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Although alternative energies are touted as the answer to decreasing fossil fuel reserves and increasing greenhouse gases, they are not without problems. Foremost for consideration should be that as modern technologies develop, they create growth and stimulate economies, which in turn have larger impacts on the environment. In actuality, what is really needed are higher prices and no economic or population growth. By requiring the use of fossil fuels with several carbon reducing technologies and economic policies, the result would be conservation and a slow down of growth (MIT report). We simply cannot continue to grow or to tolerate technologies that encourage continued growth. As columnist Tom Friedman recently mused, "what if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more” (New York Times, March 7, 2009). In addition, each type of alternative energy poses its own environmental concerns, detailed below.  HYDROELECTRICTY “Although hydroelectric plants have great inherent advantages, they have major environmental disadvantages as regards fish”. [] Salmon numbers have declined rapidly because the young are forced to make a long and arduous trip downstream through several power plants, risking death from turbine blades at each stage. The reservoirs created by such projects frequently inundate large areas of forest, farmland, wildlife habitats, scenic areas, and even towns. In addition, the dams can cause radical changes in river ecosystems both upstream and downstream. There is also a limit on the available areas where dams can be placed.

WIND The potential adverse effects of wind power on human health and safety, ecology, visibility, and aesthetics need to be studied. To increase wind generation of electricity, changes in the production of resources are required. The most important resources are steel, fiberglass, resins, blade core materials, permanent magnets, and copper. Additional fiberglass furnaces would be needed to build more wind turbines. Nearly all of the increases in resources require an increased use of fossil fuels. Changes to production facilities would need to include changes to emissions-control procedures. Availability of end-grain balsa wood as an alternative core material might be an issue based on the growth rate of balsa wood vs. high demand. (Currently polymer foam is used.)[] The real output of energy is less than 100%, usually in a range of 20-40%. [] Wind development requires large areas of land. The 20% Wind Scenario estimates that in the United States, about 50,000 square kilometers would be required for land-based projects and more than 11,000 km2 would be needed for offshore projects, an amount of dedicated land that is slightly smaller than Rhode Island. Wind energy is not compatible with land uses such as housing developments or airports. Aesthetic impacts are important, especially when a property is valuable for a difficult to determine price, such as to experience life in a remote and relatively untouched area. Wind energy production can negatively affect wildlife habitat and individual species, and measures to mitigate prospective impacts may be required. Estimates of temporary construction impacts range from 0.2 to 1.0 hectare per turbine; estimates of permanent habitat spatial displacement range from 0.3 to 0.4 hectare per turbine (Strickland and Johnson 2006). Indirect impacts can include trees being removed around turbines, edges in a forest being detrimental to some species, and the presence of turbines causing some species or individuals to avoid previously viable habitats. Out of a total of perhaps 1 billion birds killed annually as a result of human structures, vehicles and activities, somewhere between 20,000 and 37,000 died in 2003 as a result of collisions with wind-energy facilities. [] For example, in the Altamont Pass development more than 30 threatened golden eagles and 75 other raptors such as red-tailed hawks died or were injured during a three-year period. Also, bat mortality has been higher than expected at a number of sites in the United States and Canada (Cryan 2006). []

SOLAR The primary environmental, health, and safety issues involve how they are manufactured, installed, and ultimately disposed of. Energy is required to manufacture and install solar components, and any fossil fuels used for this purpose will generate emissions. Materials used in some solar systems can create health and safety hazards for workers and anyone else coming into contact with them. In particular, the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells often requires hazardous materials such as arsenic and cadmium. Even relatively inert silicon, a major material used in solar cells, can be hazardous to workers if it is breathed in as dust. There is an additional danger that hazardous fumes released from photovoltaic modules attached to burning homes or buildings could injure fire fighters. A ccidental emissions of CF4, a greenhouse gas could occur. The silver and copper content stay only just below the threshold for "dangerous waste". Also, the silver requirements could lead to depletion of silver resources. [] The large amount of land required (one square kilometer for every 20-60 megawatts) poses an additional problem, especially for wildlife.

GEOTHERMAL The various geothermal resources raise another set of environmental issues. Air and water pollution, safe disposal of hazardous waste, siting, and land subsidence are all concerns. It will always be difficult to site plants in scenic or otherwise environmentally sensitive areas. Many hydrothermal reservoirs are located in or near wilderness areas of great natural beauty such as Yellowstone National Park and the Cascade Mountains. Open-loop systems generate large amounts of solid wastes as well as noxious fumes. Metals, minerals, and gases leach out into the geothermal steam or hot water as it passes through the rocks. The large amounts of chemicals released when geothermal fields are tapped for commercial production can be hazardous or objectionable (rotten eggs) to people living and working nearby. At hydrothermal plants carbon dioxide is expected to make up about 10 percent of the gases trapped in geopressured brines. Scrubbers reduce air emissions but produce a watery sludge high in sulfur and vanadium, a heavy metal that can be toxic in high concentrations. Additional sludge is generated when hydrothermal steam is condensed, causing the dissolved solids to precipitate out. This sludge is generally high in silica compounds, chlorides, arsenic, mercury, nickel, and other toxic heavy metals. At geopressured power plants, the sheer volume of wastes they produce each day must be injected well below fresh water aquifers to make certain that it doesn't get into the drinking water. Where natural land subsidence is already a problem, even slight settling could have major implications for flood control and hurricane damage. BIOFUELS There is no single biomass technology, but rather a wide variety of production and conversion methods, each with different environmental impacts. Emissions from conventional biomass-fueled power plants are generally similar to emissions from coal-fired power plants. Further, emissions of nitrogen oxides, a source of acid precipitation, would not change significantly compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. Some fossil-fuel inputs may be required for planting, harvesting, transporting, and processing biomass. In order for biofuels to be economical, they need to be subsidized. For instance, switchgrass costs $77 per ton to convert to ethanol. The required subsidies range from $44.33/ton ($265.98/acre) to $106.75/ton ($475.98/acre). There are also increases in nitrogen and phophorous in the water due to fertilizer. []It could also affect biodiversity through the destruction of species habitats, especially if it provides an excuse to exploit forests in an unsustainable fashion. If agricultural or forestry wastes and residues were used for fuel, then soils could be depleted of organic content and nutrients unless care was taken to leave enough wastes behind.

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I proposed what we really need is higher prices and no economic or population growth. All modern technologies develop to create growth and stimulate economies, which in turn has larger impacts on the environment. I propose by requiring the use of fossil fuels with several carbon reducing technologies and economic policies this would cause conservation and a slow down of growth (MIT report).