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chapter one
energy today
i can feel the plane shaking as it gets
faster then suddenly lifts into the air
its engines are burning 1.5 liters of
fuel
every second as we climb into the sky
above istanbul
it is seven o'clock on a cold february
evening
in a city of 13 million people
below me people are traveling home from
work
in cars buses trains
and boats through the plain
window i can see thousands of lights
from factories streets shops
houses and ships in the mamara sea
the city lights look beautiful at night
but have you ever thought about how much
energy they use
where does all this energy come from
about two hours later i open the front
door of my house
in adana in eastern turkey
i can smell food cooking and hear the
sound of a tv
a red light goes on and off on the
telephone
all over the house machines are taking
messages
washing cooking and heating the house
perhaps you are reading this book at
home
are the lights on in your room
are you listening to music
how many machines can you see around you
right now
this moment around the world
billions of lights computers
tvs and fridges are turned on
at any moment of any day 25
million cars are driving on roads
and nearly 700 000 people
are flying somewhere in a plane
most of the energy that we use for these
things
comes from fuels like coal oil
and natural gas one day
soon we will not have any more of these
fuels
where will our energy come from in the
future
and how will this change our world
chapter 2 fossil fuels
for thousands of years people made
things with their hands
they used the power of the wind water
and animals to travel move
or build things most people
burnt wood to heat their homes and to
cook
then in october 1765
a young engineer called james watt
built a machine that changed the world
a steam engine to make a steam engine
work coal is burnt to heat
water and this makes steam
the steam goes into the engine and
moves the parts inside it
there were steam engines before 1765
but what's new engine worked much better
and could move big machines in factories
soon people began to build factories
everywhere
in the next hundred years lots of new
factory machines were invented
they made new products for people to buy
suddenly our houses were full of
new things in many countries
thousands of people left their villages
and moved to the cities to work in the
factories
poor workers worked long hours with
dangerous machines and life was very
hard
for them smoke from the burning coal
filled the air in the towns
the first steam train was built in 1804
by 1850 trains and ships with steam
engines
were carrying passengers around the
world
in the 1880s the first power
stations were built they burnt
coal to make steam for huge machines
called steam turbines
when steam turbines move they
turn parts in machines called generators
which use this movement to make
electricity
soon electric lights appeared on the
streets
and people had electric power at home
in 1885 german engineer
karl benz invented the first car
it used a new type of engine and a new
type of fuel
petrol petrol burnt
inside the engine to make the parts move
and this made it much smaller than a
steam engine
20 years later factories were producing
thousands of cars every year
and new roads crossed the land
most of these cars used petrol
which comes from oil
in 1903 orville and wilbur wright
used a petrol engine to fly the world's
first
airplane
things like the steam engine electricity
and the car changed the lives of
everyone on earth they also changed the
way that we get energy
today about 87 of the world's energy
comes from burning coal oil and natural
gas
where do these fuels come from and how
do we use them today
coal oil and natural gas
come from things that were alive
millions of years ago
oil and natural gas come from animals
that lived in the sea
coal comes from plants that lived in wet
places such as land next to rivers or
lakes
over millions of years far under the
ground
they changed into coal oil
and natural gas we call these kinds of
fuel
fossil fuels and the oldest ones
are about 400 million years old
coal we have used coal
for a long time two thousand
years ago the roman people used it to
heat their homes
and make metals we
still use coal for these things today
but most coal is burnt in power stations
to make electricity
about 40 percent of the world's
electricity comes from coal
every week somewhere in the world a new
power station that
burns coal is built
to make the electricity that your fridge
uses
in one year you need about
kilograms of coal
the biggest coal power stations burn
10 to 15 million tons of coal
every year a lot of that
coal comes in ships from thousands of
kilometers away
in some places we get this coal
from huge holes on the surface of the
earth
in other places the coal comes from
hundreds of meters
under the ground there is not
much room to move and the temperature
can be
40 degrees celsius or more
it is difficult to get enough clean air
and often too noisy to speak
getting the coal from under the ground
is dirty
dangerous work but millions of people do
it
every day every year
about five thousand of them die
oil in places like
saudi arabia nigeria
and venezuela there are lakes of
oil called oil fields under the ground
to get the oil people drill holes in the
ground
called oil wells
some of these wells are several
kilometers deep
in other places huge machines
called oil platforms drill wells under
the sea
there are often bad storms at sea
so oil platforms have to be very strong
under the water some platforms are as
tall
as skyscrapers the world's tallest
buildings
countries with oil fields send the oil
to other countries
in long pipes or in huge ships called
oil tankers
the world's biggest oil tankers can
carry
440 million litres of oil
that is as heavy as 350 000
family cars
oil contains many chemicals
the tankers take it to factories where
it is heated and cooled
to get the different chemicals from it
some of these chemicals are used to make
things like
plastic or clothes
however about 85 of the oil
is made into fuels
there are different types of fuel for
engines in
cars ships and planes
the factories also make fuel for heating
buildings
and for burning in power stations to
make electricity
every year we make about 60 million
new cars and thousands of ships and
planes
so every year we need more and more
oil natural
gas about 2
000 years ago people in china
made pipes from tall bamboo plants
they used them to drill wells and find
natural gas hundreds of meters under the
ground
the pipes carried the gas to their homes
where they used it for gas lights and
heating water
today we burn natural gas in factories
and power stations
we also use it in homes for heating and
cooking
there are even cars and buses which
drive on
natural gas instead of petrol
natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel
it produces much less pollution than
burning
coal or oil
when a person in britain cooks something
the natural gas that they use may come
from
norway russia or kazakhstan
how do they get the gas from these
places
often the gas goes through pipes
one gas pipe under the sea from norway
to britain
is one thousand two hundred kilometers
long
in other places the gas is cooled
to make it into a liquid
this liquid gas is put in ships
called gas tankers
a lot of the world's natural gas is
found inside a type of rock
called shale in the past
it was too difficult and expensive
to get the gas from inside the rock
now in places like pennsylvania in the
usa
people are using water to break the
shale rocks under the ground
and get the gas in the first
10 weeks of 2011 300
new gas wells were drilled in the usa
the problem is that each well will
produce
millions of liters of polluted water
you have to clean all this water or keep
it somewhere safe
it is always the same story
today shale gas is the newest fossil
fuel
to bring good things for some people
new jobs and money and
bad things for others pollution from
dirty water
in rich countries fossil fuels have made
it possible for most
people to live a very comfortable life
will they destroy that life one day too
[Music]
chapter 3 energy
and our planet
in the waters of the gulf of mexico
between mexico and the usa
there are more than 2 300 oil platforms
on the 20th of april 2010
oil workers were drilling on one
platform
when gas from the well exploded
the oil platform was destroyed
and 11 workers died
after the accident oil started to escape
from the well at the bottom of the sea
it took two months for people to close
the well
in that time nearly 800 million liters
of
oil went into the sea
ugly black oil polluted beaches for
hundreds of kilometers
many birds and sea animals died
and people who worked in tourists and
fishing businesses
lost their jobs
as the world's population grows
we need more and more energy
to find enough coal oil and natural gas
people are digging and drilling deeper
energy companies are searching for
fossil fuels
in places like alaska and the amazon
but pollution and accidents can cause
great damage to these beautiful natural
places
burning fossil fuels produces dangerous
gases some of them pollute our cities
and damage people's health
every year about two million
people die because of air pollution
scientists think that other gases
like carbon dioxide co2
are changing the world's climate
if a plane flies from singapore to los
angeles and back its engines produce
about
seven tons of co2 for every passenger on
the plane
since the steam engine was invented the
amount of
co2 in the air has grown by 35 percent
co2 catches heat from the sun
so this makes the climate warmer
because of this in some places there is
less rain than there used to be
farmers cannot grow enough food and
forests are burning in the hot dry
weather
in other places there is now too much
rain
terrible floods destroy farms and houses
on high mountains and in the arctic
and antarctic warmer weather is heating
the ice and snow
and changing it to water
this means that more water is going into
the sea
so the sea is getting higher
islands around the world are starting to
disappear
under the sea cities on the coast
like shanghai dubai and
venice may disappear one day
too many living things
are dying because a hotter climate
is changing the places where they live
from the forests of costa rica to the
ice of the arctic ocean
the land is changing and animals are
disappearing
the facts are frightening
every day the world loses about 150
different types of plants or animals
at the moment the richest countries in
the world
use most of the energy and produce
most of the pollution for example
the usa has only five percent of the
world's population
but in any year it uses about 25
of all the world's energy
it also produces about 45 percent of the
world's
co2
australia produces more carbon pollution
per person than any other country
but as other countries get richer
their populations want more things like
tvs computers and cars
and that means they are starting to use
more and more energy to produce
and run them
around the world we use about 12 billion
liters of oil
19.8 billion kilograms of coal
and 10 billion cubic meters of natural
gas
every day but
scientists think that 40 or 50 years
from now
there will be no more oil
about 20 years after that we will have
no natural gas
finally in about 120 years
we will finish all of the world's coal
one day all the fossil fuels will be
gone
we do not need to use fossil fuels
there are lots of other ways to produce
energy
the problem is that most of the world's
car engines
heating machines and power stations
were built to use fossil fuels
changing this will take a long time
so a lot of people want to try to save
energy
too the good news
is that there are lots of ways to do
this
[Music]
chapter four saving energy
about half of the energy that we produce
is wasted electricity is lost in
power cables and cars waste fuel
as they wait in traffic
governments can save energy by building
better power stations for example
but we can help a lot too
what can we do to save energy
cars on the santa monica freeway
in los angeles thousands of people are
trying to get to work
but they are going nowhere
a driver in los angeles spends about
70 hours a year in traffic that is not
moving while long
lines of cars wait under the hot
californian sun
their engines are producing dangerous
gases
drivers look angrily at their watches
sometimes you cannot see the sun
in los angeles because of all the
pollution in the air
it is the same every morning in sao
paulo
moscow bangkok and many other cities
what about other ways to travel
walking and cycling to work or school
are great ways to save energy and stay
healthy as well
if you cannot cycle or walk somewhere
you can still save energy if you take a
train
or bus instead of driving
in a lot of cities people are joining
car sharing groups each person in the
group
drives their friends to work one day a
week
everyone saves petrol and money
and there are fewer cars on the road
food all the time
millions of tons of food are moving
around the world
and this uses huge amounts of energy
of course you cannot grow tea in iceland
or rice in qatar so we have to buy food
from other countries
it is great to eat italian spaghetti
or enjoy a hot cup of kenyan coffee
but it is also good to think about where
some of the food on our table
comes from if we want to save energy
we can try to buy more things that were
produced
in our country in
turkish supermarkets for example
you can buy bananas from animal in
turkey or from ecuador which is 12 000
kilometers away
people say you should not go into a
supermarket when you feel hungry
and it is probably true
supermarkets are full of fantastic
things
and it is easy for hungry shoppers to
buy
more food than they really need
in european countries each family throws
away
more than a thousand dollars of food
every year
twenty to twenty five percent of all the
food that they buy
some of that unwanted food has come in
ships from the other side
of the world so next time you go
shopping it may be a good idea to eat
something first
energy at home
imagine two power stations working
24 hours a day 365
days a year that is how much energy
people in britain waste by leaving
things like
tvs on standby turned on
and ready to use
did you know that leaving a tv
on standby all day can use the same
amount of
power as watching it for an hour
how many machines are on standby in your
house
can you turn any of them off
when you turn on a normal light bulb
only ten percent of the electricity it
uses
turns into light the other
ninety 90 is wasted as heat
using energy saving light bulbs
saves 80 percent of that electricity
and you can use them for much longer too
do you like to heat your house to 26
degrees celsius
in the winter or cool it
to 18 degrees celsius in the summer half
of the energy that we use at home
is used to heat or cool the house
you can save a lot of energy if you keep
your house at 22 degrees celsius
all year and put on warmer or
cooler clothes it also takes a lot of
energy to heat
water when you make a hot
drink it is good to heat just as much
water as you need not more
rubbish every day
people in greece throw away 8 million
