Everyone knows that the Earth’s surface is seventy percent water. We all know that water has been around since the dinosaurs, and has stayed at the same amount throughout ages. We use water in many different ways. We use it to drink, take a shower, fill up swimming pools, and even produce electricity we are using right now.

Even though we have much more water on our Earth than fossil fuels, we use more fossil fuels than we do water power. Fossil fuels that we burn produce greenhouse gases that go into our atmosphere and will eventually cause global warming if we do not convert to a renewable resource, such as hydroelectric power. Global warming might seem like it might not have a huge effect on us for a while, but it will on later generations.

Global warming isn’t the only disadvantage of the use of fossil fuels. There already has been more pollution in the air and bodies of water due to the use fossil fuels. On some days you see more smog than you might have seen a year or two ago. When you walk by a pond or river you might see murkier water that fish are swimming in.

That murky water caused by water pollution is probably hurting the fish and the environment on which the fish depend on to survive, just like air pollution is hurting us and the other creatures that live on land. The harmful effects of fossil fuels are really hurting the whole world.

But hydroelectric power seems to have the opposite effect that fossil fuels have. Water used to produce hydroelectricity is from nature, so we don’t have to dig it out of the ground. Hydroelectricity also doesn’t cause any pollution, because the “waste” of hydroelectric turbines is exactly what you started with, water. The fact that there is no pollution means there is no greenhouse gases released, and that makes for a healthier environment.

Hydroelectricity is also low cost in some cases. Like when you use a wooden water wheel to power a single home or small community, or an older dam that has been around for a while that you can easily put turbines in. It might be higher costs in some cases, though. For example you might be building a brand new dam to generate hydroelectricity, or tidal turbines that you have to place in the ocean. Whether the cost is high or low the benefits of hydroelectricity makes it way better for the world than the use of fossil fuels.

Idaho is ahead in the use of hydroelectricity compared to other states. I think that if the United States works together to become a more environmentally friendly country by the use of hydroelectricity, then other countries will follow in our footsteps and our world will become a healthier place.