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Prediction in 1995, in the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme was that 30 years later, in 2025 there would be big changes. The show, which is no longer broadcast, featured one of the most famous scientists of the age, Prof Stephen Hawking, who predicted: “By 2025 we can expect big changes.“
Let 2025 be a year of big changes. Let the energy we use be clean energy.
Our ever-expanding energy needs have polluted, damaged and ravaged the earth. Let us contain our energy needs and shift from fossil renewable to non-fossil renewable energy and save the earth.
Energy generated from coal, petroleum natural gas etc. is considered non-renewable and dirty energy. Whereas energy from the Sun, wind, geothermal sources etc. is renewable and clean energy. The former leads to global warming and the latter to balanced warming. The first kills and the second is essential for life on earth.
According to IEA- International Energy Agency in 2006 only four percent of the total energy used was solar, wind, geothermal or cogeneration. 2006 was the sixth warmest year on record. The energy generated from fossil fuels has led to global warming. Since then the share of renewable energy from non-fossil fuels in the global energy supply started increasing. By 2010 it reached 25.69 percent, in 2015 it was 30.84 percent, in 2021 it was 40 percent. It is predicted that by 2040 half of our energy needs will be from electricity produced in a net zero way. However, to meet 100 percent of our energy needs from Sun, wind, and geothermal sources conservation of energy, and efficiency in the use of energy with the involvement of academics, scientists, engineers, economists, educationists, parents and individuals is a must.
Academics must reason about sustainable energy, its sources, energy independence, environmental stewardship, and a carbon-free society. Universities must serve as ‘living labs’ where investment in innovative energy solutions could be tested and upscaled. They must also reason to innovate green products and services.
Industrialists must mass produce products that are the most earth-friendly, and most energy savers but lowest in price. They must withdraw all the non-eco-friendly products they have been producing and replace them with eco-friendly ones. They must stop unethical innovations. They must adopt clean technologies and decarbonize their operations. They must also collaborate with academics. scientists and economists. They must innovate out-of-the-box solutions to transition from fossil fuel energy to clean renewable energy.
Scientists must play a critical role in meeting the world’s clean energy needs, reducing energy consumption and eliminating pollution. They must help us understand the origins, characteristics, and consequences of global problems like climate change and pollution. They must also help us make smart decisions about how to use our resources.
Engineers are pivotal in optimizing clean energy production and its transmission. They are key to decarbonizing energy systems and securing future energy. They must develop new green technologies and sustainable transport. Also, they must integrate renewables, improve distribution grids and storage systems and find new applications for AI.
Educationists must transform the education system into a green, life-based, ethical, environment-friendly and economically viable system. They must regularly organize essays. Posters, street plays, dance, music and social media show the role of clean energy in protecting and recovering the natural environment.
Economists must analyze the cost-effectiveness of clean energy, create model energy systems, minimize costs and promote clean energy utilization. They must also study how clean renewable energy improves ecological quality and analyse policies and practices for creating green jobs and a green economy.
Parents must provide green homes and ethical green living. Homes must be environmentally friendly and energy efficient with cavity walls, loft insulation and double-glazed windows; constructed with recyclable resources, optimal use of water, air, solar, and geothermal energy; with only energy-efficient appliances and minimum waste production.
Individuals must conserve energy, use CFL bulbs, switch off lights, fans, and PC monitors when not in use; keep coils of fridges clean, use the washing machine at 300 degrees Celsius and with a full load, keep the neighbourhood clean by not bringing plastic bags, not wasting food, segregating waste and composting organic waste and opting for decentralized waste management, planting local trees, shrubs and ground cover; harvest rainwater, minimize water extraction and zero wastage; walk or cycle if the distance is up to three kilometers, not fly if the distance is less than 500 kilometers and opt for clean energy transportation.
Last words are materializing the ‘big change’ predicted by Stephen Hawkins for 2025 be 100 dependences on clean-green energy. It would help address climate change, air pollution and health issues.
Renewable Clean energy is the fastest-growing energy source, its share increasing in the global energy supply. It’s time each one of us contributed towards this ‘big change’.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint