According to this graph from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 81% of all energy used in the United States comes from carbon stored in fossil fuels. Clearly, we depend on fossil fuels for residential, transportation, commercial, and industrial uses.
Even as we rapidly consume non-renewable fossil fuels, we all realize that the sources of our energy must change. Our challenge is give up our dependency on fossil fuel energy and to utilize energy derived from renewable sources. Over the period from 2000 to 2012, renewable energy consumption, not including hydroelectric power, increased from 1% of total consumption to nearly 6%. While this is not nearly enough to supply the needs of an industrialized country, it is encouraging that some progress is being made.
The people of the United States and other developed countries consume many times more energy per capita than the people of other countries. Reducing the amount of energy used by each of us will assure that there is enough energy for everyone.
