Powering a Nation: New website illuminates U.S. energy use

On July 31, a team of twelve journalists at UNC-Chapel Hill launched a fascinating website, Powering a Nation, which investigates energy issues in the United States. The site uses innovative multimedia storytelling to explore themes of energy use at the grassroots level, where real people interact with the systems that bring us food and electricity.

Through short videos, interactive graphics, written text, and slideshows, Powering a Nation features nine stories:

• “The High-Energy Diet,” which explores the implications of the American food system on global carbon emissions
• “Reclaiming Creation,” which investigates the intersection of faith communities and environmental activism
• “Roping the Wind,” a story about Roscoe, Texas, the site of the biggest wind farm on the planet
• “Debating Coal’s Future,” which profiles a town in Ohio as it struggles over whether to approve three new coal-fired power plants
• “Power in Plants,” a story about the push to adopt biofuels as an alternative to fossil-based fuels
• “Down the Lines,” which examines the dangers posed by our aging electrical infrastructure
• “Mining the Mountains,” a story about the debate over mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia
• “Climate Refugees,” which discusses the plight of coastal Inuit communities forced by erosion and flooding to abandon their homes
• “Energy Portraits,” which reports on the daily energy consumption of three families of different ethnicities, ages, and locations in the U.S.

And coming in September, an interactive game will allow visitors to create and store a detailed profile of their energy usage. Opportunities abound for middle-school and high-school teachers to use Powering a Nation, particularly as a way for students to understand how elements of the curriculum connect with some of the most pressing issues of our time.