POWER TO THE PEOPLE

摘要

Urban North Americans consume a lot of energy each day—per capita, 100 times that of pre-agricultural humans. We don't think much about it because our advanced infrastructure delivers services such as heat, cold, electricity, and transportation on demand. Yet with air pollution and global warming making Earth less habitable, it's a critical time for energy decisions. Library customers often seek information about energy to write course papers or as background to employment in the industry. Some just want to understand energy production and use, perhaps to discover a basis to take personal action. Libraries should stay up-to-date, as the energy situation is evolving. For example, the North American petroleum industry is shifting from conventional to unconventional fossil fuel reserves. Widespread use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has created a shale oil and gas boom, which has helped to lower prices. The new supply of natural gas has led to the replacement of many aging coal-fired power plants with gas plants. Still, there is no telling how long this latest period of abundant fossil fuels will last.