Environmental security is an essential concept within nations. It may not get the most national attention, but it is tremendously important. Natural resources can cause all sorts of conflicts. Two main topics that I’d like to discuss in regards to ways the federal government/state governments are addressing environmental security threats are fossil fuels (natural gas) and climate change.
The United States has seen a significant rise in natural gas production over the past decade. This rise is so great that natural gas could very well cause a shift from coal to natural gas for electricity generation. According to a new Duke University study, “The cost of complying with tougher EPA air-quality standards could spur an increased shift away from coal and toward natural gas for electricity generation. The study goes on to describe that the stricter regulations on sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, and mercury may make nearly two thirds of the nation’s coal-fired power plants as expensive to run as powered by natural gas.
Natural gas is a much cleaner burning fossil fuel than coal. Natural gas typically only produces one emission – nitrogen oxide. I feel that the federal government is using this to address environmental security threats. Their initiatives are that natural gas is abundant and that it is a cleaner burning fuel than coal. I believe that the future for natural gas is strong. The one thing that can be tricky is the boom/bust cycles. These cycles are risks that should be taken for a cleaner energy source. This brings me to the next topic: climate change.
Is climate change really an environmental security threat? Yes, and it has received a considerable amount of attention through documents in many countries such as the United States, Germany and China. I’m not trying to sound redundant, but burning coal for the next 40 years is not an ideal strategy. Natural gas is cleaner for the environment and climate. Years ago governments didn’t perceive climate change as a security threat; they depicted it as an environmental problem. Al Gore has done a lot to describe climate change to the public through his novel, An Inconvenient Truth. Climate change is something that will be present for decades to come.
Work cited
Hi, Brian:
ReplyDeleteThe content you had here was good. You make important points about the rise of natural gas production in the U.S., its cleaner burning properties, and its potential to help make the U.S. more environmentally secure. My critique is that I would have liked more detail, especially in your second point. You said that climate change has received attention in multiple documents in multiple countries. That's true, but the journal prompt asked you to talk about goals, accomplishments, and future directions. So the information you provided was good -- there just need to be more of it (and you needed to cite correctly!).
Journal content: 1.5/1.6
Journal writing quality: 0.2/0.3