The Importance of Water Sustainability

As modern civilization advances, industrialization keeps up with the advancements as well. Current societal ambitions for economic improvement and scientific advancement comes at a great cost on the health of our environment and natural resources. As human activity and industrialization utilize Earth’s resources to create entertainment and essential products, these productions cycle back into the environment as detrimental harm to the Earth. Without the awareness of the act to renew Earth’s resources, the world would meet a limit in regards to the availability of these resources. The world’s top three renewable energy includes water (hydropower and hydrokinetic), wind, and solar in which all three construct the basic necessities to support life on Earth.
Water is one of the largest and most important natural resources as it covers 73% of Earth’s surface, but surprisingly, only 3% of the water is freshwater. In addition to the sacredness of our freshwater, only one-third of the freshwater is accessible for humans to utilize while the rest is frozen in the glaciers underground. This leaves humans with an extremely sacred amount of resources but luckily, water is a replenishable element and is also categorized as one of the main renewable energy that can be preserved and sustained.
The hydropower system derives energy from capturing the force of the strong water flow as well as fast-falling water sources to create hydroelectricity. By using the movement of the water to spin the hydraulic turbines that generate kinetic energy which is converted to electricity through a generator and then sent to the power grid. Most hydropower is generated from dams built upon rivers and streams, often where there is a big drop in elevation that allows gravitation to assist naturally in the process. Dams block the water’s natural flow and force it through a large pipe with the turbine before releasing it back into the stream on the other side of the dam. Meanwhile, dams are extremely efficient and are an inexpensive method to produce renewable energy, they can disrupt river ecosystems. As a result, not many hydropower systems have been built in recent decades and hydropower systems are beginning to be inspected for their electricity-generating potential, but some existing dams are being upgraded to be less harmful to plants, fish, and wildlife. By ensuring both environmental safety and receiving electricity without the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, this is the charisma of renewable energy, thus, sustainability.
Humans have been harnessing water to perform labor for thousands of years, rooting from the Greeks in which they use water wheels to grind wheat into flour, saw wood, power textile mills, and manufacturing plants. The evolution of the modern hydropower turbine began in the mid-1700s when a French hydraulic and military engineer, Bernard Forest de Bélidor wrote Architecture Hydraulique. Starting from the late 19th century, the hydropower system became the main source for generating electricity. James Francis, a British-American engineer developed the first modern water turbine. In 1882, the world’s first hydroelectric power plant began operating in the United States along the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin. Through the use of the Hydropower system, it assisted many generations of people throughout the world to produce energy for agriculture.

The theme of environmental sustainability is perfectly exemplified through hydropower energy as it benefits both economic and environmental impacts. Because hydroelectric power-plants do not require burning fossil fuels, operating costs are low and are immune to rising fossil fuel prices. As a result, these power-plants are playing a significant role in keeping the cost of electricity affordable for consumers, as well as creating a positive impact on the economy. Using hydropower avoids approximately 200 million metric tons of carbon pollution in the U.S. each year – equal to the output of over 38 million passenger cars. In years of ample runoff, hydropower systems produce extra energy. This is used to displace more expensive generation of fossil-fuel power-plants, which further helps to reduce consumers’ electricity bills. Revenue from power sales is also repaid to the U.S. Treasury. From 2010 to 2016, average repayments were estimated at $1.23 billion per year. The use of hydropower not only benefits the environment but as well as the consumers’ cost of electricity bills, thus the economy as a whole.
In conclusion, people of this society should continue to use scientific technology to help the world renew energy as well as the restoration process of many natural resources. As our world continues to become more populated and more advanced, we should take into consideration of our environment as it is a significant aspect of humanity. We should learn to protect and restore the damages that we have cost to this planet. The hydroelectricity power-plants allow us, consumers, to have a more affordable electricity bill, in return for the benefits, we should pay our gratitude by providing care to our fragile soils, and take care of our water resources so the many more generation ahead of us can experience our nature’s beauty just like how we did.

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