Blog 02

          This week, the main topics were based on energy use, energy choices, and the results of these choices that we make. The United States has been using large quantities of energy, roughly 20% of the world's energy consumption is done by the United States. But as we move forward, many countries countries such as China and India are developing and have and increased demand for energy in their developing nations. This seems like it will tip the balance of energy use towards those nations; not that the United States is predicted to consume much less energy in the foreseeable future, but these other nations have such large populations that will require energy. It also most likely that the energy will be, in these developing nations, obtained by methods that are harmful to the environment, as was the case in the United States during our development. With this, there doesn't seem to be anything slowing down the world's increasing use of energy.
          Our energy choices affect the environment around us in many ways; our methods of obtaining energy can change the surrounding ecosystems, affect our air quality, and emit greenhouse gases into our atmosphere and presumably raise the temperature of our planet. But this has been a highly debated topic due to the uncertainties that lie within it. Most people agree that greenhouse gases could raise the temperature of our planet, but it is hard to tell how much. This is because the planer shift in the Earth's orbit causing Milankovitch cycles that we have always gone though. These cycles are what causes the ice ages and the warm periods between ices ages. We are still in the warming cycle, so the world's temperature will increase naturally(slowly) without any human involvement. So this makes it impossible to predict how much the temperature is increasing from greenhouse gases, and how much of the temperature change is part of our natural climate shift.