We use energy to grow and transport our food. We use energy for transportation, to get to school and work, and to bring us home at the end of the day.  There are wires that bring electricity to all of our houses so we can use electrical energy for our lights, for TV, and to heat or cool our house.  The electricity that we use in our homes firsts or generated, by burning coal, or natural gas, by the power of water in a dam, or by wind, or the sun, or by the heat of the earth.       Fossil Fuels generators burn coal or natural gas. Hydropower generators use the power of water in a dam. Wind Power uses the power of the wind to generate electricity. Solar Power changes the light of the sun into electricity. Nuclear Energy uses the power of a nuclear reaction to make electricity. Most of the electricity we use in the United States is generated by burning fossil fuels, mostly coal and natural gas.  Fossil fuels are made up of plants and animals that lived on the earth hundreds of millions of years ago.  They have been changed into oil, coal, or natural gas from the pressure and heat of being being buried in the earth for a very long time. Fossil fuels have worked very well for a very long time.  But they produce gases when they are burned that are harmful to the environment.  These gases are called greenhouse gases because they are warming up the earth.  There is so much burning of fossil fuels around the world that the earth's climate is getting warmer.  This is called global warming or climate change. This is dangerous because some places on earth could get so hot that people cannot live in those places or grow food there.  Global warming is also melting the ice in the far north and antarctica, and the level of the sea is rising all around the world.  This is a serious problem for cities located on ocean shores. Renewable energy is different from fossil fuels.  They are not burned.  They come from natural resources that are always replaced by nature, things like hydropower, wind power, and solar power.  Renewable energy is also called Green Energy or Clean Energy becuase it does not pollute the environment.  There are no harmful gases that go into the atmosphere and they do not cause global warming.   We know that we need to use less fossil fuels to slow down climate change.  But we cannot immediately completely stop using fossil fuels because we need the energy every day.  It will take many years to make the change to just renewable energy. You can do your part by understanding what global warming is, understanding the things that cause it, and always be on the lookout for ways to use less energy.  The Borrego Desert Energy Project is a program of the non-profit Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, with support from the California Energy Commission.