This is the first part (essay) that I wrote that has to be revised and added to.

An Energy Efficiency Revolution

The future of civilization is being compromised by our lack of respect for our natural resources. It is our responsibility to save our planet by uniting and working together in developing new technologies and implementing them in time to save it before it is too late.
We must stabilize our environment by not only conserving energy but we must also create and use efficient forms of energy to assist in saving our planet and all of the diverse inhabitants and ecosystems that flourish on it. It appears that we are moving in the right direction as we implement technologies to replace some of our biggest producers of greenhouse gases. Two in particular are incandescent lighting and the internal combustion engine. Evidence of this in the form of CFL or compact fluorescent lighting, LED or light emitting diodes and the production of more hybrid and electric vehicles makes it apparent that our society is becoming more aware of the detrimental effects caused by inefficient sources of energy and the production of carbon and other greenhouse gases that are damaging the world we live in. These technologies have been quite expensive for consumers causing some to avoid them. For instance I have noticed that the purchase price of a CFL light bulb can cost more than double what an incandescent bulb costs and an LED can cost more than double again the price of a CFL bulb. However, in the long run a “CFL bulb is much cheaper due to it using about seventy five percent less energy than an incandescent bulb uses and lasts approximately ten times longer”(Bennett 2010). LED bulbs cut energy usage in half again and can last up to five times longer than a CFL bulb. We see a similar trend in hybrid and electric automobiles. “A hybrid version of the same vehicle can cost as much as five to ten thousand dollars more than its standard gasoline version” (Jove 2013). In general prices are coming down little by little as these technologies become more advanced. Hopefully it will soon get to the point where these technologies are favorable price wise and won’t deter consumers from taking advantage of them and the benefits they will have on our future generations.
Some homes are designed to need less artificial light as they are more open to sunlight penetration. Not that I planned it from an ecological standpoint when I bought my house but in becoming more ecologically minded I have noticed that during daylight hours there isn’t a room in my house that I need to light artificially. Even at night due to the floor plan I can light the whole main portion of the house with the exception of the bedrooms, bathrooms, den, and main dining room of which the latter two are very rarely used, by just using the kitchen light which uses four fluorescent light tubes at thirty two watts each. The house was only built ten years ago which leads me to believe that the builder did have these ecological qualities in mind while developing this floor plan and design.
My concern is that we might be doing too little too late. Changing light bulbs and trying to develop cleaner sources of energy in our automobile industry has been going on for quite some time and I haven’t really seen where we are making as much progress as I feel we should. There are obviously many more factors as well as pros and cons involved with these technologies in this transition period to be addressed.

Works Cited