is produced is harder to collect and use again.
It is also hard to get energy out of the chemicals that are produced when we
burn gasoline.

So, in answer to your question, it is not so much that we need to conserve
energy. Energy is naturally conserved. BUT, what we need to conserve are the
high or rich energy materials like gasoline because if we run out of those
things, then we will have to try and get energy out of materials that do not
easily give up energy that we can use.

Greg (Roberto Gregorius)
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