plastic bottles around the world
we produce millions of tons of rubbish
every year some of this rubbish is
recycled
but most of it is thrown into big holes
in the ground
rubbish like this may be dangerous for
animals
and people for hundreds of years
recycling an old aluminium drinks
container
only uses 5 of the energy that we need
to produce a new one
rubbish is taken to places called
recycling centers
where it is put into different groups
later each different kind of rubbish
is broken into pieces and made
into new materials
recycling is easy to do
it is good for the natural world and it
saves a lot of energy
is there a recycling center near you
saving energy means thinking more about
the things that we do
every day if we do this
we can stop a lot of pollution and
save money too
[Music]
chapter five the power of the atom
on a cold afternoon in december 1951
a small group of scientists stood in a
room
in idaho usa
they watched excitedly as four
ordinary light bulbs were turned on
then they shouted and shook hands
they had just invented a new way to make
electricity
nuclear power
today nuclear power produces about
13 of the world's electricity
one kilogram of nuclear fuel
can have as much energy as 1.5
million kilograms of coal
when nuclear power was invented
some people thought it was the answer to
all our energy problems
today many people are afraid of it
so what is nuclear power
and what are the dangers
everything around us is made of atoms
some metals like uranium are radioactive
which means that the center of the atom
can break
the process of breaking the center of
the atom
is called nuclear fission
and it is this process that produces
nuclear energy
uranium-235 the type of uranium that we
usually use for fuel
is found in rocks around the world
it is difficult and expensive to get it
from the rocks
and make it into fuel
in nuclear power stations sticks of
uranium
235 fuel are put inside a place
called a nuclear reactor
other sticks called control rods go
between
the sticks of fuel they stop the reactor
from becoming too
hot in most reactors
water is used to cool the fuel
and the water then becomes hot
this hot water moves through pipes
and heats clean water outside the
reactor
the clean water turns into steam that
moves steam
turbines
energy from nuclear fission travels
through
other things this moving energy
is called radiation and it makes
everything inside the reactor building
radioactive radiation
is very dangerous for people so
nuclear reactors have thick strong
walls these stop
water gas or anything inside the reactor
from escaping
about 30 countries have nuclear power
stations
and others want to build them
many people think that using nuclear
power
is better than burning fossil fuels
because it does not produce gases like
co2
other people worry about nuclear waste
and accidents
nuclear safety
old fuel and other waste from nuclear
reactors
is very radioactive and very dangerous
some waste is recycled and used in
reactors again
but a lot is kept in very strong
containers
under the ground this worries many
people
could nuclear waste get into water in
the ground one day
could people steal nuclear waste
and use it to make a bomb
some nuclear waste will be dangerous
for 20 000 years
that is a long time to keep something
safe
on the 25th of may 1986
nuclear fuel in a reactor at the
chernobyl power station
in the ukraine began to get hotter
and hotter workers could not
cool the reactor and finally it exploded
radioactive fuel and control rods
were thrown high into the air
fires in the reactor burnt for 15
days and radioactive smoke
traveled across europe and the black sea
by 2005 56 people had
died because of the accident
scientists think that in time about
4 000 people in the ukraine
belarus and other countries
may die because of chernobyl
today most nuclear power stations
are much safer than they were at the
time of chernobyl
but things can still go wrong
on the 11th of march 2011
a huge earthquake happened under the sea
near japan about 40 minutes later
a wave 14 meters high
hit the coast near the 40 year old
fukushima nuclear power station
water destroyed machines at the power
station
so people could not call the reactors
in the days after the accident teams of
brave engineers worked day and night
to keep the power stations safe
there were big explosions and
radioactive gas
went into the air later
radioactive water went into the sea
much less radiation escaped from
fukushima
than from chernobyl but it showed the
world
that safety in nuclear reactors
is still terribly important
nuclear fusion
around the world scientists are trying
to build
a new type of nuclear reactor
if they succeed nuclear power will be
much safer and it will also become
much more important the new reactors
will get energy
from nuclear fusion
nuclear fusion happens on the sun
and it produces a lot more energy than
nuclear fission
inside the sun atoms of hydrogen
join together to make bigger helium
atoms and this produces a huge amount of
energy
future nuclear fusion reactors
will not produce much waste and they
will also
be safer because you can stop the fusion
process
quickly so why
are we not using them today
imagine trying to put the sun inside a
room
and you will understand how difficult it
is to build a fusion reactor
to start nuclear fusion the atoms in the
fuel
must reach temperatures of about 150
million degrees
celsius at the moment
people are trying different ways to
start nuclear fusion
and keep the hot fuel from touching the
sides of the reactor
but it is very difficult
in the future we may power our cities
with nuclear
fusion but we have to find answers to a
lot of problems
first
while nuclear fuels continue to provide
power in many countries scientists
keep looking for new fuels that are
clean
and safe and some of their ideas are
quite
unusual
[Music]
chapter six super fuels
imagine growing fuel on trees
or getting it from rubbish
imagine cars that run on air or produce
water not pollution
all around the world people are making
surprising
new fuels
biogas
biogas is made from plants or natural
waste
by living things called bacteria
they break the waste down and produce
gases like methane and carbon monoxide
in most places the gases pollute the air
but at banderantes near sao paulo
in brazil pipes take the gas from
under the ground the gas
is burnt at a power station to produce
electricity
for 400 000 people
villagers in india use animal
and food waste to make biogas
bacteria break the waste down in a
special container
and the gas is used for cooking and
lights
just one kilogram of waste produces
enough biogas
to make a light work for four hours
in sweden they even make biogas
for cars from toilet waste
a year's waste from 70 toilets
makes enough fuel for a small car to
travel
sixteen thousand kilometers
biofuels biofuels
are made from fuels that grow
the oldest biofuel is wood
but today we are using different kinds
of plants
and even old coffee to make new
biofuels
the problem with some biofuels is that
it takes a lot of land to grow the fuel
which means less land for growing food
if you want to fly a boeing 747
plane the 350 kilometers from
london to amsterdam on coconut biofuel
you will need to grow about three
million coconuts
there is another problem too
people may destroy forests to grow
plants for biofuel
in brazil cars and buses
have used a fuel called bioethanol for
years
bioethanol is great because we make it
from the waste
parts of plants that we already grow
for food most brazilian
bioethanol is made from sugarcane
the tall plant that we grow for sugar
the sugarcane is broken up in machines
and the liquid is taken to make sugar
the rest of the plant is turned into
paper
or used to make bioethanol
even the electricity that the bioethanol
factories use
comes from burning sugarcane
burning biofuels produces gases
like co2 but when we grow them
the plants take co2 out of the air
because of this sugarcane bioethanol
produces 78 percent less co2
than petrol
the newest biofuels are made from
very small living things called algae
algae produce more energy than other
biofuels
and they can grow in places where we do
not grow
food like seas and wasteland
in the future people want to change the
way that some bacteria
and plants grow in this way
they hope to get biofuels that work
better
or grow in different places
one day there may be huge algae farms in
the sea
and many buildings may grow biofuel
plants on their roofs
driving on air
electric cars do not burn fuel
devices called batteries keep
electricity
and use it to power the engine
people have driven them for years and
they are a great way to have
less pollution in city centers
but where does the electricity come from
it may come from burning coal for
example
future electric cars will not need to
get electricity from anywhere
people are developing new batteries
which use a metal
called zinc when zinc
mixes with oxygen from the air a
chemical process makes electricity
when the battery is finished the zinc
can easily
be recycled and used again
hydrogen the cleanest fuel
is hydrogen when hydrogen
burns it just makes water
we already have cars and even
helicopters
that use hydrogen but this gas
is difficult to produce
most hydrogen is made from fossil fuels
and this produces pollution
about four percent of hydrogen is made
from
water but this process uses a lot of
electricity
and can be dangerous
in 2010 engineers invented a machine
which uses energy from the sun
to make hydrogen other people are trying
to use bacteria to make it
these clean ways of making hydrogen
are still very new if they become
cheaper we may all drive hydrogen cars
in the future
scientists are developing lots of new
fuels
but it will be a long time before most
of us
can use them the biggest problem
is finding the money to make the
necessary changes
to things like cars and petrol stations
for example there are about 140
000 petrol stations in the usa today
but only 2 800 of them
sell bioethanol
renewable energy is energy which comes
from things that go
on and on like the sun or the wind
some of the fuels in this chapter are
renewable
and some are not
biofuels are renewable because we can
grow them again
every year hydrogen
is a renewable fuel when we make it from
water
but not when we make it from fossil
fuels
in the next few chapters we will look at
some other types of renewable
energy
[Music]
a bright future
the sunlight that reaches earth in one
hour
has as much energy as all the power that
people use
in a year but how can we get this
energy and use it on earth
solar means coming from the sun
so when you use sunlight to make things
hot
it is called solar thermal power
many buildings use materials like glass
and plastic to catch sunlight and heat
the building
in africa people use solar cookers
when light hits the surface of the
cooker it is reflected into the middle
the middle becomes hot enough to heat
water
or cook food in countries like
turkey and china people put solar water
heaters on their roofs
these are metal and glass boxes
with water pipes in them
the glass catches heat and the metal
reflects sunlight onto the water pipes
which carry the hot water down into the
houses
we can use sunlight to make electricity
too
with devices called solar cells
which are made of silicon when sunlight
hits the silicon
particles inside it move and this
makes electricity
one solar cell does not produce much
power
so we put the cells together to make big
solar panels at the moment
the best solar cells can only use about
25 of the sunlight that hits them
and they are an expensive way to produce
electricity
but people are inventing better and
cheaper
solar cells all the time
in the future we will use it to do more
and more things you can already buy
solar lights solar radios
and small solar panels for things like
computers and phones
we can use solar power to travel too
in july 2010 andre
borschberg flew a solar plane called
solar impulse for 26 hours before he
stopped
power for the four engines came from
twelve
thousand solar cells on the wings of the
plane
it was able to fly at night because of
batteries inside the plane
which kept solar energy
there are also solar boats and every two
years
in the world solar challenge solar cars
leave darwin on a 3 000 kilometer
journey across
australia they all try to be the first
to arrive in adelaide
and the fastest cars can reach a hundred
kilometers per hour
in sunny countries like spain china
and the usa they are building huge solar
power stations
some use solar panels and others use
devices called reflectors
to reflect sunlight onto water pipes
or tall towers the
anderson power station in spain
is as big as 70 football fields
it produces enough energy for 200
000 homes
imagine standing in the sahara desert
in 50 years time
the bright sun hurts your eyes
and the heat is fantastic
all around you can see tall towers
and thousands of solar reflectors
it is only a dream at the moment but
many people want to build hundreds of
solar power stations
in the sahara desert where it is hot and
sunny
for 365 days a year
just naught point three percent of the
sahara desert
gets enough sunlight to produce
electricity
for all the people in europe
[Music]
chapter eight when the wind blows
on a clear day you can see them from the
land
they look like huge metal flowers
growing out of the sea
when you get closer you realize
how big they are the sanet
wind farm is 12 kilometers off the
english coast
each of its 100 wind turbines
is 115 meters tall
as wind turns the turbines
generators inside them produce
electricity
together the turbines make enough power
for
200 000 homes
there are 250 wind power stations
called wind farms in britain
and people are building more every year
by 2020 britain may get
25 of all its energy from the wind
bahrain is famous for the strong winds
that blow at different times of the year
the world trade center in bahrain
is a skyscraper with three wind turbines
the turbines are 29 meters across
and they produce about 15 percent of the
electricity for the building
that is enough energy for 300 homes
the shape of the building moves the wind
towards the turbines
it was very difficult to build the
bahrain
world trade center because it was the
first building of its type
in the world the engineers had to stop
the moving turbines
shaking the building and destroying it
now skyscrapers with huge wind turbines
are appearing in cities around the world
some future skyscrapers will not
use turbines the building will turn
in the wind as the parts of the building
move generators between the floors
will produce power
because the wind will move faster at the
top
and slower at the bottom of the building
each floor will turn
in a different way what you can see from
your window
will change all the time
lots of city buildings now have small
wind turbines on the roof and you can
even buy one to power your house
wind turbines used to be ugly
but now there are lots of different
shapes and colors
and they are great for parks and city
centers
soon tourists will see a wind turbine
with
changing colors and pictures outside
buckingham palace in london for example
of course wind turbines do not
work when the wind is not blowing
but people are finding new ways to catch
or produce
