E-Portfolio Task #3

Lecture on 30 January 2009

Carbon dioxide capture and storage technology and politics

The first speaker, Prof. Andrew Palmer spoke about the cause of climate change is due to the huge increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We may look into fuel efficiency and conservation, switching to alternative energy sources, mitigation, adaptation and capture and storage of CO2 from fossil fuels in response. We must try to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide to stabilize at 500ppm to stay at healthy condition. We achieve it by using other energy to replace the use of coal. Alternatively, we can use carbon storage to store CO2 in depleted oil, gas field or ocean. It can be done by using liquid CO2 and store under the ocean. However, many people think that liquid CO2 will diffuse into the ocean water and make it more acidic. Therefore, we need to use a membrane to store it. But, the capacity of storing will be reduced. On the other hand, the political view of this issue is a global problem.

Using STS to Address Energy (and Technological) Problems

The second speaker, A.Prof. Benjamin K. Sovacool spoke on Science & Technology Studies and two case studies (Renewable Power and Electric Vehicles). In the traditional approach, new technologies are not accepted simply because people think that they don’t work. While in the social science systems approach, people look into social considerations to define technological systems. It also examines social and political ordering, invisibility and failure. Renewable Power faces failures such as market failures and barriers, political and regulatory obstacles, cultural and behavioral challenges. While Electric Vehicles faces many challenges such as technical, economic, political and social and cultural challenges. In conclusion, STS methods provide a useful lens to evaluate new technologies.

Climate change assessment and mitigation

The third speaker, Prof. Bala spoke on the climate change caused by global warming and has become a global issue. He showed us a graph on the recent changes in the global temperature. According to 2007 IPCC report, we have 13 warmest years on record since 1990. The potential consequences are droughts, floods, extinctions and intense storms and hurricanes. Some measures may be taken into considerations are increasing energy efficiency and governments taxes on greenhouse gas emissions. After all, global warming has become a global problem where everyone must play a part into. It is not only the effort of the government but also the effort of individual.

My views

In conclusion, I found that the presentations of the three speakers are closely linked. Global warming is a global issue that must be tackled immediately. It has increased the temperature tremendously over the years. It is the effort not only by the government but also the individual. In order to handle the problem, one of the considerations to increase energy efficiency is to replace the existing energy with other renewable energy. But, we must use social science systems approach to look into new technology to handle the sources. The existing energy which produces mostly carbon gases need to find alternative ways to store than releasing it to the atmosphere. One of the ways we are looking into is carbon capture and storage system.

The presentations of the three speakers have given us an overall view on how global warming has come about and what are the ways to find alternative technologies to solve the problems.

Reference:
Lecture. (30 January 09).

E-Portfolio Task #2

How can policies of your government either contribute or help to reduce the problem of global warming?

The emission of carbon dioxide has been increasing throughout the years. It is one of most crucial contributing factors to the cause of global warming. Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface. It has become one of the highlights in the discussion of global issues. In the recent years, government has been promoting ways to reduce the factors contributing to global warming. In Singapore, government can make more emphasis on saving electricity and fuel consumption in the daily basis.

First of all, electricity is produced largely through the process of burning fossil fuel and it contributes greatly in releasing carbon dioxide. Electricity is one of the most frequent uses of energy to be employed for our daily needs. It is not only used in our household, it is also use in our daily working environment. Government should educate the society more on saving electricity in our daily life. Rewards such as rebates can be given to individual household or company when they meet certain criteria. It can be based on the percentage of saving through a couple of months and able to maintain at that bills. On the other hand, more taxes can be introduced if their usages are over certain percentage. In order to create an individual awareness of saving, rewards and taxes may be the first contributing step to be used.

Secondly, fuel is consumed by almost all vehicles on the roads. Fuel burning is the most direct way to create carbon dioxide by the individual cars. In Singapore, government has been increasing taxes to cars on the road to lessen people driving and promoting in public transport. Although this is one of the ways to reduce the number of drivers on the road, it does not solve the problem. Alternatively, the government should promote the replacement of fuel cars to hybrid or Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) cars. Although its combustion does produce greenhouse gases, it is a more environmentally clean than using only fuels.

In conclusion, electricity and fuel consumption has become our daily uses and it is contributed directly to the production of carbon dioxide by the people. Therefore, the immediate solution to solve the problem is to educate the public with the government enforcing it.

Reference:
Former Vice President, Al Gore. Media: The Inconvenient Truth.