After recess week (which was probably the hell week for most IS students anyway), we were back on track for TWC, covering on the various ways we harness energy available on our planet. Some of these are actually quite scary, as calculations show that most of our reserves will be depleted if we continue with our way of consumption.
Brief Overview of Week 9 class
“Conserve the planet. It’s the only one you’ve got”
This video depicts on how we are ruining our ecosystem and environment through the harmful gas emissions from various technologies. It then shows some interesting new ideas on ways we can salvage our situation, such as using public transport as an alternative, solar energies, wind power, and “green” light bulbs.
I feel that these suggestions will really bring benefits, however I question the success of influencing the society to make such changes. Until costs are lowered down for such technologies, or possibly incentives provided by the government, it would be hard for many to find motivation to switch to such technologies, until they feel the consequences of these problems. This has been the “selfish” human mindset that has been brought up constantly during class.
Sources of energy
We were first introduced to the possible sources of energy, be it above or below ground. Even with that many sources, figures still show that the world is consuming the resources at an alarmingly high rates, which may deplete them much faster than we think.
Sustainable Energy: 20% Renewable Energy
Despite pessimistic views on our finite resources, this video highlighted the efforts made by EU, to commit to reaching 20% renewable energy, to help salvage our current situation. Specifically, they are exploring into solar, hydraulic, wind, geothermal and biomass energy.
Germany’s solar experiment
This video was showed a specific example of how Germany is contributing towards the adoption of renewable energy. Solar panels are highly encouraged by the government, and they are willing to subsidize electricity bills to encourage households to make use of such technology. Banks have even been supportive to farmers who would like to utilize their big farm spaces to generate energy, despite the high loans and risks from funding such acts.
Desertec: Investment in solar power in deserts
This last video shows an organization called Desertec that is investing billions of dollars to solar panels to be placed in North Africa where most of the deserts are, and transit the power back to Europe, able to provide 15% of Europe’s demand. If proven successful, they plan to expand this to help out the African nations as well.
The first presentation highlighted the possibilities of alternative energy to help reduce gender inequality. This is done so by providing new job opportunities for females.
The second presentation introduced the idea of free energy, which is energy that can be produced at a very fast rate with low costs involved. The presentation highlighted the four forces that are preventing this technology to be spread, which is the wealthy community, governments, existence of conmen, and all of us with selfish and narrow motivations.
The third presentation introduced the idea of shale gas as a possible alternative source of energy over coal. The adoption of shale gas may be more widespread as it is less damaging than coal in terms of gas emissions, despite its possible dangers of water contamination. Should this problem be solved, shale gas consumption is expected to increase.
The fourth presentation talked about an interesting idea about how our mindset is wrong that we should be looking into alternative sources, but instead should be looking into stretching our current supply of resources instead. The idea of using magic was creative, though was a little bit distractive from helping to bring across the point of natural capitalism.
The last presentation looks into trash energy, which is to convert emissions from burning trash into useful energy. The presentation highlights the people for such technology, and the sceptics that the others have that recycling is still the way to go. The discussion was on how regulations can better help countries such as Britian to be more environmental conscious.
Interesting Observations
I was really enlightened by this week’s presentation on how alternative sources can not only be used to solve our supply and demand problem, but also to tackle societal and environmental issues that hasn’t been previously thought of.
It is interesting to see how in the case of Germany, monetary incentives are needed to spur households to adopt the technology of solar energy. Is it really hard to highlight the problems and consequences of our rampant resource usage?
It is quite depressing to see that incentives have to be given to encourage people to adopt technologies that might save our planet, despite the higher costs. Wouldn’t the higher costs be balanced out with a better environment to live In, in the future?
Key Takeaways
I think that humans have to work hand in hand together with the growth of technology to solve our problems of depleting resources. Technology can help us stretch our resources, or find alternative sources. However if we as consumers blatantly waste it rampantly, or not putting effort to reduce consumption, no amount of technology will salvage the current situation we’re in.
This was clearly highlighted in the fourth presentation this week, which mentioned on how we should change our mindset of searching for alternative sources, as this does not tackle the root of our problem of excessive consumption.
Further discussion
Perhaps the class could have discussed on the way on inculcating such changes in mindset. Would education alone be suffice to illustrate the importance of conserving our planet? Or would drastic measures be needed to wake up the entire human race?
Extreme measures are probably an idealistic way of tackling the problem, as it might infringe on basic human rights. But without putting ignorant humans into a real situation where all resources are depleted, they might not be aware of how drastic the consequences are if we do not start acting now.
Conclusion
This session was quite intriguing as I was exposed to the various types of energy sources and how we can harness them for different reasons apart from environmental conservation. Sadly due to the lack of sleep, I wasn’t really able to concentrate well, and found the content a little dry this week. Nevertheless, I was happy to be still able to have certain takeaways from this lesson, much of which I have agreed on being a silent supporter of environmental protection.
Rating : 7/10
0 comments:
Post a Comment