Home

Central Studies

Body in Question

Com Systems

Tech World

Earth & Cosmos

Stage 2

English

Communications

(Pauline 2006)

Staff Pages

ASMS PD Field trips

LMS guide

Admin Pages

Help Pages

RSS Feed

Welcome to our introduction to renewable and non-renewable energy page.  This page provides relative information concerning greenhouse gases, global warming and the impact of global warming.

 Australia generates its own electricity and produces around 169,871 million kilowatt hours or 1.2% of the worlds current usage. 91% of electricity that is generated in Australia uses non-renewable energy (fossil fuels).  Only 9% comes from renewable energy

Fossil fuels make up all non-renewable energy sources for electricity.  The main fossil fuel is black coal, it has the largest supply and is closer to the power stations. The other fossil fuels are brown coal, gas and oil.  These are known as fossil fuels as they were formed from the fossilized remains of animals and plants that lived long before dinosaurs.  The plants and animals settled at the bottoms of lakes and oceans to be covered over with sand and mud.  Millions of years later the Earth’s heat and pressure has made them into fossil fuels.

Australia is a large exporter of fossil fuels, particularly black coal, the fossil fuels are exported to countries like Japan that do not have any fossil fuel reserves of their own

Hydro is the renewable energy that is used most for generation of electricity.  Hydro produces 8% of Australia’s electricity requirements, 1% of the requirements is produced by biomass, wind and solar generation

Greenhouse gases and global warming

Earths atmosphere consists of many different types of gases.  Theses gases allow the suns rays to pass through so the Earth can absorb the suns energy.  Earth later releases the energy, which is absorbed by green house gases which absorb part of the energy, storing it as heat (Greenhouse effect).  Greenhouse gases keep the temperature on Earth warm enough for plants, animals and humans to live.  Without the gases, the average temperature would drop to -18˚ C, which is too low for humans to survive.  Three quarters of the natural green house effect is due to water vapour.  The most significant greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide or CO₂.  Other greenhouse gases include methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Global Warming

Evidence shows people are adding to the natural greenhouse effect by polluting Earths atmosphere with extra CO₂.  Some people believe this will increase the amount of heat that is trapped in the lower atmosphere and cause increases in temperature and changes in weather patterns.  The levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere have increased by 28% since the 1700’s.  The increase may be due to the destruction of forest areas.  Burning of fossil fuels is also likely to contribute to the increase

Impact of global warming

It is believed that if global warming continues, the average temperature of Earths atmosphere will increase.  This will cause significant changes to Earth’s climate and may lead to other changes.  These other changes, are rising sea levels (as polar ice caps melt) and changes in rainfall patterns (more droughts or floods)

back