GE 07, GES 126 and GE 5Hrm/Chapter 12: Environmental Awareness & Energy Resources/Page 1 of 7

Environmental Awareness and Alternative Energy Resources

Chapter
12

OVERVIEW

Environmental awareness leads us to understand the fragility of our environment and the important of its
protection. Promoting environmental awareness is an easy way where each one can keep sustaining and
improving nature and ecology.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

 Explain the reasons for environmental awareness;
 Show the role of education, particularly the schools, in making people environmentally aware;
and
 Demonstrate their level of environmental awareness through actions.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES & SELF-ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY
Fill up the Venn diagram to compare alternative and renewable energy resources.

ANALYSIS
1. Why do you to know about alternative energy resources?
2. What examples of alternative energy resources can you give?
ABSTRACTION
Environment awareness leads us to understand
the fragility of our environment and the importance
of its protection. Promoting environment awareness
is an easy way where each other can keep
sustaining and improving nature and ecology.
Environment awareness is important for several reasons:
1. It foster a sense of connection to the natural world;
2. It promotes sustainable development; and
3. It encourage conservation of irreplaceable natural resources and vulnerable
In addition, environmental awareness essentially serves as an educational tool making people understand
the economic, aesthetic and biological importance of preserving resources and reducing or eliminating the

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harmful impacts of alterations caused by man. Environmental awareness on education helps people
realize the consequences of human activities on lands and identifies remedial solutions.
Promotion of Environmental Education
Environment is an ideology that evokes the necessity and responsibility of humans to respect, protect and
preserve the natural word from the abusive or wrong use of humans.
There is a need to keep our environment healthy for
our children. They should not have to inherit our
environment problems and in order to keep their
future bright, spreading awareness is imperative.
While efforts are being exerted at the national and
international level to protect our environment, we
should do our part as individual citizens. Each one
becomes aware of the worth of good quality living.
The school is the major venue for developing
environment awareness in students. Environment
issues often arise with a lack of understanding of
nature and the ecological environment and the
inappropriate use of natural resources.
The school plays an important role in the formation of children’s positive attitudes towards the
environment.
Environmental education in a process that allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in
problem solving and take action to improve the environment as a result, individuals develop a deeper
understanding of environmental issues and show the skills to make informed and responsible decisions.
The components of environmental education are:
 Awareness and sensitivity to the environment and environmental challenges;
 Knowledge and understanding of the environment;
 Attitudes of concern for the environmental and motivation to improve or maintain environment
quality.
 Skills to identify and help resolve environmental challenges; and
 Participation in activities that lead to the resolution of environmental problems
There is no one road to solving problems. Rather, environmental education teaches us how to weigh
various options and use problem-solving and decision making skills to arrive at the correct options.
Top 10 benefits of Environmental Education
1. Imagination and enthusiasm are 6. Biophobia and nature deficit disorder
heightened decline.
2. Learning transcends the classroom. 7. Healthy lifestyle are encouraged
3. Critical and creative thinking are 8. Communities are strengthened
enhanced. 9. Responsible action is taken to better the
4. Develop tolerance and understanding. environment.
5. State and national learning standards are 10. Students and teacher are empowered.
met for multiple subjects.
Beliefs and Convictions
Religions perform a vital role in enlightening people to acquire values, traditions, beliefs, conduct and to
become stewards of the environment. Each of the religions professed by the Filipinos also includes
concern for the environment. St. Francis of Assisi felt he was called to be concerned for all of God’s
creation. The impoverishment and self-denial of St. Francis further mentioned that true human
advancement should have moral character. Change in human behaviour is needed. More and more people
are switching to behaviour that is safer for the earth.
Green marketing is a tool for protecting the environment for future generations. In this regards, the ESD
which stands for Environment Science Education is being promoted as s way to assist people in
cultivating attitudes, developing skills and enhancing knowledge to make wise decisions for our benefit.

