Why save energy?

Energy is essential to our everyday lives without energy from food our bodies would not survive without the stored energy of fossil fuels world economies, in their current state, would not function. We all need to use energy but it is vital to think about how we use it and use it efficiently.

For a moment think about the amount of electrical appliances in your home. Everytime we use energy for heating or electricity in Ireland, that energy is most often produced by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas. These fuels developed millions of years ago from the remains of dead plants and animals. There is a finite amount of fossil fuels in the world and once you burn oil once and release it's stored energy you cannot burn it again, for this reason we refer to these fuels as non renewable forms of energy. When we burn fossil fuels we release greenhouse gases into the earth's atmosphere and this is causing global warming. 

What is global warming?

People say that science fiction often mirrors future events. Although the reported effects of climate change may seem like they were written for a science fiction novel they are real and happening now. The graph below shows how global temperatures have increased over the last 100 years.

Today the earth is hotter then it has been in the last two thousand years. More recent data supports this; the 1990's were the warmest decade ever recorded and 1998 was the warmest year. Snow cover is down by 10% over the last 40 years.  

How does our lifestyle increase global warming? 

• We use oil and gas to produce electricity and heat for our homes, schools and workplaces by wasting electricity and not using it efficiently more and more fossil fuels are burned causing greater amounts of CO₂ to enter the atmosphere.
  
• We are a highly car dependant society. Petrol cars produce CO₂, CO, NO and SO₂. Carbon monoxide and dioxide contribute to the ehanced greenhouse effect.
• For a long time the western world put a developing economy above any environmnetal impacts and as citizens we developed habits of using fossil fuels as an unlimited resource.
  

What can we do?

• Renewable energy offers an alternative to burning fossil fuels. Ireland has huge potential to produce significant amounts of energy from wind power by harnessing the natural energy of wind through wind turbines. Solar and water power are other important renewable energy sources.
• At a national level Ireland signed up to the Kyoto agreement to reduce the amount of CO₂ it produces significantly by 2010. We still have a long way to go but a big step is becoming more aware of how we use energy in our everyday lives. We all need to use electricity but we can do this without wasting valuable resources, below are some tips on actions you can take to make a difference.
• For more information on saving energy visit our energy saving tips section.