HSE

How does conserving electricity help to protect the environment?

We are having a "Green" Week at school and have been asked to come up for ideas for a special day that will be useful in protecting the environment - lots of people have suggested having a "No Electricity" day - how will this be useful for protecting the enviromnment?

Public Comments

1. Most electricity (in the UK) is generated by burning either coal or gas - which releases CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere, so using less electricity means that the power companies would burn less fuel.
2. We use less energy and thus this puts less of a strain on natural resources. The most common and damaging sources on the environment is burning coal and nuclear power. Coal releases CO2 into the environment and accelerates Global Warming. Nuclear power is risky and the waste generated takes centuries to decay and become safe because of radiation.
3. Engine powered generators produce electric , nuclear generators produced electric
4. Well the less electricity used the less fossil fuels are used so less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere!!!
5. lesser use of electricity means lesser need to create electricity which means lesser exploitation of resources
6. By using less electricty, the rate of which environmentally detremental agents are released is reduced, allowing for a longer period of time for which the rate of which the Earth effectively 'heals' itself to increase. This is an oversimplified version... In order to pruduce electricty and power, fossil fuels have to be burned which releases CO2, SO2 and all kinds of polluting agents into the environment, reduction in demand means less of these greenhouse gases are released and thereby decelarating the global warming effect. Even in nations where more 'natrual' resources are used (geothermal, hydroelectric power etc), a reduction in power generation is a good thing. Considering that the Earth is in short supply of replinishable resources, more conservative spending of resources means that the resources used for power generation last longer, prolonging the ultimate political instability and possible wars of global power shortages- till possibly far more succesful and effective alternatives are discovered.