Why didn't we use renewable energy in the first place?

Question

Why didn't we use renewable energy in the first place?

Answer 1

Because "Man" just wants to make money and wasn't smart enough now that the world is been a little destructive with natural disaster now they want to do something about it

Answer 2

I am not sure how many people know this, but in 1976 Jimmy Carter passed a bipartisan alternative fuels act.   In 1980 the VERY first thing Ronald Reagan did as president was to do away with this new law, giving that money back to to all big oil industry mostly for doing business over seas.

Answer 3

$$$$

Answer 4

Most every town used to have an electric street car before the auto companies bought them up and removed them so people would buy their vehicles.   Before the rural electrification act sometime in the early 1900's most places in the country were not connected to the electric grid, so they produced their own energy from windmills or burning whatever type of bio-fuels they had at hand.   The lifestyles we live now is rather a short blip in humanities history.

Answer 5

Because no one knew it was a problem.

Answer 6

Depending on how far back in time you go, we did use renewable resources.  We still do.  Windmills, water driven mills/generators are a lot more efficient then they once were.  The Industrial Revolution lead to the development of coal and petrochemical fuels being used to run massive factories.  It ultimately comes down to what is cheaper to operate now, not what is best for the long term or the environment.  Look at the simple light bulb.  It is cheaper to buy an incandescent than a compact florescent.  Which one will burn 90% less energy and not heat up as much?  Even though the florescent will last for thousands of hours...how many do you have in your home?

It is cheaper at first to buy incandescent, but the hydro bill later will cost you more.

Answer 7

technology is the reason why...

Answer 8

Oil & Gas & coal are a renewable fuel source.

  It is because the plants when they recycle our CO2 into oxygen ,the plant keeps the C. Later the C becomes oil & gas and after a long time coal. We need to be useing more coal as it is begining to oxidize. So the more CO2 we produce the more the plants grow.

Answer 9

like what, ethanol? -what a scam

Answer 10

We did.  The first energy sources were the Sun, wind,  firewood, and animal power.  However, the population has increased to the point where those methods supply far less energy than the demand.  Coal was probably next, followed by oil based fuel.  Oil based fuels are more concentrated and more efficient than their predecessors, and therefore both cheaper and applicable to more uses, like auto fuels, where space and weight are considerations.

The perfect solution would be safe atomic energy.  Unfortunately, there appears to be no way to make atomic energy safe with our current technology.  Other methods of energy have their own issues, including being constructed out of other non-renewable pollutant materials.

There are just too many people in the world.

Answer 11

Our technology was built, with an entire infrastructure to support it, before we knew the energy sources would run out.

In short, they just didn't think of it.

Answer 12

We did untill the industrial revolution started (late 1700's) and outstripped the usefullness of the BTU potential of wood and animal power. So, renewable people, wood, animal, wind, and water were adiquate for a few thousand years.

By 1900, coal and oil were the only easily transportable energy sources available that could do the work required for the civilized world.  Also, wood, water, and wind simply didn't pack enough energy pound for pound to do the work required.  The best minds of the times felt they were inexhaustable resources (that general concept lasted till the 1990's with the exception of the 1970's oil crisis).

Modern "renewable energy generation" is only becoming cost effective for some applications right now.  Massive power generation is still only possible via oil, coal, hydroelectric dams, and nukes.

Answer 13

It was not an economically good choice to use renewable resources. America started with coal because America has the biggest coal reserve in the world. the coal will last at least another 150 years. Oil was cheap when it was first used and we just became dependant on it. Also, the companies hold major influence over the people who can change things to renewable. It is all about economics. Renewables are expensive and oil, back then, was not.

Answer 14

Actually we did use renewable energy for almost all of our brief history on this planet.  Wood, water, wind, as well as human and animal labor were the main sources of power up until the last 4-500 years or so.

Answer 15

For the same reason we do not use it now.  It costs more.

Answer 16

Because we wanted the quick and easy way. Therefore, we are idiots (or at least "they" are)

Interesting question, I'd like to know myself the real reason behind it.

Answer 17

Technically we did.  There was no mass oil consumption.  But as our technology increased, so did our need for cheap and abundant fuel.  That turned out to be oil.  There was no need to find an alternative to something that was so abundant that we could use it for generations.  The same still holds true as we keep discovering vast new oil reserves.  While it is more expensive, renewable energy is not the answer.  It's much more inefficient, unreliable, and generally requires government subsidies to be a viable option, only driving up the cost of everything else. For example, look at ethanol.  Even though it literally requires more energy to produce than it yields, the government has it heavily subsidized.  Those subsidies only are driving up the cost of everything else that requires corn.  Food prices are going up because corn that was originally allocated for livestock feed and human consumption is now being allocated to burn as fuel.  It's simple supply and demand.  When the government gets involved in deciding what we need instead of the free market deciding, only bad things happen.

Answer 18

We did. We used wood for virtually all of our heat and feet or animals for transport (supplemented with wooden carts and boats) during most of humanity's tenure on the planet.