Energy Use

ENERGY USE is in the GSS theme 4, Underlying Causes and Possible Solutions. See Overview. Contents Chapters Investigations Stay Current 1. How People Use Energy 1.1. Recent History Chapter 1 2. Energy Basics 2.1. Create Electricity2.2. Electric Motor2.3. Transformations Chapter 2 3. Fossil Fuels 3.1. Energy Units Chapter 3 4. Field Trip to a Power […]

EF9C. Stay Current—How Does Energy Flow in Living Systems?

2025-03-01. How Fungi Move Among Us. By Alan Burdick, The New York Times. Excerpt: Mycorrhizal fungi are the supply chains of the soil. With filaments thinner than hair, they shuttle vital nutrients to plants and tree roots. In return, the fungi receive carbon to grow their networks. In this way, 13 billion tons of atmospheric […]

EF8C. Stay Current—What is El Niño?

Staying current for Chapter 8 See Non-chronological Resources. { Energy Flow Contents } 2024-10-10. El Niño fingered as likely culprit in record 2023 temperatures. By Paul Voosen, Science. Excerpt: For the past year, alarm bells have been going off in climate science: Last year’s average global temperature was so high, shooting up nearly 0.3°C above […]

EF7C. Stay Current—What Causes Thunderstorms and Tornadoes?

Staying current for Chapter 7 See Non-chronological Resources. { Energy Flow Contents } -•-2025-04-21. The New Tornado Alley Has Been Hyperactive this Year. By Mark Fischetti, Scientific American. Excerpt: By last Saturday, the National Weather Service reported that 552 tornadoes had occurred in the U.S. this year—well above the average total of 337 for the […]

EF6C. Stay Current—How Does Energy Flow in the Atmosphere?

Staying current for Chapter 6 { Energy Flow Contents } See also: GSS Climate Change. 2025-04-02. Dying coral reefs could slow climate change. By Elise Cutts, Science. Excerpt: VIENNA— Climate change is causing the oceans to get warmer and more acidic, making it harder for corals to build and maintain their mineral skeletons. Eventually, reefs will literally […]

EF5C. Stay Current—What Is Light?

Staying current for Chapter 5 See non-chronological resources (bottom of this page) { Energy Flow Contents } 2025-08-01. A Solar Wind Squeeze May Have Strengthened Jovian Aurorae. By Sarah Stanley, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Spectacular aurorae dance and shimmer nearly continuously at Jupiter’s poles. …Sometimes, Jupiter’s aurorae grow much brighter for hours or days at a time. …clarifying […]

EF3C. Stay Current—What Heats the Earth’s Interior?

Staying current for Chapter 3 { Energy Flow Contents } California Earthquake animation site at USGS 2025-08-04. Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface. By Robin George Andrews, Quantamagazine. Excerpt: All the activity on Earth’s surface — erupting volcanoes, shifting tectonic plates, restless seas and myriad forms of life — depends […]

EF2C. Stay Current—Why Do Volcanoes Erupt?

Staying current for Chapter 2 See articles from: {2008–2020}-{2002–2007}. See non-chronological resources (bottom of this page) { Energy Flow Contents } 2025-08-19. Hayward earthquake of 1868: What lessons can we learn? By Richard Schwartz, The Berkeley Scanner. Excerpt: …as a community, we have largely chosen to ignore what happened Oct. 21, 1868…. …The 45-second 1868 […]

EF2C. 2002-2007 Why Do Volcanoes Erupt?

{ Energy Flow Contents } { All GSS Books } 2007 November 1. Is the ocean carbon sink sinking? RealClimate website. –David. Excerpt: The past few weeks and years have seen a bushel of papers finding that the natural world, in particular perhaps the ocean, is getting fed up with absorbing our CO2… evidence that the hypothesized carbon cycle […]

EF1C. Stay Current—What Is Energy?

Staying current for Chapter 1 { Energy Flow Contents } 2001 November. Birth of a Large Iceberg in Pine Island Bay, Antarctica [223kb PDF NASA Lithograph] This lithograph shows the break-off of a large tabular iceberg from the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. This event occurred between November 4th and 12th, 2001, and provides powerful evidence […]