About Energy Choices and Climate Change
This online module, designed for the general public, provides an overview of energy issues related to climate change at both a global scale and from the perspective of an individual family. You choose which perspective you'd like to follow by choosing a scenario. The two scenarios are:
- The Joules Family: In this scenario, you will learn how the Joules family uses energy and make changes that will reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
- Ruler of the World: In this scenario, you can make changes to the mix of energy sources used worldwide to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions.
Within each scenario, you will have access to information about current energy use and be given options to change energy use. At the scale of the Joules Family, this means making changes to their home and lifestyle. At the scale of the Ruler of the World this means making changes to energy infrastructure while still providing enough energy.
By clicking through a series of tabs you can make changes to energy use in different catagories. As you make changes to energy use, the dashboard at the top of the screen will give you feedback about how the changes you make affect things like carbon dioxide emissions, energy production, and cost. You can get more information about a topic in a particular tab by perusing the background information on the right.
The image to the right shows what your web browser will look like when you are in one of the scenarios and where the features mentioned above will be located on your screen.
