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Earth Day on OpenLearn
Nature & Environment

Earth Day on OpenLearn

...energy, and to triple the global generation of clean electricity by 2030. Find out more about alternative energy sources in some of our free courses on renewable energy: We've also included some tips on how you can make some changes to protect our Earth in the free resources below... Change your diet One of the best ways to help the environment is to reduce your intake of...
View article Earth Day on OpenLearn
Article 5 mins
Spark it up!
Science, Maths & Technology

Spark it up!

...energy it takes to start up a variety of objects in this game developed to complement the series Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity...PLEASE NOTE: This interactive was originally created for the broadcast of Shock & Awe: The Story of Electricity in 2011, therefore some of the data may not be up to date. [Spark it up launcher ] Launch Spark it Up Click the image above...
View activity Spark it up!
Activity 5 mins
DIY: Generate your own electricity
Science, Maths & Technology

DIY: Generate your own electricity

...energy (itself derived from coal, oil, natural gas, wind, water, nuclear reactions or other sources) into electrical energy. Here, we describe how to use readily available materials to make a simple generator. Although it will only be powerful enough to light a small torch bulb, it works on the same basic principles as the power station generators that supply domestic...
View article DIY: Generate your own electricity
Article 10 mins
Animals at the extremes: hibernation and torpor
Nature & Environment

Animals at the extremes: hibernation and torpor

...energy-efficient survival when ambient temperatures are so low that foraging or simply maintaining normal core body temperature and basal metabolic rate are either energetically too costly or impossible. Polar endotherms can maintain a high T b even when living actively at sub-zero temperatures. Such animals have very good thermal insulation and may have a plentiful food...
View course Animals at the extremes: hibernation and torpor
Level 2: Intermediate 14 hrs
Bill McKibben - Stories of Change
Nature & Environment

Bill McKibben - Stories of Change

...energy solutions. And then I’m also – separately but with a major overlap – doing some what the Open University call ‘legacy interviews’, long-form interviews, in which we talk to key players round the world on energy at some length about what got them interested in it and we probe solutions and problems a little more deeply. The idea is that they will remain on...
View audio Bill McKibben - Stories of Change
Audio 5 mins
Working with our environment: an introduction
Nature & Environment

Working with our environment: an introduction

...energy and materials to all ecosystems. It is, then, difficult to make a clear distinction between a 'managed environment' and a 'natural ecosystem', although we can all understand the difference in principle between planned management and inadvertent change. Not only are we part of nature, but, as Figure 1 suggests, we exert an increasingly dominant influence on our...
View course Working with our environment: an introduction
Level 1: Introductory 11 hrs
Environment: treading lightly on the Earth
Nature & Environment

Environment: treading lightly on the Earth

...energy and transport and consumption of food, goods and services. It’s measured as the mass, in kilograms or tonnes per year, either of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions alone, or of CO2 plus the mass of other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions converted into their carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) global warming effect. The carbon footprint can also be calculated for an event...
View course Environment: treading lightly on the Earth
Level 1: Introductory 15 hrs
OU Carbon Calculator FAQs
Nature & Environment

OU Carbon Calculator FAQs

...energy generated) created at times of surplus to non-renewable energy generators. So, many so-called 100% green electricity tariffs are a mix of fossil fuel, nuclear and renewables purchased on the wholesale market and then ‘labelled’ green by buying REGO certificates. Other ‘greenwashing’ electricity suppliers, including some who claim to supply 100% renewable...
View article OU Carbon Calculator FAQs
Article 5 mins