Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources The United States is home to 4% of the world's population, but as a country consumes 25% of the world's oil. The United States and Western Europe are obsessed with a standard of living that depends on energy consumption supported by the burning of fossil fuels. These non-renewable resources continue to be depleted, despite the fact that solar, wind, hydropower, biomass and many other renewable resources are available and accessible. Switching to these renewable energies would stop the massive pumping of CO2 and other pollutants into the air we breathe. Acid rain, oil spills, global climate change and other environmental disasters may have a chance to ease. In addition to the impact on our health and the health of the planet, dependence on fossil fuels has other potentially disastrous implications. Equally disturbing as the environmental consequences for oil-dependent Western economies is the fact that, for the foreseeable future, more than half of the planet's oil reserves will be owned and controlled by a handful of countries in the politically unstable Middle East. This will mean, and probably has meant in the recent past (Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom), that the US military will enter these Middle Eastern countries to ensure that the management of oil resources is in line with US corporate desires. This dependence and resulting imperialism seems foolish and completely unnecessary when there are other types of sustainable resources here at home. An example of the real aptitude of renewable resources is wind energy, the fastest growing energy resource; consumption jumped from 10 megawatts in 1980 to 15,600 megawatts in 1999. If Wyoming alone covered just 1......half of the paper......and the 21st century. Alternative Energy Institute, Inc, Chapter 2Joesph Kahn. The United States opposes the international plan for cleaner energy. New York Times, July 14, 2001 Chiras, Daniel. The solar house: passive heating and cooling. 2002, page 237Wyoming Wind Resources, accessed 9/11/03 @ www.eere.energy.gov/state_energy/tech_wind.cfm?state=WYCaveli, Damien. The United States of Oil, 2001, accessed 9/11/03 @ http://global Research.ca/articles/CAV111A.htmlBrown, Eric. An Introduction to Solar Energy, accessed 9/15/03 @ http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/feneric/solar.htmlGreer, Bloyd. An Overview of Hawai's Photovoltaic Experience, accessed 01/10/03 @ http://state.hi.us/dbedt/ert/pv_overv.htmlKelly, Rick. Bush grants permanent legal immunity to American multinationals that plunder Iraqi oil. International Committee of the Fourth International (WSWS), August 19, 2003