Unit 12: Earth's Changing Climate // Interactive Labs

Energy Lab (Units 10, 12, 13)

In today's world, with populations and economies booming, the demand for energy is rising. A portfolio of different energy sources is used to meet this demand. Since there is no perfectly clean, safe, and inexpensive source of energy, the composition of this portfolio involves tradeoffs of safety, cost, and—of increasing concern—emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO² (if you haven't done the Carbon Cycle lab yet, we recommend you start there). In this lab, your challenge is to try to meet the world's projected energy demand by choosing from the available energy sources while keeping atmospheric CO₂ under control and avoiding the particular limits and pitfalls associated with each energy source.