Your chance to join a hero on the adventure of a lifetime. EarthPulse Portal page EarthPulse News page Renewable Energy Policy Project and the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology. The world is aglow with dire headlines about energy consumption and its ill effects. An international panel of scientists recently released a definitive report concluding that human activity is in fact responsible for increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are warming Earth's atmosphere. The panel predicts that temperatures could rise by as much as ten degrees over the next century, leading to a further decline in polar ice, rising sea levels, and greater frequency of catastrophic weather events such as typhoons.
People burn fossil fuels to drive their cars, light their homes, and run their industries.
According to the International Energy Agency, fossil fuels will account for 90 percent of world energy by 2020, up from about 75 to 80 percent today. If fossil fuel use continues to rise, so will global temperatures, with severe consequences for the planet. To some extent this has been happening for quite some time as carbon-intensive firewood yielded to coal and then to oil as the world's primary energy source. Today natural gas, by far the cleanest of the fossil fuels, is gaining ground and is projected to account for 26 percent of world supply by 2020. The world has seen some heartening progress already.