Everyday we use a lot energy. In fact, on average in 2012, an American use almost 149 million BTU a year1, which translates to almost half a million BTU a day. That's a whole lot of energy used.
We use a lot of fossil fuels. In fact 39% of the amount of energy we use is from coal alone1. That is still a lot of energy from fossil fuels. In fact, it is estimated that we use 41 pounds of coal everyday or 15,000 pounds of coal every year. Use AR to see how much 41 pounds of coal will look like in real life.
Being dependent on fossil fuels is dangerous for our environment, other species, and lives.
As we use burn more and more fossil fuels to power our everyday lives, the emissions released harm our environment. Those emissions including CO2 absorb the sun's heat energy and scatter that energy everywhere2, which then leads to earth warming up. When the earth warms up, ice caps slowly melt away. Use AR to see a ice caps melting.
But melting ice caps hurts animals that live and depend on the ice caps like polar bears, seals, birds, and whales. Polar bears rely on ice caps to roam around and look for food. Seals rely on ice caps live underneath the ice caps to hunt for food, and they use their sharp teeth to punch holes in the ice for air. Some birds live on the ice cap and feast on leftovers from the polar bear. Orca whales live in groups in shallow water near ice caps.3
It also affects vulnerable and dense urban areas like...
Which is home to places like...
These places are not tourist attractions anymore but rather become vulnerable to water.
As ice caps, sea level slowly rise. In fact, over the last century, the sea level at Boston Harbor rose by 28 centimeters. Although 28 centimeters is a little less than 1 feet, our seas are rapidly rising, and soon that will add up. By the end of this decade, scientist estimate that our seas will be 15 centimeters higher. If we keep using fossils fuels like we are today, in 2100, the seas can rise as much as 3 meters.4 That's a lot! Use AR to see what the Boston Harbor Hotel could look like in 2100.
Storm surge is major issue during storms. Storm surge is when the sea literally rises during a storm. Most of the, storm surges happen along the coast, which Boston has seen during the blizzard of 2018. During the blizzard, storm surge reached 3.50 feet.5 You can see this effect in the image below. Use AR to what Long Wharf would look like in 2100.
But it also hurts sea creatures. As we use more and more CO2, oceans become or acidic. This hurts sea creatures with shells.
Warming oceans also hurt many sea creatures as the water becomes too hot for them to live and thrive on. We can see many sea creatures we know and love go extinct.
If we do not do anything, these problems are going to happen, and maybe get even worse. We need real solutions not distractions. We only have about 80 years to get it right.