College students on clean energy
This post will be slightly different than my previous ones. Rather than writing about other articles, I will be discussing a survey I conducted involving students at the University at Buffalo. Up until this point the material I have been basing my writing off of has come from professional sources and individuals who have extensive knowledge in the field of clean energy. I feel that it is now necessary to take a look and see how the average person feels about it, and whether or not clean energy is something they want to see further explored in the future.
I selected this demographic because as young people the future will one day be in our hands. Seeing how my generation feels about it now could be an indication of how much much further its development is taken in the future
Due to restrictions with covid, I conducted the survey online on the University at Buffalo’s reddit page to avoid any unnecessary risks. I structured the survey question so that there was no bias in the wording and also ensured that it wouldn’t be a leading question. The question was worded as follows:
“Should world governments make it a priority to place further attention/resources into the development of clean energy sources? (Solar, wind, etc.)”
The two possible responses were:
“Yes, it is important for the long term sustainability of our planet.” And, “No, there are other issues that need to be addressed first.”
In total, 66 students voted with 55 voting for yes and only 11 voting for no. Now the sample size is small and may not be representative of the entire population. However, given wide variety of students who are a part of that sub reddit, I believe we can confidently say that college students are pro clean energy for the most part. That sounds all great and good but what exactly does this mean for the future? Well “indeed”, one of the foremost job listing websites lists biology, chemistry, agricultural science, systems engineering, and civil engineering as some of the majors that have the highest job demand. Seeing as how these majors tie directly into clean energy, I suspect that it will only continue to rise given that this was also the more popular opinion. But what about the doubters?
One of the primary concerns of those who voted no was the cost of this venture. They argued that what would likely happen is that we would be the ones paying for this through higher taxes and that the service would likely be subpar in the beginning. This is a very valid concern and something that needs to be taken into consideration when weighing the pros and cons of clean energy development. Either taxpayers would be funding it or some other means of financing its development would need to be figured out. They also presented the use of nuclear energy becoming our primary source in the future as a possible option, but that is a different animal entirely. It is true, nuclear energy has many benefits, as it has far less emissions than the fossil fuels that we currently rely on. It is also cheaper and more effective than both solar and wind energy. However, the potential for disaster although rare, could have catastrophic effects as we have seen with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan in 2011.
Either way, only time will tell just which of these routes we decide to go. But I expect to see some significant developments in the future.
