There is currently an enviromental crisis in the United States

Is there an environmental crisis in the US? My answer to that question is no. The affirmative side lacks the correct evidence to support this claim. Before we venture further in my constructive, we need to find out what a crisis is. The Noah Webster"s dictionary defines crisis as, "an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending." Currently, unless I am incapable of thought, there is nothing horrible in which we need to make a decisive change. This is not just my personal conclusion, expert opinions and sources also support this conclusion. During the course of this paper, I will explain why there is no environmental crisis. To begin, I will discuss Alternative Energy and how the fuel we have right now is cleaner than ever. Then, I will discuss pollutants and how they are being controlled. Then I will conclude my constructive by reviewing the evidence. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons primarily coal, natural gas and oil. These fuels are primarily formed from dead plants or animals over the course of thousands of years. Many environmentalists claim that fossil fuels will run out in the near future. They claim that we are consuming fossil fuels at such an alarming rate, that we will soon run out of them. Science contradicts, however. Based on a graph Professor H.D Maher Jr of the University of Omaha, the amount of oil has actually increased since 1994. It went from 539 billion barrels to 635 billion barrels. Also on the same graph, Natural Gas also went up from 90 BBE (Billion Barrel Equivalent) to 270 BBE. Clearly, we have not discovered all the oil and natural gas in the world; therefore we are not running out resources such as oil. Many environmentalists claim that due to fossil fuels, the air is getting more polluted. However statistics disagree, "In spite of the twentieth century's steep population rise, massive industrialization, and the nationwide proliferation of the modern automobile, the air we breathe is cleaner than it has been in decades. Data from the Environmental Protection Agency also confirm that U.S. air quality has improved since 1970," according to Drew Thorley, writer for the Manhattan Institute. The EPA even agrees that the air we breathe is cleaner than before. What is up with the claims that emissions and air quality when statistics and the EPA clearly contradict? Even with this staggering evidence, Environmentalists claim that much of the technology that helps with pollution is very unstable. However many technologies involving coal, which is considered the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, are very stable and are actually helping coal greatly. Technologies such as Flue Gas Desulfurization and Low Nitrogen Oxide Burners are examples of this. The SO2, Sulfur Dioxide, removal performance of scrubbers has been reviewed. Data reflect that most wet limestone and LSD installations appear to be capable of ~90% SO2 removal. Advanced, state-of-the-art wet scrubbers can provide SO2 removal in excess of 95%... Low Nitrogen Oxide Burners reduce the creation of NOx, a cause of ground-level ozone, by restricting oxygen and manipulating the combustion process. Low NOx burners are now on 75 percent of existing coal power plants" says the NETL and NMA. These technologies are not only reliable; they are currently being used today. Petrogel, a technology developed by Dr. T.C. Chang, helps with pollution caused by oil spills. Here is how Dr. Chang described his technology, "The difference with PETROGEL is its ability to absorb the oil, not the water, as well as more effectively release the recovered solid wastes. With PETROGEL, the resulting polyolefin/oil mixture can be treated as regular crude oil, suitable for the regular refining processes" There is no waste of natural resources and no pollution in the air or water" Not only does his technology help with oil recovery, it also conserves natural resources and adds no pollution in the air or water. Environmentalists claim renewable forms of energy such as solar, wind and geothermal energies are much better than fossil fuels. They also claim that not only are these energies unlimited, they also come with no repercussions whatsoever in the environment. Science once again contradicts. Solar energy has some very unique disadvantages. Charles Barnheart, lead author of the study at The University of Stanford"s Global Climate and Energy Project, explains these costs. "Batteries with high energetic cost consume more fossil fuels and therefore release more carbon dioxide over their lifetime. If a battery's energetic cost is too high, its overall contribution to global warming could negate the environmental benefits of the wind or solar farm it was supposed to support. Storing energy consumer"s energy, and curtailing energy wastes it." Not only are we wasting resources, the high-end batteries are consuming fossil fuels. The point comes back to the need of fossil fuels to power grids or power plants. The technologies to make solar power the primary source in which people gain power simply does not exist. Wind energy, which can technically function on its own, can be a hazard to avian animals. An environmentalist site by the University of Wisconsin supports this claim. "Concerns are the avian and bat mortality. These creatures fly into the rotors of the turbines. Federally protected birds and bats near wind farms have raised awareness with the fish and wildlife agencies. Industries and their engineers have been busy however to improve these issues through more proper siting, insulated materials, and research on landscape and the organisms living there." This can lead to extinction of these federally protected birds. Geothermal Energy Plants can cause earthquakes. Christopher Joyce of the NPR, National Public Radio, says that, "A geothermal energy plant near the Salton Sea in California taps deep underground heat from the southern San Andreas Fault rift zone. A new study ties the amount of water pulled from the ground by the geothermal plant here to the frequency of earthquakes." Therefore with these solid evidences I say that even renewable energies have its bad effects on the environment.