Saw this breakdown of U.S. electrical energy generation by source and it reminded me of how far we have to go.
Hard to believe it’s been 33 years since climate scientist Stephen Schneider first predicted global warming and already 11 years since the hammering out of the Kyoto Protocol.
Coal still accounts for 48.5 percent of U.S.electrical energy use with natural gas at a still somewhat distant 21.4 percent.
Sure, petroleum is just 1.6 percent. But renewable is itself only 2.5 percent, according to August figures from the Department of Energy.
What’s interesting is that biomass now generates 53 percent of all renewable electricity and wind, 31 percent. Geothermal comes up with 14 percent and solar, just 2 percent.
It has been 47 years since the publication of “Silent Spring” kicked off the environmental movement and still tens of thousands of Americans still don’t believe in greenhouse gas warming or understand the consequences. You would think we might do better then that.
Sure, Al Gore won the 2007 Nobel Peace prize for “An Inconvenient Truth.” It is time to translate that fame into progress.
Here are the rest of the DoE figures: nuclear, 19.4 percent; hydropower, 6 percent; and other, less than 1 percent.
The sources of electricity in the U.S. (DoE's August figures)
