How does wasting electricity cause climate change?
Most electricity comes from power stations that run on fossil fuel. The process of obtaining energy from fuel results in the emission of CO2 into our atmosphere. There is about 30% more CO2 in the atmosphere now than before the industrial era. And it is predicted that by the end of the century, the number will increase by another 30%. The rising CO2, along with other greenhouse gases, is believed by many scientists to increase “radiative forcing” (how much sun radiation enters the atmosphere, versus how much gets back out). This causes the planet to heat up. The belief is, if we could be more efficient in our consumption of energy, our chemical emissions into the atmosphere would decrease, lowering our contribution to the [otherwise potentially natural process of] global warming.
