Learn where we get our energy from today and why we need to change our energy system now, to avoid future changes to our climate. Our ancestors burned trees and whales far faster than nature produced more, gaining good from the energy but causing big problems. Today we burn fossil fuels, which allows us to live well, but will cause even bigger problems in the future.
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This online course will show the immense value we get from energy, where we get most of our energy today, why the energy system must change eventually, and why a faster change would help us. What topics will you cover? + Why Energy Matters + What is Energy? + Oil, Coal and Natural Gas + Drilling, Fracking and Reserves + The Physics of Global Warming + The History of Global Warming What will you achieve? By the end of the course, you will be able to:
Identify both natural and human-driven systems and processes that produce energy and affect the environment
Explain basic scientific concepts related to energy in language that non-scientists can understand
Discuss how global warming from fossil fuel use has arisen historically
Summarize how the climate has always changed and how humans are driving changes today, which will have large and long-lasting impacts if we don’t shift our energy system.
What will you achieve?
- Identify both natural and human-driven systems and processes that produce energy and affect the environment
- Explain basic scientific concepts related to energy in language that non-scientists can understand
- Discuss how global warming from fossil-fuel use has arisen historically
- Summarize how the climate has always changed and how humans are driving the ongoing changes, which will have large and long-lasting impacts if we don’t shift our energy system
