Tales From Earth:The Politics of Power
An issue riding increasingly high in the political agenda on Earth is the means by which humans are generating power for their civilisations, in the form of national (and sometimes international) electricity grids. The development of national electricity transmission networks is one of the key developments of the 20th Century on Earth, with this electricity now powering many aspects of everyday lives, from lighting and heating to domestic appliances and heavy industry. Since inception, this electricity has largely been generated through the burning of fossil fuels, converting this heat into energy through the use of older steam-based turbine technology.
Fossil fuels are fuels that are discovered buried deep within the Earth, having been formed many hundred of thousands of years ago through the fossilisation of plant and animal matter. This process of fossilisation removed huge quantities of Carbon Dioxide, absorbed into the plant matter through photosynthesis, from the atmosphere and buried it underground. The process of burning such fossil fuels, which are found in liquid (oil), solid (coal) and gas states, reverses this process, releasing Carbon Dioxide back into the atmosphere.
Carbon Dioxide has now been identified by Earth scientists as one of the primary 'greenhouse gases' - so called because they allow heat coming direct from the Sun to hit the Earth's surface, but reflect much of the heat radiating back from Earth. The overall effect is for the Earth's atmosphere to slowly rise in temperature. This effect - dubbed 'Global Warming' - can already be observed, but predictions of what damage it will cause in the future are harder to estimate. One known effect is that sea levels will rise - due to both the melting of polar icecaps and the warming of the seas causing an increase in volume. Over time, rising sea levels could mean that low-lying villages, towns and cities experience frequent flooding, perhaps eventually remaining permanently under water. Other effects may be an increase in extreme weather conditions (hurricanes, storms and heavy rainfalls) and a destabilising of local ecosystems.
