Did you know natural gas, coal, and nuclear power saved our forests?
Watch to learn how:
When society depended on wood for fuel, our forests were decimated. Wood is much less energy dense than fossil fuels, meaning it takes a much larger amount of land to generate a given unit of energy. Perhaps surprisingly, fossil fuels allow us to generate clean, efficient energy with a much smaller physical footprint on forests and other wildlife habitats.
Unfortunately, the growth in popularity of renewable energy sources, which many people believe to be more environmentally friendly, may be putting our environment in danger again. It takes about 27 times the acreage to replace a natural gas power plant with solar panels, and over 100 times the acreage for wind turbines. (And that’s not including space required for transmission lines and battery storage!)
Whatever our country’s energy future, energy density and responsibly stewarding our environment must be a top priority.