Topic: Environmental Impacts of Emerging Energy Technology
Country: Brazil
Delegate Name: Cody Hoeffel
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Brazil position papers GLIMUN 2010 committees
Alternative sources of energy are being exploited everywhere by new technology. This technology has been create to reduce Man's impact on the environment. However, many of these technologies have their own negative impact on the environment. Electric cars for example, may reduce the need for oil in that the vehicles don't use it for propulsion, but oil is used to create the car bodies, the electricity fueling the car is almost always produced by a coal power plant, adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as well as pollutants from the coal burning process. The lithium-ion batteries that are used in electric cars also pose an environmental hazard if disposed of improperly, it is a battery and as such it will release harmful substances into the earth when it does decompose. Wind turbines, dams, and large tidal power plants also damage the environment, they all have the potential to and have come close to endanger and possibly kill off species of birds, bats, and fish. Wind turbines also require a large area away from major population centers cleared and flattened, which is often woodland and other habitats, the destruction of which can have a major population on the local wildlife. This problem can be addressed by placing large turbines off the coast from nations minimizing the threat to nocturnal birds and bats, in addition smaller commercial turbines can be implemented in suburban areas. Such turbines are silent enough to run in cities and small enough to place on buildings as small as a residential home. Dams and some tidal power plants block the breeding grounds off from fish, dams especially, as they block off portions of rivers, changing the current and water temperature severely hampering the local fish. Buoy based tidal generators do not interfere with the aquatic ecosystem, as a result they produce less power, but are more numerous and is applicable in many locations. Brazil believes that these alternatives can begin to solve the problems of the so called green technologies, making them truly green. Brazil will seek to make use of the smaller wind turbines, these turbines and small buoy tidal power generators to help reduce the impact of electric vehicles without having a major impact on the local wildlife. The nation of Brazil seeks to uphold the goals of the Kyoto Protocols through these technologies and to focus on getting these technologies to the developing nations that need them most. Brazil seeks to implement the proper technologies in the proper places, reducing global carbon emissions and the potential threat of global warming as the Kyoto Protocol had started the effort without CCS (Carbon Capture Storage) technologies which do not aid the fight against this threat.
