Energy
This is a huge topic at the moment. Energy, it’s sources and usage, have a significant impact on the planet and there are a lot of people making a lot of noise about it currently.
I’m not going to even attempt to cover all their points but I will attempt to give an overview of why this is such an important and contentious issue.
Energy is everywhere and we need it for everything. The natural world has sunshine as it’s major energy source enabling life and growth across the planet. In our modern man-made world we need energy for transportation, food, heating, lighting, for our homes and businesses as well as all the electronics we’re running. That energy comes from somewhere. Do you know where?
Most of it is from fossil fuels. About 80% of the world is still reliant on oil, gas and coal for their energy.
Environmental impact of energy
So what impact does producing and using all this energy have on the environment? Well, the major one is the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and it’s impact on global warming which has lead to the climate change we are experiencing.
Then you also get further air pollution, water pollution, thermal pollution and solid waste disposal from all the mining, burning, reacting etc. that we do to extract all these different forms of energy.
Global warming - how does it work?
Many of the chemical compounds in the earth's atmosphere act as greenhouse gases. When sunlight strikes the earth’s surface, some of it radiates back toward space as infrared radiation (heat).
Greenhouse gases absorb this infrared radiation and trap its heat in the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect that results in global warming and climate change.
Greenhouse gases include (but are not limited to):
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Methane (CH4)
Nitrous oxide (N2O)
Ozone
Water Vapour
Industrial gases such as: Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3)
Interestingly we need the greenhouse effect in order for planet earth to be inhabitable for us humans. The problem is our over consumption of resources and destruction of the earths ecosystems has resulted in the release of natural & man-made gases at too high a concentration. The earth is now heating up too much.
This is not like weather. Climate and weather are two different things. It’s not like having a warm day or even a hot summer. Global warming is when there is a prolonged rise in temperature across the whole globe for a prolonged period.
This chart shows how over the last 100 years the global temperature has been rising. By just over 1°C. Seems insignificant doesn’t it… well, trust me its’s pretty significant and next time I will explain why.