In fact, scientists around the world are increasingly convinced that human activities are changing the climate, largely as a result of the ways we produce and use energy. Global warming, the evidence suggests, is real. Each year billions of tons of greenhouse gases are emitted worldwide from smokestacks of power plants that burn fossil fuels. And unless we all do something about it, the problem will only get worse. Electric power plant emissions contribute substantially to the air pollution that causes many of our most significant public health and environmental problems.
Energy is vital to nations and people, and the demand grows constantly.
But the world will not have safe and sustainable energy supplies if all we do is replicate and multiply today's patterns of energy production and use. There must be real change and real improvement in the production and use of electricity. Environmentalists working in the electricity arena have been strong advocates of increasing the efficiency of our electricity use. Properly structured and vigorously enforced, such systems can help drive the economy toward pollution-free options. But getting those options up and running requires work now.