power

Have you ever stopped to think about your consumption of energy and its effect on the environment?

In the UK about two thirds of our electricity is generated by burning coal and gas in power stations, which each year releases millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, the main gas responsible for climate change, into the atmosphere. Most of the remaining electricity comes from nuclear power, which has other severe environmental impacts.

So what can we do? Other sources – wind, water, solar, for example – are by definition renewable and have few environmental impacts. Although it’s unlikely that many of us would be able to build our own solar, wind or water power plants in our back gardens, we can still make a huge dent in Western society’s reliance on fossil and nuclear fuels.

Use the links to the left to find out about these technologies and the organisations developing them and then learn how you can make a difference at home.