enough wind when it is not very windy on
the ground
look at the sky and you will often see
the clouds moving
fast above you
mars wind turbines fly a few hundred
meters
above the ground their shape
makes them turn in the wind and that
produces electricity
long cables tie them to the ground
and carry the electricity
another idea is to use wind turbines
next to busy roads as cars go
past they move a lot of air
and this drives the turbines
in jinsha one china a tall tower stands
in a field of glass
the sun heats the air under the glass
the hot air moves up the tower and
wind turbines inside the tower make
electricity
in the future people are planning to
build towers like this
in places like australia and the usa
some of them will be higher than the
tallest skyscrapers
in the world
we have used the wind to sail for
thousands of years
but the engines of today's big ships
use diesel fuel which comes from oil
however some new passenger ships
have both engines and sails
the sails on these modern ships are
moved by computers
so they can move and catch the wind
saving the ship a lot of fuel
sky sails are another great idea
because you can use them with any ship
even old ones they fly about
200 meters above the ship and help to
pull it through the water
how about sailing to work in a car
that uses the power of the wind
the green bird looks like a plane or a
boat
but it moves on land
sometimes it can reach 200 kilometers an
hour
the green bird uses clever technology
to move five times faster than the wind
the netherlands is a country of
windmills
old buildings with sails that turn in
the wind
the country's 1200 windmills
are hundreds of years old and they are
used for lots of things
like moving water and making machines
work
now wind turbines that make electricity
are appearing all over the netherlands
for the people of the netherlands wind
power is both the past
and the future
[Music]
chapter 9 water world
i am standing by the seihan river in
turkey
and watching fish swimming in the water
how many rivers like this are there in
the world
think of all that water running down
towards the sea
moving water has much more energy than
the wind
and of course it never stops
hydroelectric power
a hydroelectric power station uses the
power of water to produce electricity
the taipo dam between brazil and
paraguay
is one of the largest hydroelectric
power stations in the world
it took forty thousand workers
nine years to build it and engineers had
to move
the parana river one of the greatest
rivers on earth
the taipo dam is as tall as a skyscraper
behind a dam water is kept in a lake
called a reservoir water from the
reservoir
moves down through huge pipes in the dam
the water turns turbines which turn
generators to produce electricity
the itaipu dam produces 90 percent of
paraguay's electricity
as well as enough power for 600 million
people in brazil
dams can be good in many ways
in egypt there used to be terrible
floods on the river nile
after heavy rain but the aswan
dam has stopped the floods
water stays behind the dam in lake nasa
and farms can use this water when it is
dry
in turkey five dams on the euphrates
river
have changed the land around
farmers can grow much more food
and people from the cities spend their
weekends
enjoying the beautiful lakes
the biggest problem with dams is that
their reservoirs cover
a lot of land beautiful places
and old buildings often disappear
under the water and people have to leave
their homes
after engineers built the itaipu dam
people in boats worked hard to save
animals
as the water flooded the forest
they also moved thousands of trees and
plants
to higher places
at abu symbol in egypt
people saved two three thousand year old
egyptian
buildings from the waters of lake nasa
the huge buildings were cut into pieces
then built again in a higher place
the workers had to cut a lot of stone by
hand
and some of the stones were 30 tons
you do not have to build a huge dam
to get energy from rivers a lot of
people
in africa and asia make hydroelectric
power themselves they put
pipes and little turbines into rivers
in places where the water is moving fast
this produces enough electricity for one
or two houses
or sometimes a village
the smallest turbines only cost
about twenty dollars
there are more than a hundred thousand
of them in rivers in vietnam
of course we do not have to get power
only from rivers
97 of the world's water
is in the sea now we are beginning to
use it
power from the sea
in 2008 passengers in plains flying to
porto
portugal looked down and saw
three strange shapes in the water
a few kilometers from the beach at
agusadora
each of these big red shapes was 142
meters long
in fact this was the world's first wave
farm
and the strange shapes were wave
power generators in the future
we may see many more farms like these
near the portuguese coast
getting power from the restless waves of
the atlantic
when wave power generators go up and
down on the water
liquids inside them move
the liquids turn turbines
or push other devices to generate power
long cables under the sea carry the
electricity to the land
the great thing about wave power is that
you can get
electricity 24 hours a day
the problem is that the waves can be
too big storms can destroy the machines
or break the cables
getting power from the waves is still
very difficult
but people are developing new devices
all the time
in may 2010 a ship
pulled a 200 meter wave power generator
through atlantic waters to orkney
north of scotland in a few years
65 more machines will join it
and together they will produce power for
about
30 000 homes
building and using the generators will
mean
new jobs for hundreds of people in
scotland
near new york city six turbines sit at
the bottom of the east river
they are five meters across and they
look like
wind turbines but they get energy from
sea water that moves past
them twice a day
in places where rivers join the sea
the water can go up and down 10 meters
or more
so it moves very fast and has a lot of
energy
to use this energy we can put turbines
under the water or build dams
the world's biggest dam that uses the
power of the sea
is at laurence in france
it is more than 300 meters long
and its 24 turbines produce enough power
for a city of more than
200 000 people
near the coast of kona hawaii
the weather is sunny and the sea is very
deep
the water is warm at the surface
but a thousand meters below this it is
10 to 20 degrees
celsius cooler people use this
temperature difference to make power
power stations like the one at keyhole
point in hawaii
use liquids like ammonia that become a
gas
at low temperatures
warm sea water heats the liquids
so they turn into gas
the gas moves turbines to generate
electricity
colder water from deeper under the sea
turns the gas back into a liquid so we
can use it again
many countries already get a lot of
their energy from water
for example norway gets 99
of its electricity from hydroelectric
power we have used hydroelectric power
for years
but in the future people will get more
energy
from the sea too we are still
learning how to do this but there are
lots of possibilities
after all seventy percent of our planet
is covered by water
[Music]
chapter 10 heat all around us
imagine you are swimming outside in the
beautiful blue waters of a hot
pool near reykjavik iceland
snow is falling all around you but the
water
is warm after a relaxing swim
you catch a bus into the city then walk
home
through the streets it is very
cold and the trees are heavy with snow
but there is no ice on the pavement
why because under your feet
hot water is heating the streets
geothermal energy comes from heat under
the ground
and people have used it for thousands of
years
the romans used geothermal water
to heat bath houses in new zealand
japan and iceland people enjoy
swimming in geothermal pools
iceland has cold winters and short
summers but it is also a land where hot
water and steam come up from under the
ground
in some places the steam is 250
degrees celsius
iceland's five geothermal power stations
use the steam from wells to drive
turbines and produce about 25 percent of
the country's electricity
in other places machines called pumps
take hot water from the ground and send
it through
pipes to houses and 87
of the buildings in iceland get their
hot water and heating
in this way hot water
under the roads and pavements keeps them
clear of snow
and safe in winter
in places like iceland steam comes out
of the ground
naturally in other places
pumps send cold water down through pipes
to hot dry rocks hundreds of meters
below
the rocks heat the water and make steam
a second pipe takes the steam from
under the ground
how safe is geothermal power
the answer is that it is not usually
dangerous
but it can be it is often difficult to
drill
geothermal wells the steam can explode
from the well
and it can bring dangerous gases with it
too
pumping cold water into the ground is
not always
safe either in basel
switzerland a geothermal power station
which used cold water was closed after
only six
days because in that time
there were ten thousand small
earthquakes
today we only get geothermal energy
from places where very hot rock lies
close to the surface
however the rocks become hotter as you
go
deeper everywhere on earth because the
center of the earth
is about 5500 degrees
celsius
the problem is that in most places you
have to go
down about 10 kilometers to find
enough heat some
oil wells are already this deep
but it is very expensive to drill them
so people do not do it yet for
geothermal wells
how hot is the ground under your feet
in most places around the world if you
dig down about
three meters the ground temperature
is 10 to 16 degrees celsius all year
devices called heat pumps use this heat
to turn a special liquid into a gas
the gas moves through pipes next to
water
as the gas loses heat energy and becomes
a liquid again
it heats the water
in cold countries hot water from heat
pumps is used to heat
buildings like schools houses
and swimming pools
when some materials become hot
particles inside them move producing
electricity
these are called thermoelectric
materials
on a summer day the streets of a city
become
very hot a road can be
70 degrees celsius
in the future some people want to put
thermoelectric materials under the roads
this could change the heat into
electricity
for things like street lights
[Music]
chapter 11 people power
in 1988 a plane called
daedalus flew 115 kilometers between the
greek islands of
crete and santorini
it is a very short flight for today's
aeroplanes
but this plane did not have any engines
the power for the plane came from the
pilot
he used his legs like someone riding a
bicycle
to make the plane go forward
in a time before modern machines
people used the power of their bodies to
build the great wall of china
today people power is back
in a small village in malawi africa
children shout excitedly as they play on
a merry-go-round
it is the favorite meeting place for all
the village children
as they turn around and around a pump
uses their movement to bring water up
from a well under the ground
in africa getting clean water
is a problem for many people they may be
many kilometers away from rivers and
river water
is not always clean getting clean water
from
under the ground can be difficult
because
pumps with engines are expensive to use
and they often break these
merry-go-round play pumps mean that
villages and schools can have clean and
safe drinking water
and the children can have fun too
when you run you have a lot of energy
which comes from the movement of your
body
when you suddenly stop your body loses
this energy
we already have watches and small
medical devices
which can use energy that we make when
we move
in the future people like police
officers and soldiers
may wear devices on their legs to catch
this
lost energy and keep it in batteries
they could use the power for computers
radios
or other devices
in december 2008 most people walking
across
hachiko square tokyo probably did not
notice four yellow squares on the
pavement
as they hurried to work
the squares were made of special
materials
that make electricity when they change
shape
when people stood on the squares the
shape of the materials
changed and they produced electricity
the squares were only there for 20 days
but in that time they produced enough
power to make a tv
work for 400 hours
imagine putting these squares under all
the roads and pavements in tokyo
one day we may turn our streets into
power stations
moving people can produce a lot of
energy
but what about people who cannot move
about
sick people or people sitting on trains
even when we are resting our bodies
produce enough energy to power
two laptops most of this energy
is heat now people are developing
medical devices which get their power by
changing
body heat into electricity
soon doctors will use them to do things
like
getting information about their patients
blood for example
this will be useful in places like
africa
where many villages do not have
electricity
we can use body heat in other ways too
every day 250 000
people use stockholm central station
they eat and drink carry heavy bags
and run to catch trains and their bodies
produce a lot of heat when they do these
things
inside the station heat pumps
take heat from the air and use it to
heat water for a nearby building
it is a great way to get free energy
all you need is a lot of people
[Music]
chapter 12 nano power
in 2005 scientists in the usa
built a tiny car called the nano car
how small is it it is difficult to
imagine
something so small but a hair on your
head
is 20 000 times wider
and millions of times longer
the wheels of the nanocar were made from
balls of carbon atoms
scientists used heat to move the wheels
and drive the car
nanotechnology is building things from
atoms or from molecules which are atoms
joined together like h2o
in the future we will use it to make
tiny machines
called nanobots
millions of these machines will do
things like clean waste
and build or fix things
doctors may use them to help sick people
they could travel through our bodies and
fix
damage inside us
tiny generators called nanogenerators
will produce power they will get
energy from light or from movements
around them
for example blood moving around your
body
or sound moving through the air
in the future we may print nano
generators onto materials for making
clothes
they may power the phones in our pockets
heat our clothes in cold weather or
change the colors of a favorite dress
scientists have already invented the
first
nanogenerators tiny solar cells
most solar cells only use the light that
people can see
nano solar cells can also use a
different kind of light
called infrared light hot things produce
this light
all the time even in the dark
we already use nano solar cells for
making thin
solar panels but they are still very new
one day we may add them to liquids which
we can put onto the outside of houses
and cars
they will use the electricity that the
nano solar cells produce
while some people are making solar cells
which are too
small for us to see other people want to
put
huge solar panels into space
we will read about them in the next
chapter
[Music]
chapter 13. energy in space
imagine that the date is 2095.
