What do you do when you switch on a kettle? You trigger a flow of electrons that warm the filament and heat the water. Those electrons are transmitted down a distribution system (transformers, power lines and substations) from a plant in which turbines and generators are powered in any number of ways: by burning natural gas, oil or coal; nuclear energy; or alternative energy (such as hydropower, or geothermal and biomass sources).

What do you do when you switch on a boiler? The gas comes into your home from a low-pressure distribution zone, which is in turn fed by a national transmission system in which compressor stations push the gas through 173,000 miles of iron, steel and polyethylene mains pipeline. Gas enters the system from terminals attached to pipelines from the North Sea or from other countries – although liquefied, natural gas can be delivered by boat.

In short, the simplest act connects you to vast histories played out across immense distances. The engines of the last 250 years of social development and economic growth have been fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), formed over hundreds of millions of years from the decomposition and compression of dead organisms. Organic matter originates in turn from the heavier elements formed in the last stages of a star's life billions of years ago, before it ejected those elements violently into space. All energy is ultimately solar energy.

Energy prices have been rising dramatically for a number of years now (Boardman, 2010a, pp 73-5), and although we should be wary of predicting the future – much depending on the availability of oil and whether other energy sources can be found (Yergin, 2011, pp 242-3, 419-20) – the era of cheap energy may not return. In any event, ecological imperatives require us to reduce our use of fossil fuels, and develop cleaner energy sources, which is likely to further increase prices, at least in the short term.

This raises three questions for social and environmental policy-making (Diesendorf, 2011). First, how can we protect the incomes of the poorest as energy prices rise? Second, how do we ensure that all people are sufficiently warm while also achieving reductions in carbon emissions? Finally, how do we manage the climate change transition as the problem shifts from the need to keep homes warm during cold winters to the need to cool homes during excessively hot summers?