A Plea for Renewables: Solar, Wind, and Geothermal

Abstract

The environmental destruction that the use fossil fuels are wreaking on the environment will, if left unchecked, cause a global climate catastrophe. The only way to prevent this from happening is to embrace and subsidize an energy infrastructure that is based upon renewable sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy. This paper seeks to examine the relative strengths and weaknesses of each of these three sources, but also what they have in common in combating the use of fossil fuels and those who lobby for them at the expense of the Earth's collective global ecosystem. The paper will rely the findings of experts in the field who have both analyzed and contributed to the debate around renewables through critical discourse analysis, although there are touches of rhetorical analysis and metaphoric analysis as well. The goal of this paper is to convey the pressing and imperative need to divest from human dependence on fossil fuels, especially as the global demand for energy continues to increase. The paper will also address misinformation that is spread about solar, wind, and geothermal energy, hypothetical risks and drawbacks that each of them possess, and advocate for a means to subsidize these energy sources and the technology that makes them viable in order for them to be cost-effective and market competitive with coal, oil, and natural gas.