you live in a world without oil
far above you huge shapes are moving
across the sky
but you cannot see them from the ground
like many places in the world your city
gets a lot of its energy from power
stations
in space it does not sound possible
but it may happen one day
we have used solar panels in space for
years
for example they power the satellites
that move around
earth and send us information about the
weather
now some people want to send solar
energy back to earth
how will they do this they plan to make
huge solar panels from very light
materials
and pack them into small containers
when they are in space they will open
and join together to make solar power
stations
space solar power stations will take
energy from the sun and send it back to
earth
where we will change it into electricity
gases and clouds stop a lot of solar
energy before it reaches the earth
but this is not a problem for solar
panels in
space if they move around the planet
they can stay where the sun is and work
24 hours a day
a company in california plans to put the
first panels into
space in 2016.
they will produce enough electricity for
250
000 homes when we send
spacecraft to other planets we often
have to find unusual ways to power them
some have engines which produce special
atoms
called ions to push them forward
others use nuclear fuel
in 2010 a japanese spacecraft called
icarus
began sailing towards venus
when particles from the sun hit its
solar sails
they pushed the spacecraft forward like
the wind pushes the sails of a ship
because of the success of icarus other
spacecraft
may use solar sails in the future
for more than 10 years scientists from
around the world
have lived and worked in space on the
international space station
in the future countries like china
russia and japan plan to build places to
live
and work on the moon people will need to
produce energy there
because they cannot take enough fuel
from earth
they can use solar power in the day
but nights on the moon are nearly two
weeks long
how will they get energy to use in the
dark
at nasa scientists have invented
special batteries to use on the moon
in the day the batteries use solar
energy to get
hydrogen and oxygen from water
in the night the battery mixes these
gases
so that they burn this produces
energy and leaves water which the
batteries can use again
since the apollo 17 spacecraft left the
moon in december
1972 nobody has visited the moon
one day people will go back
and this time with the help of new
devices
they will probably stay
[Music]
chapter 14 going local
we do not realize it but we use
space technology all the time
when we watch tv the pictures may come
from a satellite
hundreds of kilometers above the earth
it is the same when we make phone calls
or listen to the radio
far above our heads machines are working
for us
but we will never see most of them
a few hundred years ago people mainly
used the things they could see around
them
local people grew the food and made the
products that people needed
for fuel most people got wood from a
nearby forest
today the things that we buy and the
fuel that we use
often get to us from the other side of
the world
this wastes energy and what happens when
these things do not come
local power in october 1973
governments argued and countries in the
middle east
stopped selling oil to europe and the
usa
very soon life started to change
in the usa drivers waited for hours to
buy petrol
in europe people did not have enough
fuel to heat their houses
the problems only lasted for five months
but companies closed and thousands of
people
lost their jobs
what did we learn from this
the short answer is probably not very
much
most countries still get most of their
energy from fossil fuels
this often comes in pipes or ships from
thousands of kilometers away
in 2009 russia
and the ukraine argued about the price
of natural gas
so people stopped pumping it
in some places in europe people had
no heating in the cold winter
and the temperature was down to minus 10
degrees
celsius slowly
different countries are starting to
produce their own
energy in different ways so they need
less
fuel from other places brazil
already produces a lot of biofuels
and norway and iceland get most of their
power from hydroelectric
and geothermal energy
in the future sunny spain may get a lot
of power from
solar energy and stormy island countries
like britain
will use wind turbines and wave power
generators
today we produce electricity in huge
power stations
and send it through cables to places far
away
this wastes a lot of energy
big power stations lose heat
and more energy is lost when the
electricity travels through the power
cables
surprisingly about 66
of the energy from burning fossil fuels
in power stations
never reaches our homes
sometimes a group of power stations stop
working or big power cables burn
when this happens the lights of big
cities
may go out trains stop running
and people sleep in their offices
because they cannot go home
so what can we do about these problems
is there a better way to make and send
electricity
we may not find an answer to all these
problems
but producing more power locally will
help
in the future we may produce some of our
electricity nearer to our homes
as new energy technologies become
cheaper
we will use them in more and more places
people may get their electricity from a
wind turbine in their street
or a wave power generator at a local
beach
