The energy resources that cause the most harm to the environment are primarily fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, particularly coal.

• Coal produces more pollution than any other energy source. While coal produces just 44% of U.S. electricity, it accounts for 80% of power plant carbon emissions. Burning coal leads to soot, smog, acid rain, global warming, and carbon emissions.
• Natural Gas. The global warming emissions from natural gas are lower than coal and oil, but drilling and extracting natural gas and transporting it in pipelines results in methane leakage.
• Nuclear Energy is emission-free and saves about 2.4 billion tons of carbon emissions per year that would otherwise result from coal.

As for the best sources of clean energy for the future:

• Solar Energy: Solar power is one of the best potential solutions to the climate crisis. It does not emit greenhouse gases or air pollution. now5.
• Hydropower: The world’s most relied-upon renewable energy source is not wind or solar but hydro.
• Wind Energy: Wind energy is also a promising source of clean energy for the future.

It’s important to note that all energy sources have some impact on the environment, but renewable sources like solar and wind have significantly less impact compared to fossil fuels. Transitioning to these cleaner energy sources is crucial for mitigating climate change and creating a sustainable future.

Dr Jorge Morales Pedraza thank you for your contribution to the discussion

Fossil fuels coal, oil, and natural gas do substantially more harm than renewable energy sources by most measures, including air and water pollution, damage to public health, wildlife and habitat loss, water use, land use, and global warming emissions.Coal, again, is the dirtiest fuel. It emits much more greenhouse gases than other sources hundreds of times more than nuclear, solar, and wind. Oil and gas are also much worse than nuclear and renewable, but to a lesser extent than coal. Fossil fuels cause environmental pollution because fossil fuels produce large quantities of carbon dioxide when burned which is responsible for green house effect. Hydropower is the renewable energy source with the highest deaths per terawatt-hour produced, largely because of a single event, the Banqiao Dam Failure in China in 1975, which was caused by a typhoon and killed more than 170,000 people. This safety ranking roughly correlates to each fuel's greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity from renewable resources such as solar, geothermal, and wind generally does not contribute to climate change or local air pollution since no fuels are combusted. Fossil fuels and biomass have the four highest carbon footprints. Per kWh produced, oil emits 970, coal 820, natural gas 490, and biomass 230 or 740 grams of carbon dioxide on a life-cycle basis. The production of some photovoltaic (PV) cells, for instance, generates toxic substances that may contaminate water resources. Renewable energy installations can also disrupt land use and wildlife habitat, and some technologies consume significant quantities of water. The energy of the sun is the original source of most of the energy found on earth. We get solar heat energy from the sun, and sunlight can also be used to produce electricity from solar (photovoltaic) cells. The sun heats the earth's surface and the Earth heats the air above it, causing wind. The use of clean energy sources, such as water, wind, sunlight and nuclear, to generate electricity helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. This is because clean energy sources don't emit any greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, during the electricity generating process. Choosing electricity generated by renewable such as wind and solar instead of fossil fuels supports a cleaner energy supply and makes a difference in the fight against climate change. They differ from fossil fuels principally in their diversity, abundance and potential for use anywhere on the planet, but above all in that they produce neither greenhouse gases which cause climate change nor polluting emissions. Our world runs on the energy we produce. Clean energy production allows us to generate the energy we need without the greenhouse gas emissions and negative environmental effects that come with fossil fuels, in turn helping to reduce climate change. Unlike fossil fuels, clean energy is energy which has been generated in a way that is non-polluting. This means there are no unwanted byproducts, such as carbon emissions, or other pollutants released into the environment. Clean energy sources include wind, solar, hydro, tidal, wave and geothermal energy.