the power of energy and human ability

Fuels

We are living in a life of getting energy from burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. Those energies are use for driving cars, electricity in buildings, and so much stuff which we cannot avoid using in our lifestyle. As a result, we are producing Co2 in the air and affecting global warming and climate change. Now, the world’s most urgent mission has become decarbonization. That means we must reduce CO2 to save our planet. Literary to save all the living things including us! 

So what is energy anyway? 

For a very, very long time, early humans burned fires to get energy, keep warm and cook food.

Humans burn energy inside our bodies to move and think and that energy is coming from what we eat. I know energy is very important to our life and Earth’s life. 

Biologists guess that when the early human started to cook food instead of eating it raw, the body absorbed the nutrients more efficiently and the energy of basal metabolism were sent to their brain to help humans develop larger, complex brains. For example, if you cook grains, the softer grains are then easier to digest and the body doesn’t have to spend the energy to digest food all day. Which meant more energy could be used by the more developed brain to think and do more complicated things. Maybe like making herbal medicine to help cure people or decide what tool we need to make for hunting. 

People discovered one of the oldest clay pots in the World and figured out it was about 20,000 years old. That shows that humans were not just using the fire for food but also to make pottery.

Much later on, humans used charcoal to create much higher heat to make metals, and much much higher heat to make iron and also they made gunpowder from charcoal to make weapons. I guess fighting is what some humans like to do… Personally, I don’t.

Oh, just in case, Charcoal is burned wood made by heating it in an absence of air at a high temperature. Some people use charcoal for barbecue grills. 

Did you know deforestation happened in England around 16th century? Yes, they were running out of wood! They used wood for building boats, houses, furniture, and for cooking - but the largest use was using charcoals for producing iron. They used so much charcoal to melt iron to create tools that they cut down almost all the trees in the area! 

Around the time mining and distribution of coal was starting to become very popular in England. In 1765, A man named James Watt invented the steam engine. The steam engine heated water with coal to make steam which turned into energy to power machines. This invention was in many respects the decisive technology of the Industrial Revolution. 

Let me tell you what coal is: Coal we use now began forming about 300 million years ago. Which is before the dinosaurs’ time! Back then, a lot of our earth was covered by swamps. A lot of plants died in a swamp over the course of time, and the millions of years of pressure and heat turned into rock which holds so much energy and we call it coal. 

Have you ever heard of The Industrial Revolution?

The industrial revolution began in Britain in the late 1700s. People used to make things like clothing and tools manually by hand but after the discovery of steam power energy using coal, the factories started to use machines to operate their businesses for mass production.  Also governments helped to build railways to send coal from mines to the factories and homes. 

1859 the US found petroleum (oil) underground which is now commonly used for gasoline 

In the late 1800’s the gasoline engine was invented and cars became widely available in the early 20th century. Another big event around the time was that in 1903 the Wright Brothers successfully flew their airplane.

By the 1970’s and 80’s, the World started to notice something is destroying our environment… 

1988 the World created the IPCC, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The IPCC is a group of scientists chosen by governments study and assessing the science related to climate change.

In 2007, The IPCC proved climate change is WITHOUT A DOUBT because of human activities. 

In 2015 environmental leaders from 196 countries gathered in Paris to create a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It’s called The Paris Agreement. 

They talk about reducing CO2 and limiting climate change. 

It seems like currently most nations failed to meet their commitments in the 2015 Paris agreement… It’s not a good idea that they say they will and they won’t. People only behave that way when they don’t care about it. 

We used to have a good balance of lifecycle. Humans and animals breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide - and trees and plants take carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis and produce oxygen. But those cycle became unbalanced due to the desire of humans’.

“If humans didn’t exist on Earth, do you think Earth could be a much better place for other living things?”

If I asked this question to people 1000 years ago, probably they would disagree 

If I ask this question to people now, people will surely say yes to the question. Well, the people who care about nature and our Planet.

If we ask this question to people 50 years from now I really hope people would say No and will be doing the right things to bring back the Earth to where it needs to be so we can have our future.