and not from a big power station on the
other side of the country
our houses will make more electricity
too
many will have solar panels or wind
turbines
on their roofs we may also put
tiny turbines in kitchen and bathroom
water pipes
heat pumps in our walls may make hot
water for the house
and perhaps the floors under our feet
will make electricity when we walk on
them
each of these devices will only make a
little power
but when we put them together they will
make a lot
making things locally
why is it better to buy books and music
that goes straight to a computer instead
of onto paper or plastic
the answer is that it saves a lot of
energy
it saves fuel and materials for making
the products and
their containers as well in the future
some companies will save energy by
making things in a different way
recently we have invented printers which
real objects from computer designs
now they can even print objects with
moving parts
instead of making things like sports
shoes and
phones in factories and sending them to
other countries
companies may sell designs for them
people will buy the designs and print
the products
at local object printing shops
or even at home
object printing will be great for small
products
but what about making something big like
a car
in 2010 visitors to a car show in los
angeles were shown a very different way
to make
cars there were extraordinary designs
for cars made from extra light
and extra strong materials
the most surprising idea was the maybach
drs a future car
which will make itself from living
materials
it will grow like a plant
if we can invent living materials
they will get energy from the sun in
order to grow
scientists will develop special ways to
tell these materials
to grow into the parts of a car or
something else
slowly the parts will appear
like fruit growing on a tree
instead of sending heavy metal car parts
in
ships companies will buy and sell
the information that they need to grow
the different parts
when we throw away living materials
bacteria in the ground will break them
down
into pieces they will not produce
any rubbish or pollution
in the future people may want to grow
many different products
like chairs and houses
living materials are still just an idea
we have not made them yet but one day
our factories may turn into farms
imagine a world where products change
when we want them to it sounds like
something from a hollywood film
but a lot of people are studying this
idea in universities around the world
they think that one day millions of
nanobots will join together
and make themselves into objects at home
each nanobot will be too small for our
eyes to see
the objects will change when we want
them to
computers will tell the nanobots to move
and become a different shape if this
happens one day
we will not need to throw anything away
if there is an object that we do not
need
we will make it into something else
imagine a desk which becomes a chair
when you do not need to work or a coat
which gets longer when it rains
it sounds impossible but some
scientists believe that it will happen
in 50 to 100 years
[Music]
chapter 15 where
next
today about 7 billion people live on
earth
in 2050 the population will be more than
9 billion this means
millions more cars tvs
fridges and computers and
many other machines that we have not
invented yet
where will we get the energy for all
these things
in this book we have read about lots of
ways to produce
and save energy some ideas
are very old others are quite
new and some of them look far
into the future to a time when
objects can make themselves and
people are living in space
which energy technologies will we use
most in the future
we do not know the answer to this
question
but we do know that we cannot use fossil
fuels
ten years ago people argued about the
idea that pollution from fossil fuels
was changing the world's climate
today scientists agree that it
is and they think it is happening very
fast we are starting to build a future
without fossil fuels turbines are
appearing in rivers
and on hills around the world and people
are starting to use new fuels
every year scientists are inventing new
ways to make electricity
from the things around us we know
a lot of ways to save energy and some of
us can even try to produce it
ourselves the big question is can we
change in time
before we destroy a lot of the natural
world
and the answer we will have to wait and
see
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
you
{{
[音乐]
第一章
能量 今天
我能感觉到飞机在颤抖，因为它变得
更快然后突然升到空中
当我们爬上
伊斯坦布尔上空的天空时，它的发动机每秒燃烧 1.5 升燃料 2 月的晚上
，在我下面这个拥有 1300 万人口的城市，人们
乘汽车
下班回家 晚上，
但你有没有想过
他们使用
了多少能量，这些能量是从哪里来的
大约两个小时后，我打开
我
在土耳其东部阿达纳的房子的前门，
我能闻到食物烹饪的味道，听到
电视
的声音
房间里的电话
灯亮又
灭 聆听音乐
你现在能看到多少台机器
此刻 全世界
数十亿盏灯 电脑
电视和冰箱 随时打开
2500
万辆汽车在路上
行驶 近 700 000 人
在某处飞行 一架飞机
我们用于这些事情的大部分能源
都来自煤油和天然气等燃料
不久之后，我们将不再拥有这些
燃料 未来
我们的能源将来自哪里，这
将如何改变我们的世界
篇章 2
数千年来的化石燃料 人们
用手制造东西
他们利用风力 水
和动物的力量 旅行 移动
或建造东西 大多数人
烧木头来取暖和
做饭
然后在 1765 年 10 月，
一位名叫詹姆斯瓦特的年轻工程师
制造了一台改变世界的机器
蒸汽机使蒸汽机
工作 煤被燃烧以加热
水，这使
蒸汽 蒸汽进入发动机并
移动零件 我想
，1765 年之前就有蒸汽机，
但是新的发动机工作得更好
，可以在工厂里移动大机器
很快人们开始
在接下来的一百年里到处建造工厂，发明了许多新的
工厂机器，
他们制造了新产品供人们
突然购买 在许多国家，我们的房子里装满了
新事物
成千上万的人离开他们的村庄
，搬到城市去工厂工作
贫穷的工人长时间使用
危险的机器工作，他们的生活非常
艰难
，燃烧的煤炭产生的
烟雾弥漫在空气中 城镇
1804 年
到 1850 年建造了第一辆蒸汽火车 1880 年代，装有蒸汽机的火车和轮船
载着乘客环游
世界 建造了第一座
发电站 他们燃烧
煤炭来为称为蒸汽轮机的巨大机器制造蒸汽
当蒸汽轮机移动时
转动称为发电机的机器中的零件，这些机器
使用这种运动来
发电，
很快就出现了电灯
1885年德国工程师
卡尔·本茨发明了第一辆汽车，
它使用一种新型发动机和一种
新型燃料
汽油汽油
在发动机内燃烧以使零件移动
，这使得它变得更小 比
蒸汽机
20 年后，工厂每年生产
数千辆汽车
