Powering the Future - Striking a Balance

Today on Far Future Horizons we explore the future of Alternative Energy with the third episode of a four part documentary series entitled “Powering the Future” hosted by M. Sanjayan.

We are bombarded daily with conflicting messages about energy from sources with vastly different agendas and motives. This episode filters out politics and special interests by looking at numbers: How many people will be on the planet by 2050 and how much energy will we need? What happens if we grow and consume at our current rate? It's common knowledge that we use enormous amounts of energy, but until it's quantified, it's impossible to grasp the true extent of how much is wasted.

This series follows the search for a single, clean energy source that will eliminate society's need for fossil fuels. Dr. M. Sanjayan, lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy, looks at how the abundance of the planet's energy fuels every aspect of life on Earth. From wind, water, the sun, volcanoes, and hurricanes, to the smallest cells to the tallest trees, Earth has the natural energy to power the planet, but humans are not using it. What can humans learn from the creation of the natural world that will help create energy? The program examines promising technologies in the fields of synthetic biology and geoengineering. 

Powering the Future is available on DVD from the Discovery Channel's Online Store. 

Powering the Future - Striking a Balance

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