Discussion: Human Impact on the Environment, Renewable Energy Sources

This discussion post analyzes the environmental impact of renewable energy sources, particularly solar and hydropower. The post critiques the common perception of renewable energy as purely beneficial, highlighting negative consequences such as habitat loss, hazardous product use, and water consumption associated with solar panel production. It also discusses the adverse effects of hydropower on wildlife and land use. The student argues that only the most productive renewable energy stations should operate, advocating for shutting down less efficient ones to conserve environmental resources. The post also includes responses to classmates, exploring the varying harmful effects of different renewable sources and proposing government initiatives for research and development to mitigate the negative environmental impact of solar energy. The author emphasizes the need for a balance between renewable energy generation and environmental sustainability. The post also includes a bibliography with sources like the World Economic Forum and LinkedIn articles, supporting the arguments made in the discussion.

Running Head: HUMAN IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
1
Human Impact on the Environment
(Student Details)

HUMAN IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT 2
Reply of post 1
Renewable energy sources are often considered to be environmental safe, but the actual outcome
is not what it is believed. It has a huge negative impact on flora and fauna, human lives and
resources. Solar panels provide solar energy that can be used for variety of work and function as
a substitute of electricity, but the destruction that it causes during the power generation is not
negligible. It result into habitat loss, makes use of hazardous products and involves excessive
water consumption. Hydro power also causes a negative impact on wildlife, land utilization and
emission of harmful gases when its plants are installed. The benefits generated from these
renewable sources are less than the destruction it causes. Therefore, only the most productive
renewable stations should be operated and the remaining should be shut down to save the
environmental resources and many lives.
Reply of post 2
From the given post it can be commented that not all renewable energies are equally harmful.
Solar energy is considered to have the minimum harmful effects when compared to other
renewable sources, such as, hydroelectric power and wind energy. The Government should take
initiative to conduct intense research on ways to reduce the negative impacts of solar energy and
plant more of solar panels than any other renewable sources. Besides this, an industry or a
factory should be established near to the concentrating solar thermal panels, to disperse the
harmful emissions from solar plants. An environmental balance and sustainability can be
maintained by establishing more of solar panels for generation of solar power and be less
dependent on traditional way of using energy.
Original post
Renewable energy solves the environmental issues globally by reducing the emission of harmful
greenhouse gases. The global benefits of renewable energy are that it will not run out. It means it
uses sunshine, wind, biomass and tides to produce energy instead of being largely dependent on
fossil fuels and coal, which might disappear in future. Another benefit is that the maintenance of
renewable energy is quite low as compared to the generators used in preserving traditional
sources of energy.

HUMAN IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT 3
These renewable resources cause a variety of environmental destruction to the local
environment. A huge local land is used to build an energy plant, its installation causes danger to
wildlife and humans residing in the nearby areas and emission of harmful gases causes air
pollution1. As a result, the human beings residing in the nearby area suffer from serious health
chronic diseases.
Since, the traditional way of using power and electricity is not sufficient as more attention is put
to produce and generate renewable energies. The harmful effects of renewable energies cannot
be ignored. The following steps should be considered to mitigate the negative impacts of
renewable energy:
 By decreasing the usage of coal and other forms of fuels causing pollution
 Diversifying the power supply
 Building clean and climate safe infrastructure
 Advanced research to determine the most harmful source of renewable energy such as,
solar panels, hydropower, and thermal plants. Check the applications used by these
energies and try various combinations to identified the least harmful combination and
implying the same every time to create less emission of harmful gases2
Therefore, the Government should spend more on conducting research for reducing the harmful
effects of renewable energy plants.
1 Marjolein Helder , Renewable energy is not enough: it needs to be sustainable (2 September 2015) <
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/renewable-energy-is-not-enough-it-needs-to-be-sustainable/>.
2 Ashraf Mahmoud, The Advantages and Disadvantages of Renewable Energy (13 September 2016) <
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advantages-disadvantages-renewable-energy-ashraf-mahmoud>.

HUMAN IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT 4
Bibliography
Helder Marjolein, Renewable energy is not enough: it needs to be sustainable (2 September 2015) <
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/renewable-energy-is-not-enough-it-needs-to-be-
sustainable/>.
Mahmoud Ashraf, The Advantages and Disadvantages of Renewable Energy (13 September
2016) < https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advantages-disadvantages-renewable-energy-ashraf-
mahmoud>.