Track 49

Track 49.

This week in environmental studies, we’re going to look at the latest developments in the energy industry and how they might affect our lives in the future.

As we’ve already seen, there are basically two types of energy source, renewable and non-renewable.

As you no doubt remember, renewable sources are those which can be used again and again, while non-renewable sources can be used only once and then they’re finished.

Historically, coal has been the most-used form of non-renewable energy, but it has also been the most polluting.

It’s widely accepted that we need to use less of it to help protect the environment for the future.

The oldest renewable source is wind power, which has been used for centuries to power windmills and other devices, and which has now been developed further, giving us wind turbines which produce electricity.

Over the last 200 years or so, petroleum has become the most important non-renewable source, though natural gas is overtaking it as it’s far cleaner and less polluting.

Hydroelectric power has been in use for many years as a renewable resource, especially with dams on rivers and lakes, but these are expensive to create and maintain, and can affect the local environment in negative ways.

More recently, there have been great developments in two renewable sources: solar power, that is, power produced directly from the sun, and wave power, which comes from the movement of waves at sea, but, of course, these are only effective in areas with a lot of sun or in coastal areas.

While there are clear benefits to expanding solar and wave power, one other source has become particularly significant and important, and that is fracking, which is a way of getting natural gas out of the ground.

So, the main focus of today’s lecture is on fracking and why there’s been so much discussion and debate about it in the media.