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Ramon (2015 in Haveria, 2019) stated that environment education is built on ecological belief and
deference to all forms of organisms on earth. Environmental Stewardship is environmental education in
action.
Moreover, Ramon (2015) mentioned in her study that environmental Stewardship can be seen in terms of
academic service learning which includes among others.
1. Help in forging linkages with the outside community for nature preservation activities such as
tree planting;
2. Educate people on proper waste segregations;
3. Reduce waste, reusing and recycling materials; and
4. Decrease energy cost in school campuses.
Alternative Energy is any energy source that is alternative to fossil fuel (coal, gasoline, and natural gas).
These alternative are intended to address concerns about fossil fuels, such as its high carbon dioxide
emission, an important factor in global warning.
Alternative energy is a broader category encompassing all non-fossil-fuel based energy sources and
processes, of which renewable energies are only a part. It represents the clean energy source (does not
pollute) that are derived from a natural and renewable source of energy. Renewable energy comes from
natural resources that don’t run out such as solar, wind, geothermal, waves, tides, waste, biomass and
hydrogen.

Renewable energy sources are not exactly the same as alternative energy sources. Although both
alternative and renewable energy work to cut down on carbon emissions, there is a stark difference
between the two. Alternative energy is not infinite in supply unlike renewable energy work to cut down
on carbon emissions, there is a stark difference between the two. Alternative energy is not infinite in
supply unlike renewable energy which as the name suggests is always available similar to solar energy.
Key differences between Alternative Energy and Renewable Energy
Renewable energy comes from a source that is naturally occurring and replenishes without the
interference of human intervention. Example of renewable energy include biomass resources, solar
energy, wind energy, geothermal and hydro resources. The most abundant of these resources is solar
energy.
Alternative energy does not include solar power but includes resources like natural gas (often obtained
from fracking or the injection of pressure in subterranean crevices), natural gas cogeneration, fuel cells or
any waste energy that does not naturally replenish but emits lower cast emissions.
Sources of Alternative Energy
There are different sources of alternative energy. They are the following:

1. Nuclear power is among the most abundant forms of alternative energy. It create a number of direct
benefits in terms of emissions and efficiency, while also boosting the economy by creating jobs in plant
creation and operation.

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2. Hydroelectric Energy. Hydroelectric methods actually are some of the earliest means of creating
energy, though their use begin to decline with the use of fossil fuels. Despite this, they still account for
approximately 7% of the energy produced in the United States.
Hydroelectric energy carries with it a number of benefits. Not only is it a clean source of energy which
means it does not create pollution, but it is also a renewable source of energy. It also offers a number of
secondary benefits that are not immediately apparent. The dams used in generating hydroelectric power
also contributes to flood control and irrigation techniques.
3. Wave energy. Water proves to be a valuable contributor to alternative energy fuel sources with wave
energy converters. These hold an advantage over tidal energy sources because they can be placed in the
ocean in various situations and locations. One of its benefits come in the lack of waste produced in this
kind of energy. It is also more reliable than many other form of alternative energy and has enormous
potential when used properly.
4. Biofuels. In contrast to biomass energy sources, biofuels make use of animal and plant life to create
energy. In essence, they are fuels that can be obtained from some form of organic matter. They are
renewable in cases plants are used, as they can be regrown.
5. Natural Gas. Sources have been in use for a number of decades but it is through the progression of
compression techniques that it is becoming a more viable alternative energy source. In particular, it is
being used in cars to reduce carbon emissions. Demand for this energy source has been universal.
However, the potential for contamination is larger than other alternative fuel sources and natural gas still
emits greenhouse gases even if the amount is lower than that of fossil fuels.
6. Geothermal power is about extracting energy from the ground up. It is growing in popularity with the
sector as a whole experiencing 5% growth in 2015.
The World Bank currently estimates that around 40 countries could meet most of their power demands
using geothermal energy. This power source has massive potential while doing little to disrupt the land.
However, the upfront cost of creating geothermal power plant has led to slower adoption than may have
been expected.
7. Wind energy. This form of energy generation has become increasingly popular in recent years. It
offers much the same benefits than many other alternative fuel sources do in that it makes use of a
renewable source and generates no waste.
Current wind energy installations power roughly 20 million houses in the United States per year and that
number is growing. Most states in the nation have some form of wind energy set-up and investment into
the technology continues to grow.
Unfortunately, this form of energy generation also presents challenges. Wind turbines restrict views and
may be dangerous to some forms of wildlife.
8. Biomass Energy. Comes in a number of forms. Burning wood has been used for thousands of years to
create heat but more recent advancements have also seen waste such that in landfills and alcohol products
used for similar purpose.
Focusing on burning wood, the heat generated can be equivalent to that of a central heating system.
Furthermore, the costs involved tend to be lower and the amount of carbon released by this kind of fuel
falls below the amount released by fossil fuels.
9. Tidal Energy. Uses the power of water to generate energy much like with the hydroelectric methods,
its application actually has more in common with turbines in many cases.
Although it is fairly a new technology, its potential is enormous. The most common form of tidal energy
generation is the use of Tidal Stream Generators. These use the kinetic energy of the ocean to power
turbines, without producing the waste of fossil fuels.
10. Hydrogen Gas. Unlike the other forms of natural gas, hydrogen is a completely clean burning fuel.
Once produced, hydrogen gas cells emit only water vapour and warm air when in use.
The major issue with this form of alternative energy is that it is mostly derived from the use of natural gas
and fossil fuels. As such, it could be argued that the emissions created to extract it counteract the benefits
of its use.

