Energy and climate change
Energy and climate change
• coal • oil • solar energy • hydropower and • wind power
Process
Now it’s time for participants to examine their own energy consumption behaviour. They ask them - selves how much energy they use in their everyday lives. Teams of 6 to 8 participants are formed. The teams line up at the baseline and are each given a set of cards depicting everyday situations. They are asked to guess how much energy is needed in each situation. They place the picture cards in the appropriate place on their lane. The more energy that is needed, the further away they place the picture card. They have a maximum of 5 minutes to do this. → The consumption of electricity is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt-hour measures the energy a device uses in kilowatts (= 1,000 watts) per hour. A 50-watt light bulb uses 50 watt-hours in one hour, which equals 0.05 kilowatt-hours. In 2021, average energy consumption per person globally was 20,939 kWh; in EU countries, this figure was almost twice as high at 37,497 kWh per person. The individual teams all line up at the baseline. The workshop leader explains the game: → Ask yourselves how much electricity the described situations need. Place the picture cards in the right place on the timeline. The participants discuss the estimates of all the groups, then the workshop leader reveals the correct answers and can add such comments as: It makes a big difference whether you cook something with or without a lid on the pot. Smartphones as devices (i.e. just the running of the phone) have little energy impact, and the power consumption of laptops is also insignificant. What does use up a lot of energy, however, is the internet. Every search request you send, every video you stream, every email you send – everything runs through large computing centres, with servers that need electricity. Servers also produce a lot of heat and have to be cooled. Calculating the exact energy consumption is a complex process, but we can assume that one hour of video streaming in full HD quality uses between 0.22 and 0.37 kWh. 7 The way we use smartphones means they consume a lot of energy every day, far more than is needed just for the charging process. Some appliances consume energy even when we aren’t using them or have switched them off, e.g. printers, Wi-Fi routers, washing machines or monitors. We can sometimes see a small light burning or we notice the appliance is warm; sometimes, we can’t even see whether the standby mode is switched on. The answer here is to disconnect the power supply. Unplug the device or use a power strip with a switch. Workshop leaders can conclude the exercise by asking → What electronic device could I easily do without? Which one could I definitely not do without? Participants then suggest ways to save energy during the specific activity. Energy-saving tips may include • turning down the heating , especially when no-one is using the room for a longer period. Heating has an important energy-saving potential. • airing rooms only briefly ; open all windows for 3-5 minutes and turn down the heating during this time. • switching off lights if you are the last to leave a room. • taking shorter showers .
→ Which of these sources of energy are globally the most common? • The main sources of energy (as of 2021) are coal, oil and gas, which together cover about 84% of the world's energy requirements. 3 These energy sources together, however, emit especially large amounts of carbon dioxide, so significantly contribute to climate change. Of the 37.12 billion tons of CO 2 that were emitted globally in 2021, 34.74 billion tons were produced by coal, oil and gas. In concrete terms, this means coal accounts for 14.98 billion tons, oil for 11.84 billion tons and gas for 7.92 billion tons of CO 2 . 4 If there is enough time, the workshop leader and participants can discuss other sources of energy and the extent to which they can be considered environmentally friendly. • Nuclear energy: While coal, oil and gas are problematic because of resource depletion and, above all, emissions, the two main problems with nuclear energy are the safe storage of highly radioac - tive waste and the risk of a core meltdown with catastrophic consequences for humans and the environment (as was the case in Fukushima/Japan in March 2011). 5 • Renewable sources of energy such as wind power, solar energy, hydropower, biomass and geothermal energy: This energy is generated from natural resources that are inexhaustible (e.g. wind and sun) or come from replenishable material (wood, plants). These sources of energy play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But even some of these clean energies sometimes have drawbacks. With hydropower, for example, large-scale dams can disrupt fresh - water ecosystems or force populations to relocate to make way for reservoirs. Wind turbines on wind farms can pose a threat to birds and bats. Engineers are working on ways to make wind power stations safer for birds. Biomass includes ethanol and biodiesel, wood and wood waste, but also biogas from landfills. Biofuels from plants, however, are controversial because biofuel production can compete with food production, as is the case with corn. 6 So we have to consider these energies carefully. But renewables are still far better than coal, oil and gas.
3 Cf. Our World in Data based on BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Online: https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-eco - nomics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html [last accessed on 12 December 2022]; vgl. auch https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ primary-sub-energy-source [last accessed on 12 December 2022] 4 Cf. Hannah Ritchie, Max Roser and Pablo Rosado (2020): CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Published online at OurWorldInData. org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions [Online Resource] [last accessed on 12 December 2022]. Data based on the Global Carbon Project (2022). 5 https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/izpb/169476/energiequellen-und-kraftwerke/ [last accessed on 15 December 2022] (in German) 6 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/renewable-energy [last accessed on 16 December 2022]
7 Cf. https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/stromfresser-internet-wie-viel-energie-verbrauchen-google-100.html (in German)
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