In my adventures as an advocate for global warming solutions, I am often confronted with questions about the cost of investing in clean, renewable energy.

In light of this, I explain by connecting two hairy problems – one figurative and one literal – that most people would never tie together. Quite simply, the argument for investment in clean energy solutions is analogous to the argument for permanent hair removal.

I’ll start with the hair. Many people with excessive body hair choose not to invest their money in long-term solutions such as electrolysis and laser hair removal because the up-front cost for these treatments is very expensive.

Laser hair removal is priced at a national average of $429 per treatment according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Yikes. As good consumers, let’s consider the options:

Staying furry is the cheapest solution, but in a country that worships the hairless, it is embarrassing and degrading to your self-esteem. (Therapy costs are through the roof, and moving to Europe would be much more expensive in the long run than laser hair removal.) Shaving is inexpensive, but the hair grows back thicker and within days, a time-consuming process that only perpetuates the problem. Do-it-yourself waxing kits can cost anywhere from $15 to $50, but they are painful and messy. Professional waxing tends to go for $15 to $60 per treatment, and the hair grows back within a month.

If you’re cheap and you go with the DIY kit (say each kit lasts you for 2 waxes), four years worth of waxing is equal to one laser treatment. If you splurge a little, go for the professional waxing, and wax for two years, you will have spent more than the amount of one laser treatment. Wax for ten years, and your hair is still growing back when, for the same amount of money, you could have permanently removed it with laser treatment.

Now we transition to clean energy. The insane amounts of carbon emissions (1,000 tons every 4.9 seconds) from this country are the equivalent to an excessive amount of body hair. They are embarrassing to our appearance in the world community and they are contributing to the degradation of the overall well-being of the earth.

At the cost of future generations, we could “stay furry” and do nothing. But even factoring out global warming, oil prices are high and rising; we are completely dependent on hostile Arab nations to supply our energy, and we will run short of oil sometime in the near future. Doing nothing isn’t an option.

Coal is to shaving as nuclear power is to waxing. For the time being, they are both relatively cheaper options, and each is a fast fix to the energy problem. Now, factor global warming back in. New coal-fired power plants might be called “clean,” but their carbon emissions are still sky high. Nuclear energy has no carbon emissions, but the amount of water – an increasingly valuable and scarce resource – required to cool the new reactors being considered could be as high as 1,144,000 gallons per minute. Additionally, the costs of a potential meltdown are immeasurable.

Finally, we come to renewable energy (wind and solar). In the long run, the benefits of choosing clean energy outweigh the up-front costs: According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, under a 15 percent national renewable electricity standard, “consumers in all sectors of the economy would experience a reduction in both their cumulative electricity and natural gas costs compared with business as usual. Cumulative savings would reach $13 billion by 2020 and, by 2030, would grow to $27.7 billion.” And that’s just talking dollars. The benefits of mitigating climate change and preserving the earth for future generations are priceless.

Proliferating clean-energy technologies requires a hefty investment, and of course we can’t rely on just one energy source, but renewable is the permanent solution. It is the laser treatment of global warming solutions.

All jokes aside, my point is completely serious. Investment in clean energy is pertinent in mitigating global warming, and any immediate costs for the transition are irrelevant to the unquestionable long-term benefit of ensuring a stable environment for the future.

Ali Adler is a freshman sociology major. She can be reached at aliadler@umd.edu.