，新的道路横穿土地
，这些汽车中的大多数使用汽油
，1903 年奥维尔和威尔伯赖特
使用汽油发动机驾驶世界上第
一架飞机，
比如 蒸汽机 电力
和汽车改变
了地球上每个人的生活 它们也
改变了我们今天获取能源的方式
世界上大约 87 种能源
来自燃烧煤油和天然气
这些燃料来自哪里以及
我们今天如何使用它们
煤 石油和天然气
来自
数百万年前的
生物 石油和天然气来自
生活在海洋中的动物
煤来自生活的植物 在潮湿的
地方，如河流或湖泊旁边的土地，
经过数百万年的时间，
它们变成了煤油
和天然气，我们称这些
燃料为
化石燃料，最古老的
是大约 4 亿年前的
煤炭，我们使用过煤炭
两千多年前的很长一段时间
里，罗马人用它来
取暖
和制造金属，我们
今天仍然使用煤炭来生产这些东西，
但大多数煤炭在发电站燃烧以发电
世界上大约 40% 的
电力来自
煤炭 一周在世界某个地方建造一座新的
燃煤发电站，
以生产冰箱
一年使用的电力 你需要大约
公斤的
煤 最大的燃煤发电站每年燃烧
10 到 1500 万吨煤
很多
煤炭来自数千
公里外的船只
在某些地方 我们
从地球表面的大洞中获取煤炭
在其他地方煤炭来自
数百米
地下没有
太多的移动空间，温度
可能达到
40 摄氏度或更高
很难获得足够的清洁空气，
而且经常吵得说不出话
从地下取煤
是肮脏的
危险工作，但数百万人这样做
每年每天
约有五千人死于
石油 在
沙特阿拉伯尼日利亚
和委内瑞拉等地有石油湖，
称为地下油田，
以获取石油 人们在地下钻孔，
称为油井，
其中一些井有好几口
在其他地方有数公里深的
称为石油平台的巨大机器
在海底打井
海上经常有严重的风暴，
因此石油平台在水下必须非常坚固
有些平台
与摩天大楼一样高 世界上最高的
建筑物
拥有油田的国家 石油
通过
长管道或称为油轮的巨型船舶运往其他国家
世界上最大的油轮可以
运载
4.4 亿升
石油 重达 350 000
辆家庭汽车的
油中含有许多化学物质
，油轮将油运到工厂，在
那里加热和冷却
以从中获取不同的化学物质，其中
一些化学物质用于
制造塑料或衣服等物品，
但大约 85 种油
是 制成燃料
有不同类型的燃料 用于
汽车、船舶和飞机
的发动机 工厂还生产燃料用于建筑物供暖
和发电站燃烧以发电
每年我们制造大约 6000 万辆
新车和数千艘船舶和
飞机 一年我们需要越来越多的
石油
天然气 大约 2
000 年前，中国人
用高大的竹子制造管道，
他们用它们打井并
在地下数百米的地方找到天然气
管道将天然气输送到他们使用的家
中 它用于煤气灯
和加热水
今天我们在工厂和发电站燃烧天然气
我们也在家庭中使用它来取暖和
做饭
甚至还有 c
天然气是最清洁的化石燃料 天然气是最清洁的化石燃料 当英国人做饭时，
它产生的污染要少得多
他们使用的天然气可能来自
挪威 俄罗斯或哈萨克斯坦
如何 他们从这些地方获取天然气 天然气
通常通过
管道 海底从挪威
到英国
的一根天然气管道长达 1200 公里
在其他地方 天然气经过冷却
使其变成液体
这种液态气体被放入船中
被称为天然气
罐车 世界上很多天然气都
存在于一种
称为页岩的岩石中 过去
从岩石内部获取天然气太困难和昂贵
现在在美国宾夕法尼亚州这样的地方
人们正在用水来破碎 在
2011 年的前 10 周，页岩在地下开采天然气 300
口新气井在美国钻探
问题是每口井将
生产
数百万升 s 污染的水
你必须清洁所有这些水或将
其保存在安全的
地方 今天总是同样的故事
页岩气是最新的化石
燃料，它为一些人带来了
新的工作和金钱，
为另一些人带来了坏的东西 来自
脏水的污染
在富裕的国家，化石燃料
使大多数
人过上非常舒适的生活成为
可能 他们有一天也会毁掉这种生活吗
[音乐]
第 3 章能源
和我们的星球
在墨西哥湾水域中
墨西哥和美国
之间有
2010 年 4 月 20 日，超过 2 300 个
石油平台在一个平台上钻探
时，井中的气体发生
爆炸，石油平台被毁
，11 名工人
在事故中丧生，石油开始
从海底的井中溢出
人们用了两个月的时间才关闭
了井
，当时将近 8 亿升
石油流入大海
丑陋的黑油污染了
数百公里的海滩
和许多鸟类和海洋
随着世界人口的增长，
我们需要越来越多的能源
来寻找足够的煤油和天然气
人们正在挖掘和钻探更深的地方
能源公司正在
阿拉斯加等地寻找化石燃料 和亚马逊，
但污染和事故会对
这些美丽的自然环境造成巨大破坏
燃烧化石燃料会产生危险
气体，其中一些会污染我们的城市
并损害人们的健康
每年约有 200
万人死于空气污染
科学家认为其他气体
如碳
如果一架飞机从新加坡飞往
洛杉矶并返回，那么二氧化碳正在改变世界气候。自从蒸汽机发明以来，飞机
上的每位乘客都会产生大约 7 吨
二氧化碳，空气中的二氧化碳含量增加了 35%
二氧化碳从太阳中吸收热量，
因此在某些地方，这会使气候
变暖 es
降雨量比过去少
正在
加热冰雪
并将其转化为水
这意味着更多的水将
流入大海，
因此海平面越来越高
世界各地的岛屿开始
在海下消失 沿海城市
如上海 迪拜和
威尼斯可能会消失 一天有
太多的生物
正在死亡，因为更热的气候
正在改变它们生活的地方，
从哥斯达黎加的森林到北冰洋的
冰层
土地正在变化，动物正在
消失，事实
每天都在令人恐惧世界每天损失大约 150
目前世界上最富裕的国家使用不同类型的植物或动物，
使用最多的能源并产生
最多的污染，例如
美国只有世界人口的 5%，
但在任何一年中，它使用
了世界上大约 25% 的能源
，它还产生了世界上约 45% 的
二氧化碳
他们的人口想要更多的东西，比如
电视、电脑和汽车
，这意味着他们开始使用
越来越多的能源来生产
和运营它们
。我们使用大约 120 亿
升石油、
198 亿公斤煤
和 100 亿立方米天然资源
每天都有天然气 但是
科学家认为从现在起 40 或 50 年
后将不再有石油
大约 20 年后我们将
在大约 120 年内
最终没有天然气 我们将在某一天耗尽世界上所有的煤炭
所有化石燃料将
消失了
我们不需要使用化石燃料
还有很多其他的方式来生产
能源 问题是世界上大多数
汽车发动机
加热机器和电源
建站是为了使用化石燃料
改变这将需要很长时间
所以很多人也想尝试
节能 好消息
是有很多方法可以做到
这一点
[音乐]
第四章 节能
大约一半 我们生产的能源
被浪费了 电力在
电缆中损失，汽车
在交通中等待时浪费燃料
政府可以通过建造更好的发电站来节省能源，
但我们也可以提供很多帮助
我们可以做些什么来
节省圣诞老人的能源汽车
洛杉矶的莫妮卡高速公路 成千上万的人正
试图去上班，
但他们无处可去
洛杉矶的一名司机每年要花费大约
70 个小时在没有移动的交通中，
而
在加州炎热的阳光下，排长队的汽车等待着
他们的引擎 产生危险
气体的
司机愤怒地看着他们的手表
有时你在洛杉矶看不到太阳
因为
空气中的所有污染在圣保罗莫斯科曼谷每天早上都
一样 好的，还有许多其他城市
，其他旅行方式呢？
步行和骑自行车上班或上学
是节省能源和保持
健康的
好方法
在很多城市开车 人们正在加入
汽车共享小组 小组中的每个
人每周都会开车送朋友去上班
每个人都节省了汽油和金钱
，路上的汽车越来越少
食物一直在
流动 数百万吨的食物在运送
在世界各地
，这会消耗大量能源
，当然你不能在冰岛种茶
或在卡塔尔种米，所以我们必须
从其他国家购买食物
吃意大利面条
或享用一杯热腾腾的肯尼亚咖啡很棒，
但它也是 想一想
我们餐桌上的一些食物
是从哪里来的
来自土耳其或 12 000
公里外的厄瓜多尔的动物
人们说
当你感到饥饿时你不应该去超市
，这可能是真的
超市充满了奇妙的
东西
，饥饿的购物者很容易购买
比他们更多的食物
在欧洲国家真的需要每个家庭每年扔掉
超过一千美元的食物
他们购买的所有食物的百分之二十到二十五
一些不需要的食物是
从世界另一端的船运来的
，所以下次你 去
购物 在家吃点东西可能是个好主意
第一
能量
想象两个发电站一年
365 天、每天 24 小时工作
这就是
英国人让
电视等设备处于待机状态
并随时可用而浪费的能量
你知道吗 让
电视待机一整天可以使用与
观看一个小时相同的电量
你家里有多少台机器处于待机状态
你能把它们中的任何一台都关掉吗
当你打开一个普通灯泡
时，它所用的电量只有百分之十
变成了光，另外
九十个 90 被浪费了，因为
使用节能灯泡
可以节省 80% 的电量，
而且你也可以使用更长的时间
，你喜欢吗？ 冬天把房子加热到 26
摄氏度或
夏天
把房子冷却到 18 摄氏度 全年气温为 22 摄氏度
，穿上较暖和或
较冷的衣服 煮热饮时加热水也需要大量
能量 加热
与不需要的水一样多的水很好
希腊人每天
都扔垃圾 全世界 800 万个
塑料瓶
我们每年生产数百万吨垃圾
这些垃圾中的一部分被
回收，
但大部分被扔进
地面
垃圾的大洞里 这样可能对
动物
和人类造成危险 数百年来
回收一个旧的铝制饮料
容器
只使用
我们生产一个新的
垃圾所需的 5 能量
进入新材料
回收很容易
对自然世界有好处 并且可以
节省大量能源
您附近是否有回收中心
节能意味着更多地思考
我们每天所做的事情
如果我们这样做，
我们可以停止 很多污染也
省钱
[音乐]
第五章原子的力量
1951 年 12 月一个寒冷的下午，
一小群科学家站在
美国爱达荷州的一个房间里，
他们兴奋地看着四个
普通灯泡亮着，
然后他们大喊 和
他们握手 他们刚刚发明了一种新的
发电方式 核电
今天 核电产生
了世界上大约 13 的电力
一公斤核燃料
可以产生 当发明核能时，相当于 150
万公斤煤的
能量
有些人认为这是解决
我们所有能源问题的方法
今天许多人都害怕它
那么什么是核能，
以及
我们周围的一切都是由什么危险构成的 原子
一些金属（如铀）具有放射性
，这意味着原子中心
可以
破坏原子中心破坏的
过程称为核裂变
，正是这个过程产生了
核能
uranium-235 我们通常使用的铀类型
因为
燃料存在于世界各地
的岩石中，从岩石中获取
并将其制成
核电站的燃料既困难又昂贵
铀
235 燃料棒放在一个
叫做核反应堆
的地方
在大多数反应堆中，燃料棒阻止
反应堆变得
太热 通过管道
和加热反应堆外
的干净水 干净的水变成蒸汽 推动
蒸
汽轮机
核裂变产生的能量穿过
其他东西 这种移动的
能量称为辐射 它使
反应堆建筑物内的所有东西
放射性辐射
对人们非常危险 所以
核 反应堆有厚而坚固的
墙壁 这些可以阻止
水气或反应堆内的任何东西
逸出
大约 30 个国家拥有核电站
，其他人想要建造它们
许多人认为使用核能
比燃烧化石燃料更好，
因为它不会产生二氧化碳等气体
其他人担心核废料
和事故
核安全
来自核反应堆的旧燃料和其他废料
具有很强的放射性和危险性
一些废料被回收并
再次用于反应堆，
但很多都保存在地下非常坚固的
容器中
这让很多
人担心 核废料进入
地下的水中 有一天
人们会偷走核废料
并用它来制造炸弹
一些核废料将在
20 000 年内保持危险
1986 年 5 月 25 日 切尔诺贝利
核电站反应堆中的核燃料在 20 000 年内保持安全是很长的时间
乌克兰开始变得
越来越热，工人无法
冷却反应堆，最后它爆炸了
放射性燃料，控制棒
被抛向空中
，反应堆中的大火燃烧了 15
天，到 2005 年，放射性烟雾
穿越欧洲和黑海
56 人们
因事故而死亡
科学家们认为，随着时间的推移
，乌克兰
白俄罗斯和其他国家大约有 4 000 人
可能因切尔诺贝利事故而死亡
今天，大多数核电站
比
切尔诺贝利事故时安全得多，
但事情仍然可能出错
2011 年 3 月 11 日，日本附近
的海底发生了一场大地震，
大约 40 分钟后，
14 米高的海浪
袭击了 40 岁的 f 附近的海岸
ukushima 核电站 水毁了电站的
机器，
因此人们无法
在事故发生后的几天里呼叫反应堆
放射性水流入大海
，福岛核泄漏的辐射比切尔诺贝利核泄漏的要少得多，但它向
世界
表明，核反应堆的安全
性仍然非常重要
将更安全，也将变得
更加重要 新反应堆
将从核聚变中获得能量
太阳上发生核聚变
，它产生的能量比
太阳内部的核裂变多得多 氢原子
结合在一起产生更大的氦
原子 这会产生大量的
能量
未来的核聚变反应堆
不会刺激 产生大量废物，它们
也
将更安全，因为您可以快速停止聚变
过程
，所以
我们今天为什么不使用它们
想象一下尝试将太阳放在一个
房间里
，您就会明白
建造一个聚变反应堆
来启动核能是多么困难 核聚变 燃料中的原子
必须达到大约 1.5
亿
摄氏度的温度 目前
人们正在尝试不同的方法来
启动核聚变
并防止热燃料接触
反应堆的侧面，
但
未来我们可能会提供动力非常困难 我们的城市
有
核聚变，但我们必须首先找到
许多问题的答案，
而核燃料继续
在许多国家提供电力
六种超级燃料
想象在树上种植燃料
或从垃圾中获取燃料
