In looking for safe and sustainable energy we have to look to an alternative to fossil fuels. There are geothermal, wind, solar and hydro. These are alternatives to what we as a mankind have been using largely. What we’ve not know yet is about the pros and cons of these alternative fuels. To achieve safe and sustainable energy right now it’s hard, that’s right, we haven’t yet found it.
Energy consumption on developing countries are different from those in developed countries. Development needs a lot of energy. To create energy, primarily we need fuels, that’s why in developing countries like China and India, oil, gas, and coal is in high demand. Then there’s another country like Indonesia. We could be grouped in the Global South energy user. However, we only have a national deposit that will last only for a couple of years. If we couldn’t find a site with significant amount of oil, the we have to import it from another country.
The problem is with this large exploitation of fossil fuel, our planet couldn’t handle the burden of it. Example like this, people need electricity. Electricity generated form power plants. Power plants fueled with coals. Coals extracted with mining. The coal powered plant will produce CO2 in huge amount than any other fuel. This create green house effect that in the long term causing climate change.
To handle this problem, we need different perspective in development. That’s why there’s a concept called sustainable development. There are three main factors, that are social, economy, and environmental. Every development in the world should pay attention to these three in order to maintain the planet earth.
As for the nuclear power, we still face the safety issue. We don’t want the Chernobyl incident happened again. There are a lot of question marks going to be directed to the nuclear power. How it affect its surroundings ? Is it economically feasible for developing countries to establish it ? In general, there will a be a “trial and error” issue for nuclear power in developing countries. Example in Indonesia is the Muria nuclear powerplant plan that have so many pros and cons.
What we have to do is simple. We have to ensure the rapid development of renewable energy. In this case, think globally but act locally, start from reducing, reusing, and recycling paper use in our office. Imagine how much trees have been cutted down to produce paper.
Developing countries will need assistance from developed countries to change their energy use patterns. The carbon credit is a nice concept for us. Trading what we’ve emitted is how a sustainable development coud be done. From waste, produced into capital, that in a long term creating a sustainable development.
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