Introduction:

 

What will our planet look like in 2050… or beyond? What will happen to our natural resources such as water and oil? What will happen to all of the vegetation and plants that are on the surface of the earth? At the rate we are using our natural resources for energy and electricity, our planet is changing at a drastic pace! For the past 125 years, the Athabasca Glacier near Edmonton has been melting, losing almost half of its volume (1). This glacier, and many others are rapidly melting as climate change increases global temperatures, and humans are using more water than ever before as our population grows.  In today’s society, life without energy and electricity becomes very difficult. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Athabasca Glacier, Alberta, Canada

 

As a solution to these issues, some major renewable energy sources have come to light in last few decades. The use of Solar Energy Power is one such example. Professor Nate Lewis at the California Institute of Technology is one of the many scientists across the world whose research is based on Solar Power (2). The sun is an unlimited source of energy that humans can harness to great effect. In order to convert solar power to usable energy power on earth, scientists have developed solar panels. These panels are made of photovoltaic cells (where “photo” means light and “voltaic” means production of electricity (3,4). Some may also refer to these as solar cells.

 

 

 

                                              Earth - 2013                                                                                           Earth - 2050 and/or +