想象汽车依靠空气行驶或产生
水而不是污染
全世界的人 正在制造
令人惊讶的
新燃料
沼气
沼气是由植物或天然
废物
通过称为细菌的生物制成的
它们分解废物并产生
甲烷和一氧化碳等
气体 在大多数地方这些气体会污染空气，
但在巴西圣保罗附近的班德兰特斯
管道采取 来自
地下的气体 气体
在发电站燃烧，
为 40 万人发电
印度村民利用动物
和食物垃圾制造沼气
一公斤垃圾产生
的沼气
足以在瑞典进行四个小时的轻工作
他们甚至
用厕所垃圾为汽车制造沼气
70 个厕所一年的垃圾
为一辆小汽车
行驶
一万六千公里提供足够的燃料
生物燃料 生物燃料
是由
最古老的生物燃料是木材，
但今天我们使用不同种类
的植物
甚至旧咖啡来制造新的
生物燃料
某些生物燃料的问题在于
，种植燃料需要大量土地，
这意味着
如果您想驾驶波音 747
飞机
使用椰子生物燃料从伦敦到阿姆斯特丹 350 公里，
您将需要种植约 300
万个椰子
还有另一个问题
人们可能会破坏森林以种植
植物作为生物
燃料 巴西汽车和公共汽车
多年来一直使用一种称为生物乙醇的燃料 生物
乙醇非常棒，因为我们用植物
的废弃
部分生产它
巴西的
生物乙醇是由甘蔗制成
的 我们为制糖而种植的高大植物
甘蔗在机器中被分解
，液体被用来制造糖
植物的其余部分被变成
纸
或用来制造生物乙醇，
甚至是生物乙醇工厂的电力
使用
来自燃烧甘蔗
燃烧生物燃料会产生二氧化碳等气体，
但是当我们种植它们时
，植物会因为这种甘蔗而从空气中吸收二氧化碳
生物乙醇
产生的二氧化碳比汽油少 78%
最新的生物燃料是由
称为藻类的非常小的生物
制成的
一些细菌
和植物以这种方式生长的方式
他们希望获得更好的生物燃料，
或者有一天在不同的地方生长 海
中可能会有巨大的藻类农场
，许多建筑物可能会在屋顶上种植生物燃料
植物，
驾驶空中
电动汽车 不要燃烧
称为电池的燃料设备 保持
电力
并用它来为
人们驱动它们多年的发动机提供动力，
它们是
减少城市中心污染的好方法，
但电力来自
哪里，例如可能来自燃烧煤炭
未来的电动汽车将不需要
从任何地方获取电力
人们正在开发新电池
，
当锌混合时使用一种叫做锌的金属
es 使用空气中的氧气
化学过程会
在电池完成后发电 锌
可以很容易
地回收并再次使用
氢气 最清洁的燃料
是氢气 当氢气
燃烧时它只会产生水
我们已经有汽车甚至
直升机使用氢气，但这 天然气
很难生产
大多数氢气是由化石燃料制成的
，这会产生污染
大约 4% 的氢气是由水制成的
，
但这个过程会消耗大量
电力，
而且
在 2010 年可能很危险，工程师发明了一种机器
，该机器使用来自太阳的能量
制造氢 其他人
试图用细菌来
制造氢 这些清洁的制造氢的方法
如果变得
更便宜，仍然是非常新的 未来我们可能都会驾驶氢汽车
科学家正在开发许多新
燃料，
但这需要很长时间
我们大多数人都
可以使用它们，最大的问题
是找到钱来对
汽车和汽油统计等进行必要的改变
例如，如今美国大约有 140
000 个加油站，
但其中只有 2 800 个
销售生物乙醇
可再生能源是来自
太阳或风等不断发生的事物
的能源 本章中的一些燃料是
可再生能源
有些不是
生物燃料 是可再生的，因为我们每年都可以
再次种植它们
氢
是一种可再生燃料，当我们
用水
制造氢时
[音乐
] 美好的未来
一小时内到达地球的阳光所
具有的能量与人们一年使用的所有能量一样多，
但是我们如何才能获得这种
能量并在地球上使用它
太阳能意味着来自太阳，
所以当您使用 阳光使事物变
热
它被称为太阳能热能
许多建筑物使用玻璃和塑料等材料
来捕捉阳光并
为建筑物加热
在非洲，
当光线照射到建筑物的表面时，人们会使用太阳能炊具 e
炊具 它反射到
中间 中间变得足够热，可以加热
水
或烹饪食物 在
土耳其和中国等国家，人们将太阳能
热水器放在屋顶上，
这些是金属和玻璃盒子
，里面有水管
，玻璃会发热，而且 金属将
阳光反射到将热水输送
到房屋的水管上，
我们也可以通过
称为太阳能电池的设备利用阳光来
发电 不会产生太多
电力，
因此我们将电池放在一起制造大型
太阳能电池板，
目前最好的太阳能电池只能使用大约
25 次照射到它们的阳光
，它们是一种昂贵的发电方式，
但人们正在发明更好、
更便宜的产品
太阳能
电池 未来我们会用它做
越来越多的事情 你已经可以买到
太阳能灯 太阳能收音机
和小溶胶 用于
计算机和电话等设备的 ar 面板
我们也可以使用太阳能进行旅行
2010 年 7 月，
安德烈·博尔施伯格驾驶了一架名为太阳能脉冲的太阳能飞机
26 小时，然后他
停止
了四个引擎的动力来自
机翼上的一万二千个太阳能电池
飞机
之所以能够在夜间飞行，是因为
飞机内部的电池
可以保持太阳能
，还有太阳能船
，世界每两年太阳能挑战太阳能汽车
离开达尔文，穿越澳大利亚进行 3000 公里的
旅程，
他们都试图成为 首先
到达阿德莱德
，
在阳光明媚的国家，如西班牙、中国
和美国，最快的汽车可以达到每小时一百公里。他们正在建造巨大的太阳能
发电站，
一些使用太阳能电池板，另一些使用
称为反射器的装置将
阳光反射到水管
或高处 塔楼
西班牙的安德森发电站
有 70 个足球场那么大
它为 20 万户家庭提供足够的能源
想象一下站在
50 年后的撒哈拉沙漠
灿烂的阳光刺痛了你的
眼睛 酷热的
你周围可以看到高大的塔楼
和成千上万的太阳能反射
器 目前这只是一个梦想 但
很多人想在沙漠中建造数百个
太阳能
发电站 撒哈拉沙漠 一年 365 天炎热和
阳光充足 撒哈拉沙漠
只有百分之三的
阳光足以
为欧洲所有人发电
[音乐]
第八章
晴天刮风时你可以看到 它们来自
陆地
它们看起来就像
从海中长出的巨大金属花
当你靠近时你会意识到
它们有多大
距离英国海岸 12 公里的萨内特风电场
100 台风力涡轮机中的每台风力涡轮机
都高达 115 米
涡轮
机 里面
的发电机一起发电 涡轮机
为
20 万户家庭提供足够的电力
英国有 250 个风力发电站，称为风电场
，人们正在建造
到 2020 年，英国每年可能有
25 种能源来自风能
它们为这座建筑生产了大约 15% 的
电力
，足以为 300 个家庭提供能源
建筑物的形状将风吹
向涡轮机
建造
巴林
世界贸易中心非常困难，因为它是
同类建筑中的第一座
在世界上，工程师不得不
停止移动的涡轮机，
震动建筑物并摧毁它
现在世界各地的城市都出现了带有巨大风力涡轮机的摩天大楼，
一些未来的摩天大楼将不
使用涡轮机，建筑物将
在风中转动，作为建筑物的一部分
在楼层之间移动发电机
将产生电力，
因为风在建筑物顶部移动得更快
而在建筑物底部移动得更慢
每层楼都会
以不同的方式转动你从窗户看到的东西
会一直在变化
许多城市建筑现在
屋顶上都有小型风力涡轮机，你
甚至可以买一个来为你的房子供电
风力涡轮机过去很丑
但现在 有许多不同的
形状和颜色
，它们非常适合公园和市中心
很快游客会在伦敦的白金汉宫外看到一个
颜色和图片不断变化
的风力涡轮机
人们正在寻找新的方法来捕捉
或产生
足够的风 当地面上的风不是很大时
看看天空，你会经常
看到云
在你上方快速移动
火星风力涡轮机
在地面上方飞行数百米 它们的形状
使它们 把风吹进来就可以
发电 y 移动大量的空气
，这驱动了
金沙的涡轮机 一个中国 一座高塔矗立
在一片玻璃
中 太阳加热玻璃下的空气
热空气向上移动 塔内的
风力涡轮机
未来会发电 人们正计划
在澳大利亚和美国等地建造这样的塔
，其中一些将比世界上
最高的摩天大楼还要高
我们已经利用风航行了
数千年，
但今天的大船的发动机
使用柴油燃料 来自石油
但是一些新的
客船既有发动机又有
帆 这些现代船舶上的帆是
由计算机移动的，
因此它们可以移动并抓住风
节省船舶大量燃料
天空帆是另一个好主意，
因为您可以将它们与 任何一艘船，
甚至是旧船，它们会
在船上方约 200 米处飞行，并帮助将其
拉过水面
，驾驶利用风力的汽车航行工作怎么样？
绿鸟看起来像解放军 ne 或
船
但它在陆地上移动
有时它可以达到每小时 200 公里
绿鸟使用聪明的
技术 移动速度比风快 5 倍
荷兰是一个
风车之国
古老的建筑 帆在风中转动
国家的 1200 风车
已有数百年的历史，它们被
用于许多事情，
例如移动水和使机器
工作
现在用于发电的风力涡轮机
出现在荷兰各地，
对于荷兰人民来说，风
电既是过去
也是未来
[音乐 ]
第9章水世界
我站在土耳其的西汉河边
看着鱼
在水中游动 世界上有多少这样的河流
想想所有
流向大海的
水 流动的水比风更有能量
当然它永远不会停止
水力发电水力发电站利用水力发电
巴西和PA之间的大埔水坝
拉圭
是世界上最大的
水力发电站之一，
它花了四万名工人
九年的时间建造，工程师不得不
移动巴拉那河，这是地球上最大的河流之一
大埔大坝与大坝后面的摩天大楼一样高
水 被保存在一个叫做水库的湖中，
水库的水
通过大坝中的巨大管道向下流动
，水驱动涡轮机，进而
驱动发电机
发电 伊泰普大坝生产巴拉圭 90%
的电力
，同时为巴西 6 亿人提供足够的电力
大坝在埃及可以在很多方面
发挥作用 大雨过后，尼罗河曾经发生过可怕的
洪水，
但阿斯旺
大坝已经停止洪水，
水留在美国航空航天局的大坝后面，
当土耳其干涸时，农场可以使用这些水
幼发拉底河上的五座
水坝改变了周围的土地
农民可以种植更多的
食物 城市居民在
周末
享受美丽的湖泊
大坝最大的问题是
它们的水库覆盖
了许多美丽的地方
，旧建筑经常
在水下消失
，工程师建造了伊泰普大坝后人们不得不离开家园，
人们在船上努力拯救
动物，
因为水淹没了 森林
他们还将数千棵树木和
植物
搬到
了埃及阿布符号的更高地方
人们
从美国航空航天局湖的水域中拯救
了两座具有三千年历史的埃及建筑 巨大的建筑被切成碎片
然后在更高的地方重新建造
工人不得不 手工切割很多石头
，其中一些石头重达 30 吨
你不必建造一座巨大的水坝
来从河流中获取能量
非洲和亚洲的很多人
自己制造水力发电 他们将
管道和小型涡轮机放入河流
中 水流快速的地方
这可以为一
两栋房屋
或有时为一个村庄提供足够
的电力 最小的涡轮机只需花费
大约 20 美元 十万美元
在越南的河流中有超过十万
当然我们不必
只从河流中获取电力
97 世界上的
水在海中 现在我们开始
使用它
在 2008 年从海中获取电力 乘客 在飞往葡萄牙波尔图的平原上，
往下看
，在
距离海滩几公里的阿古萨多拉海滩上看到了三个奇怪的形状，
每个红色的大形状都有 142
米长
，实际上这是世界上第一个波浪
农场
，这些奇怪的形状是波浪
能 未来
我们可能会在葡萄牙海岸附近看到更多像这样的农场，当波浪发电机在里面的水上上下移动时，我们可能会看到更多像这样的农场
从大西洋不安的海浪中获取电力。
电力
海底的长电缆将
电力输送到陆地
波浪能的好处是
你可以
一天 24 小时通电
问题是波浪 s 可能
太大 风暴会毁坏机器
或破坏电缆
从海浪中获取电力仍然
非常困难，
但人们一直在开发新
设备 2010 年 5 月，一艘船
将 200 米的海浪发电机拉
过大西洋水域到达奥克尼
北部 几年后，苏格兰将有
65 台机器加入其中
，它们将共同为
大约
30 000 户家庭
发电 东河
它们有 5 米宽，
看起来像
风力涡轮机，但它们从海水中获取能量
并且有大量的
能源
可以利用这些能源 我们可以将涡轮机
放在水下或建造
水坝 世界上最大的利用
海洋能源
的水坝在
法国劳伦斯 汉长 300 米
，它的 24 台涡轮机
为科纳夏威夷海岸附近
一座拥有超过 20 万人口的城市提供足够的电力 是
10 到 20
摄氏度冷却器 人们利用这种
温差来制造
像夏威夷钥匙孔点那样的发电站
使用像氨这样的液体
在低温下变成气体
温暖的海水加热液体
使它们变成
气体 气体移动 涡轮机发电
来自海底更冷的水
将气体变回液体，因此我们
可以再次使用它
许多国家已经
从水中获得了大量能源
例如挪威
99 的电力来自
水力发电 我们使用过水力发电
多年的电力，
但未来人们也会从海洋中获得更多的
能量
，我们
仍在学习如何做到这一点，但在
经过 我们星球的 70%
都被水覆盖
[音乐]
第 10 章 我们周围的热度
想象你在外面的雷克雅未克附近
的一个热水池的美丽蓝色海水中
游泳 冰岛
雪在你周围飘落，但
放松后水是温暖的 游泳
你乘公共汽车进城 然后
穿过街道步行回家
天气很冷，树上积着厚厚的雪，
但人行道上没有冰
为什么因为脚下的
热水正在加热街道
地热能来自地下的热量
土地
和人们已经使用了数
千年 罗马人使用地热水
来加热新西兰的浴室
日本和冰岛 人们喜欢
在地热池中游泳
冰岛冬天寒冷，夏天短暂，
但它也是一个有
热水和蒸汽的土地 在某些地方从地下冒出
的蒸汽是 250
摄氏度
冰岛的五个地热发电站
使用井中的蒸汽来驱动
涡轮机并生产 在其他地方，该国约 25%
的电力
被称为泵的机器
