Dr Don McLean, IES Founder and CEO, discussing the importance of saving energy in the ever-growing need to save the planet as a whole
Society is built on energy. We take energy for granted. Without it we’d be back to the stone age.
However, over the last decade climate change and its implications has become a serious threat to humanity and millions of other species. Carbon emissions are still increasing. Over the last few years CO2 has been increasing at a rate of 2.5 parts per million (ppm). This means that in only 16 short years we will hit the danger mark of 450ppm. This gives us little contingency to mitigate reaching 450ppm.
Buildings account for 40% of the world’s energy consumption. IES was founded on the basis of ‘how can we make buildings better and more energy efficient’. In order to maintain our standard of living we will require energy, but our use of energy must be much more efficient. The main focus should be on energy efficiency of buildings before using renewable energy.
As a species we’ve done marvellous things. For example: we’re the only species that understand how planets and the solar system works at one extreme, to fully understanding the consequences of continuing to burn fossil fuels. Wouldn’t it be tragic if out of blatant stupidity we ruin what we have achieved by ignoring climate change and leaving future generations to suffer the consequences?
Let’s start saving energy NOW for future generations.
