Geography Site: How we use electricity

There are very few people left who refuse to believe that humans are, atleast in part, responsible for the planet warming up and becomming polluted. Much of what we do involves taking raw materials from our planet, processing them, and making something new. That process usually causes pollution and requires 'energy'; often as electricity.

Electricity itself doesnt do any harm to the world around us - but the ways in which we produce electricity can have some nasty side effects. When we switch on something that uses electricity we 'use up' electricity from the generated supply, and the more things we switch on, the more electricity we use. To supply us with every increasing amounts of electricity we have to produce more and more, sometimes from sources such as wind power or solar power, but far more often from burning the three main follil fuels; oil, gas and coal.

Fossil fuels release pollutants such carbon, sulphur and ash when they are burned, and these contribute to global warming and pollution. The entire world will suffer the consequences of global warming as sea levels rise and climates change, so it won't be just the people who have used too much electricity who suffer!

In developing countries such as Uganda, India or Bangladesh, rural people rarely have a reliable supply of electricity and might have only one light bulb in a village - perhaps no electricity at all. Electric conveniences such as washing machines, games consoles and kettles certainly aren't to be found! At the same time, developed countries such as the USA and the UK have reliable electricity supplies and use electricity for hundreds of different things, from heating our homes in winter through to running toys and music centres.

Here are just a few ways in which we use electricity to make our daily lives easier, although the task can be either done without it, or isn't important and is just for fun:

**Ways in which we use electricity**
Washing machines for clothing	Dish washers	Electric toothbrushes
Electric razors	Can openers	Whisks for cooking
Bread machines	Computer games consoles	Digital clocks
Pumps in fish ponds	Timers to switch on hose pipes	Electric lawnmowers
Feature lighting in homes	Air conditioning units	Electric fires
Hair driers	Hair curlers and straighteners	Power showers
Electric carving knives	Heated blankets	Garden lighting
Automatic doors and gates	Ice cube makers	TV sets etc left on 'stand by'
Heated and reclining 'comfy' seats	Fish tank and exotic pet heating and lighting	Smoothie and ice cream makers
Electric shoe buffers and polishers	Fresh air and scented room freshener plugs	Electric heated towel rails

How many other 'non vital' uses of electricity can you think of in your own home?

We value your ideas and suggestions. Please contact the maintainer of this site.