从地下抽取热水并
通过
管道将其输送到房屋
中，冰岛的 87 座建筑物通过
这种方式获得热水和供暖，
道路和人行道下的热水源源不断 它们
没有积雪
，在冬天也很安全 在
冰岛这样的地方 蒸汽自然从地下冒出
在其他地方
水泵将冷水通过管道输送
到岩石下方数百米
处
的干热岩石 加热水并产生
蒸汽 来自
地下的蒸汽
地热能有多安全
答案是它通常不
危险，
但可能很难
钻
地热井 蒸汽会从井中爆炸
，它也可能带来危险气体
抽冷水
在瑞士巴塞尔，进入地下并不总是安全的，
一个使用冷水的地热发电站
仅在六天后就关闭了，
因为在 今天
发生了一万次小
地震
，我们只能
从靠近地表的非常热的岩石的地方获得地热能，
但是随着地球上任何地方的深入，岩石会变得越来越热，
因为地球的
中心
大约是 5500
摄氏度 是不是在大多数地方你
必须
走大约 10 公里才能找到
足够的热量 有些
油井已经这么深了
但是钻它们非常昂贵
所以人们还没有为
地热井这样做
你脚下的地面有多热
在世界上大多数地方，如果你
挖大约
三米，地面温度
全年为 10 到 16 摄氏度，
称为热泵的设备利用这种
热量将特殊液体转化为
气体，气体通过管道移动到水旁边
作为气体 失去热能并
再次变成液体
它
在寒冷的国家加热水 来自
热泵的热水被用来加热
学校房屋
和
游泳池等建筑物 一些材料
在它们内部变成热粒子移动产生
电
这些被称为热电
材料
在夏天城市的街道
变得
非常热未来的道路可能是
70
摄氏度有些人想把
热电材料放在道路下面
这可能会改变 将热量转化为
电能
用于路灯之类的东西
[音乐]
第 11 章 人们
在 1988 年为
代达罗斯（daedalus）飞机在希腊克里特岛和圣托里尼岛之间飞行了 115 公里，
对于今天的飞机来说，这是一次非常短的飞行，
但是这架飞机没有任何引擎
飞机的动力来自
飞行员
他用腿像骑
自行车
一样让飞机前进
在现代机器之前
人们用身体的力量
建造中国的长城
今天人们的力量又回来
了 马拉维非洲的一个小村庄，
孩子们在玩旋转木马时兴奋地大喊大叫，
这是所有人最喜欢的聚会场所
村里的
孩子们在转身和泵周围时
利用他们的动作
从非洲地下的井中
取水 获得干净的水
对许多人来说是一个问题 他们可能
远离河流很多公里，而
河水
并不总是干净的 从地下获取干净的水
可能很困难，
因为
带有发动机的泵使用起来很昂贵，
而且它们经常会破坏这些
旋转木马的游戏泵，这意味着
村庄和学校可以获得清洁和
安全的饮用水
，孩子们也可以玩得
开心 你跑步 你有很多
能量来自你身体的运动
当你突然停止时 你的身体会失去
这些能量
我们已经有手表和小型
医疗
设备 可以使用我们在未来移动时产生的能量
人们比如
警察 士兵们
可能会在腿上戴上设备来捕捉
这些
损失的能量并将其保存在电池中，
他们可以将电力用于计算机
收音机
或其他
设备 2008 年 1 月 大部分人走过
八公广场 东京 可能没有
注意到人行道上的四个黄色方块，
因为他们匆匆忙忙地工作
这些方块由特殊
材料制成
他们
发电 广场只存在 20 天，
但在那段时间里，他们产生的
电力足以让电视
工作 400 小时
移动的人可以产生大量的
能量，
但是即使我们在休息时也不能移动的
人或坐在火车上的病人，
我们的身体会
产生足够的能量来为
两台笔记本电脑供电，其中大部分能量
是热量，现在人们正在开发
医疗设备 通过
将
体热转化为电能来获取能量
医生很快就会用它们来做一些事情，
比如
获取信息 例如，关于他们的病人
血液的信息，
这将在像
非洲
这样许多村庄没有
电的地方很有用
我们也可以每天以其他方式利用体热
250 000
人使用斯德哥尔摩中央车站
他们吃喝提着沉重的
袋子跑去 赶火车，他们的身体
在车站内做这些
事情时会产生大量热量 的人
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第 12 章
2005 年的纳米动力 美国科学家
制造了一辆名为纳米汽车的微型汽车
很难
想象
这么小的东西，但你头上的一根头发却
是 20 000 倍宽
和数百万倍 纳米
汽车的轮子
是
由碳原子球制成的 科学家们利用热量来移动
轮子并驱动汽车
未来我们会用它来制造
称为纳米机器人的
微型机器
被称为纳米发电机的微型发电机
将产生能量 它们
将从光或周围的运动中获取能量
，例如在你的身体周围移动的血液
或在空气中传播的声音
未来我们可能会将纳米
发电机打印到制作衣服的材料上，
它们可能会为手机供电 我们的口袋
在寒冷的天气里加热我们的衣服或
改变最喜欢的衣服的颜色
科学家已经发明了
第一台
纳米发电机微型太阳能电池
大多数太阳能电池只使用
人们可以看到的光
纳米太阳能电池也可以使用
另一种称为红外线的光
即使在黑暗中，光热的东西也会一直产生这种光，
我们已经使用纳米太阳能电池来
制造 hin
太阳能电池板，但它们仍然很新，
有一天我们可以将它们添加到液体中，
我们可以将它们放在房屋和汽车的外部，
它们将使用
纳米太阳能电池产生的电力，
而有些人正在制造
太小的太阳能电池
为了让我们看到其他人想要
将
巨大的太阳能电池板送入太空，
我们将在下一章
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第 13 章中了解它们。太空中的能量
假设日期是 2095 年。
你生活在一个没有石油的世界，
远远超过你巨大的 形状
在天空中移动，
但你无法
像世界上的许多地方一样从地面看到它们 你的城市
从
太空中的发电站获得大量能量 这听起来不太可能，
但有一天
我们使用太阳能电池板可能会发生这种情况
例如，他们为在地球上移动的卫星提供动力
并向我们发送有关
天气的信息
现在有些人想将太阳能发送
回地球
他们将如何做到这一点他们计划制造
巨大的太阳能电池板 由非常轻的
材料制成的
nels 并在它们进入太空时将它们装入小容器
中，它们将打开
并连接在一起以制成太阳能发电站
太空太阳能发电站
将从太阳中获取能量并将其送回
地球
，在那里我们将其转化为电能
气体和云层会在大量
太阳能到达地球之前阻止它，
但这对于太空中的太阳能电池板来说不是问题，
如果它们在地球上移动，
它们可以留在太阳所在的地方并
每天 24 小时工作
，加利福尼亚州的一家公司计划 2016 年将
第一块面板送入
太空。
它们将为 25 万户家庭提供足够的电力。
当我们将
航天器发送到其他行星时，我们经常
不得不寻找不寻常的方式为它们
提供动力，其中一些具有产生
称为离子的特殊原子的发动机，以推动它们前进
其他人使用
核燃料 2010 年，一艘名为 icarus 的日本宇宙飞船
开始向金星航行，
当时来自太阳的粒子撞击它的
太阳帆，
他们将宇宙飞船向前推
e 由于 icarus 的成功，风推动了一艘船的帆
其他
航天器
可能在未来使用太阳帆
超过 10 年 来自
世界各地的
科学家在国际空间站上的太空生活和工作
未来国家像 中国
俄罗斯和日本计划
在月球上建造生活和工作的地方 人们将需要在
那里生产能源，
因为他们无法从地球上获取足够的燃料
，
他们可以在白天使用太阳能，
但月球上的夜晚将近
两周 他们在美国宇航局的
黑暗
中获得能量 科学家发明了
特殊的电池
白天在月球上使用 电池利用
太阳能在夜间
从水中获取氢气和氧气
电池混合这些
气体
以便燃烧 这产生
能量 1972 年 12
月阿波罗 17 号宇宙飞船离开
月球后留下的水可供电池再次使用
而这一次在新设备的帮助下，
他们可能会保持
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第 14 章的本地化
我们没有意识到这一点，但我们一直在使用
太空技术，
当我们看电视时，图片可能来自
地球上空数百公里的卫星
当我们打电话
或收听广播时
，机器在我们头顶上工作时也是如此
，
但我们永远不会看到它们中
的大多数几百年前人们主要
使用他们周围可以看到的东西
当地人种植 食物和制造
人们用作燃料所需的产品 今天
大多数人从
附近的森林中获取木材
我们购买的东西和
我们使用的燃料
经常从世界的另一端运到我们
这会浪费能源以及当这些东西发生时会发生
什么 不要来
1973 年 10 月的地方力量
政府争辩，中东国家
停止向欧洲和美国出售石油
很快美国的生活开始发生
变化，司机等了几个小时才到
b uy
欧洲的汽油 人们没有足够的
燃料来取暖
问题只持续了五个月
但公司倒闭了，成千上万的
人
失去了工作
我们从中学到了
什么 简短的回答可能不是很多
大多数国家仍然得到最多
2009 年俄罗斯
和乌克兰就
天然气价格争论不休，
因此人们
在欧洲的一些地方停止抽气，人们
在寒冷的冬天没有暖气
气温缓慢降至零下 10
摄氏度
未来的能源 阳光明媚的西班牙可能会
从
太阳能和英国等暴风雨的岛国获得大量电力
今天将使用风力涡轮机和波浪发电机 我们在巨大的
发电站发电
并通过电缆将其发送到很远的地方
这浪费了大量的能源
大发电站会失去热量
，当电力通过电缆传输时会损失更多的能量
令人惊讶的是 发电站
燃烧化石燃料产生的大约 66 种能量
永远不会到达我们的家
有时一组发电站停止
工作或大电缆烧毁
当这种情况发生时 大城市的灯光
可能会熄灭 火车停止运行
并且人们睡在办公室里
他们不能回家，
所以我们可以做些什么来解决这些问题
是否有更好的发电和发电方式
我们可能无法找到所有这些问题的答案，
但在当地生产更多电力将
有助于未来我们可能会在
更近的地方生产一些电力
随着新能源技术变得
更便宜，
我们将在越来越多的地方使用它们，
人们可以用电 来自
他们街道上的风力涡轮机
或当地海滩的波浪发电机，
而不是来自
国家另一边的大型发电站
我们的房屋将产生更多电力
太多人的屋顶上将安装太阳能电池板或风力
涡轮机
我们可能会
还在厨房和浴室的水管中放置微型涡轮机
墙壁上的热泵可以
为房子提供热水
，也许我们脚下的地板
会在我们行走
时发电 把它们放在一起 他们会
在本地制作很多东西
为什么买书和
音乐直接放到电脑上而
不是放在纸上或塑料
上 答案是它节省了大量
能源
它节省了制作音乐的燃料和
材料 产品
及其容器以及未来
一些公司将通过
以不同的方式制造东西来节省能源
最近我们发明了打印机，可以
从计算机打印真实物体
现在他们甚至可以打印带有
移动部件的物体，
而不是在工厂制造运动
鞋和
手机之类的东西并将它们发送到
其他国家
公司可能会为他们出售设计
人们会购买设计并
在当地的物体印刷店
甚至在印刷产品 家用
物件印刷将非常适合小型
产品，
但是如何在 2010 年制作像汽车这样的大东西呢？
洛杉矶车展的参观者
们看到了一种非常不同
的汽车制造方式
材料 最令人惊讶的想法是迈巴赫
drs 未来的汽车
它将用活的材料制造自己
如果我们能发明活的材料 它会像植物一样生长
他们将从太阳中获取能量
来生长
科学家将开发出特殊的方法来
告诉这些 慢慢
长成汽车或其他部件的材料，
这些部件看起来
就像长在树上的水果，
而不是 f 在船舶上运送重金属汽车零件
公司会买卖
他们
在丢弃生活材料时种植不同零件所需的信息
地下细菌会将它们分解
成碎片 它们将来不会产生
任何垃圾或
污染 人们可能想要种植
许多不同的产品，
例如椅子和房屋，
生活材料仍然只是一个
我们还没有做出来的想法，但有一天
我们的工厂可能会变成农场
一部好莱坞电影，
但很多人
在世界各地的大学里研究这个想法
他们认为有一天数以百万计的
纳米机器人会聚在一起
，在家中把自己变成物体
每个纳米机器人都太小了，我们的
眼睛看
不到物体会发生变化 当我们想要
它们时，
计算机会告诉纳米机器人移动
并变成不同的形状，如果
有一天发生这种情况，
我们将不需要扔一个
如果有一个我们不需要的
东西，我们会把它变成别的
东西 这将
在 50 到 100 年内发生
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第 15 章
下一个
今天 2050 年地球上约有 70 亿人
人口将超过
90 亿 这意味着将增加
数百万辆汽车 电视
冰箱 电脑和
许多其他我们没有的机器
在这本书中，我们从
哪里获得所有
这些东西的能量
？ 可以让自己和
人们生活在太空
中 未来
我们将使用哪些能源技术 我们不知道这个问题的答案，
但我们知道十年前我们不能使用化石
燃料
人们争论
说化石燃料造成的污染
正在改变当今世界的气候
，科学家们同意这
一点，而且他们认为这正在发生得非常
快，我们正在开始建立一个未来，
而化石燃料涡轮机不会
出现在
世界各地的河流和山丘上 人们
每年都开始
使用新燃料
赶
在我们毁灭很多自然界
和答案之前，我们将不得不拭目以待
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