In this edition of the Sustainability for Kids newsletter, we look at fuel switching. Fuel switching is the substitution of one energy source for another in order to reduce energy consumption, costs, and carbon emissions. Before we can talk about fuel switching, we need to know why we should switch.

Learn: What Are Carbon Emissions?

When we burn fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, and natural gas, we mostly get three things: heat, water, and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is an odorless, tasteless gas that is a combination of carbon atoms and oxygen atoms held together. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is not harmful in small amounts - in fact, all animals exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide in their lungs with every breath they take. But CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which means that when humans create it in large amounts through burning fossil fuels, mass transportation, and deforestation, it contributes negatively to global climate change!

Have you ever been inside a greenhouse? It’s usually much hotter inside the greenhouse than it is outside. This effect is created when short wavelength light — the kind of light you can see in a rainbow or the kind that gives you a sunburn — enters the greenhouse, is absorbed by the soil and other materials in the greenhouse, and is transformed into longer-wavelength light, like what is used in your microwave oven. The longer-wavelength light is re-radiated but cannot escape the greenhouse through the glass, which creates a warming effect inside.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases act like the windows of a glass greenhouse. They trap heat energy that started out as sunlight entering the earth’s atmosphere but was then shifted to longer wavelengths after it was absorbed by the earth.

Greenhouse gases create a warming effect on the earth - they trap heat and contribute to global climate change. In addition to greenhouse gas emissions rising, we have another problem - melting snow caps! White ice can reflect sunlight without absorbing it and transforming it to longer light wavelengths, so light energy can escape the earth’s atmosphere if it is reflected by snow. As the snow caps melt, areas of the earth that can reflect light energy away without heating the atmosphere are decreasing. It’s as though we keep making our greenhouse bigger and bigger!

Why is This Happening?

Humans are creating greenhouse gases like CO₂ (by burning fossil fuels) at a rate that’s faster than the earth can reabsorb the CO₂, and greenhouse gases hang around the atmosphere for many, many years. Let’s look at a comparison to further examine this issue.

Imagine your cat is the earth and putting food in your cat’s food bowl is like humans creating CO2. If you start feeding your cat at a rate faster than she can eat it, that food will just pile up in her bowl. She may eat it eventually, but during the time the food sits there, other negative effects may take place:  other pests may be attracted to the food, the food may go bad and begin to smell, and your cat will become unhealthy from overeating.

In this case -- and in the case of the earth’s atmosphere -- the only way to keep your cat healthy is by reducing the amount of food you’re giving her! The same goes for our atmosphere. The only way we can save our atmosphere is by adjusting how much carbon dioxide we create. One of the ways to we can reduce the amount of CO₂ we create is by switching from using natural gas to electricity.

Why Should My Family Switch from Natural Gas to Electricity?

There are many benefits to using electricity in your home instead of natural gas, especially in Palo Alto.

As you know, natural gas is a non-renewable resource, meaning it is not sustainable. Burning natural gas produces carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Natural gas is also made of a chemical compound called methane, which is an even more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So, if any natural gas leaks during the process of removing it from the ground or delivering it through pipes to homes and other buildings, the leaked methane is a big problem for the environment. Natural gas contributes to climate change, and if it is not properly plumbed or used in the home it can be bad for your family’s health when harmful gases are released into the air inside your house. Natural gas is flammable, so be sure you know how to detect a possible gas leak and get out of your house if you smell gas. Natural gas providers add a chemical to the gas, which smells like rotten eggs so you can easily recognize when there is a leak.

There can be other environmental impacts when natural gas is extracted from the earth and processed. Read more about natural gas and how it is extracted here: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/natural-gas/

Now the good news about electricity…The electricity you get from the City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU) is made from renewable and hydroelectric power resources, so using electricity in your house is a sustainable choice. Your household can consider switching from using natural gas to electricity by changing out appliances and looking at transportation alternatives to vehicles that use gas as fuel. We like to call this “beneficial electrification.” Using electricity can be good for the planet, better for your health, and potentially safer than using natural gas.

You can use electricity instead of natural gas for cooking, heating water, and heating your house. This conversion from natural gas to electricity is now more efficient due to the use of equipment called heat pumps. Heat pumps use an efficient electric motor to move heat from one space to another using a process call the refrigeration cycle. Your kitchen’s refrigerator is an example of a heat pump being used in your home right now. Heat pumps can be used to heat your water, heat and cool your house and even dry your clothes.

Here is a video that explains how a heat pump for heating water works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH47xAXEEe0

You can visit this CPAU page about electricity and natural gas to learn more about your electric and gas supplies and visit this CPAU page about electrification to find out more about how your family can make the switch to electricity.

Can I Get a Ride?

A big source of carbon emissions are gasoline-burning cars, trucks, trains, and airplanes. Did you know that burning 1 gallon of gasoline produces about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide? Driving the average gasoline-burning car creates roughly 6 to 9 tons of CO₂ each year.

Picture a football field, and then imagine a round balloon with one end lined up on the goal line and the other on the 10-yard line – that is, a balloon with a diameter of 10 yards. If that balloon were filled with CO₂, it would weigh about 1 ton; it would be a 1-ton CO₂ balloon. An average car creates between 6 to 9 of these 1-ton balloons each year!

In recent years, scientists have been trying to find alternatives to gasoline-burning vehicles and have created a variety of electric-only and hybrid vehicle models. These vehicles are much better for the environment because they have much lower carbon emissions.

We talk about our impact on the earth by examining our carbon footprint. Our carbon footprint is a measure of which of our activities and habits create carbon and how they contribute to overall carbon emissions. Want to further examine your carbon footprint? Check out this carbon footprint calculator: https://www.conservation.org/carbon-footprint-calculator#/

Stay tuned for the next issue on water!