Let’s destroy one myth right now. It’s not just businesses
and governments that damage the environment. Your home plays a staring
role.
Of all human activities, generating and using energy probably has
the greatest impact on the environment. A third of all energy supplied
in the UK goes to our homes.
So enough blaming governments and businesses, let’s get involved.
Where do we get our energy?
The energy we use comes from renewable and non-renewable sources.
Renewable sources are naturally occurring and naturally replenished.
These include the wind, the sun and the waves. Non-renewable sources
are fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. These have taken millions
of years to form and they will run out.
How do we use energy in the home?
We do not actually use energy. Energy comes in many forms, like
chemical, electrical, heat and light; we simply convert it from
one form to another. In your home, more than three quarters of your
energy will go to heat energy for heating water and rooms.
The burning of fossil fuels to provide our energy releases pollution
into the air. This damages our health and changes our climate. Plants
and the oceans keep the balance by absorbing this pollution, mostly
carbon dioxide. But at the moment, as most of our energy comes from
fossil fuels, we are producing so many greenhouse gases, there is
more carbon dioxide than can be absorbed, and the environmental
balance is being tipped. So we get global warming and climate
change.
So you need to save energy at home, that's the first step. But then
on top of this, our energy needs to come from renewable sources.
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