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Renewable Sources of Energy

Biomass – although biomass is renewable energy, this should not be mistaken for a clean energy source.
Although biomass is significantly cleaner than the most fossil fuels such as coal and oil, it still produces
sulphur dioxide during electricity production.
Hydro energy – Commonly referred to as “hydro power”, is a very clean and powerful method for
generating electricity from a trapped wall of water.
The advantages to hydro power is the cost to the surrounding environment, as land upstream needs to be
flooded, and land downstream will be drained during construction. This can have disastrous effects for
wildlife and life in the rivers.

Geothermal energy is a reliable energy source, depending on your location. It is commonly used to
provide a source of heating or hot water for household using “ground source heat pumps”, and also can be
used as the energy source for power stations in appropriate areas.
Solar energy can be somewhat unreliable depending on the placement, location and surrounding
environment of the solar cells. The greater the solar energy supply, the more effective the cells will be,
however, the more heat a solar panel receives, the more unreliable it can be.
Tidal energy can be used to create electricity from the large energy force behind the tides. The main
disadvantages of tidal energy is the effect on the surrounding environment, affecting sea life and shore
access.
Wave energy is similar to tidal energy, but instead uses the force behind the waves (not the tide) to
generate electricity. The cost to sea life is usually less of an issue, as the construction tends to float on the
water, and not in the sea. This is a relatively new technology and in many cases, is still in the research
phase.
Wind energy can be a very reliable renewable energy source if the wind turbines are place in the right
location. The main disadvantages of this form of energy are: sight and noise pollution and that most
designs to wind turbines can be harmful to birds.
Wood energy ties in with biomass, as it is still renewable, but must be burnt during electricity
production, which makes it harmful for our environment.
Alternative and Renewable Energy resources in the Philippines
With an abundance of alternative, renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun, there
really is no reason that the Philippines cannot be at the forefront of a renewable energy movement. We
have sufficient resources that can be harnessed to produce stable power needed to electrify homes and
fuel business. While we still have a long way to go, we are encouraged by the fact that the renewable
energy sector has seen tremendous growth in the last four years.
The Burgos Wind Farm, for instance, is a 150-megawatt new power plant that commenced operations in
November 2014. Touted as one of the biggest wind farms in Southeast Asia, it is projected to not just
provide 370 gigawatt-hours of electricity, which would power approximately who million households but
could also displace an estimated 200,000 tons of carbon emissions annually. The San Carlos Energy Inc.
(SaCaSol) successful connected the first 22 MV of its solar plant in Negros in the southern Philippines
and another 30MW under construction.

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According to the company, the SaCaSol plant is expected to provide approximately 31,610,473
kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity annually to the Visayas Grid, which is currently suffering from
brownouts and low voltage problems. Then there are the solar panels being installed on the roof of the
country’s biggest malls. The Philippines may have been slow in adopting renewable energy, but it has
been catching up. In fact, there is a goal to make renewable energy account for 50% of the total energy
mix by the year 2030, when demand for energy is forecast to exceed 30,000MW. The question is, is it
catching up fast enough? With the Philippines Department of Energy approving a total of 616 renewable
energy projects last year, we can look forward to a cleaner energy infrastructure. Whether these will be
enough to fulfil the 50% by 2030 objective is not certain, but at the very least, we know that progress is
being made.

APPLICATION
Draw how you would like the Philippines (national) or your own place/hometown (local) to look or to
become 5-10 years from now.

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