On the thirtieth of January, three lecturers presented three topics on climate change. These three lecturers are Andrew Palmer, who talked about Carbon Dioxide capture and storage: technological and politics, Benjamin K. Sovacool, who talked about Using STS to Address Energy (and Technological) problems, and Rajasekhar Bala, who talked about Climate Change: Assessment and Mitigation. These lectures were very informative and interesting, and encouraged the students to think about the fate of future generations.
Andrew Palmer was talking about different methods needed to reduce carbon dioxide emission. The most interesting part in his lecture was to reduce carbon dioxide emission, we must used many different methods such as switch coal to gas, nuclear, biofuel, hydropower, and using the carbon dioxide capture and storage technology. It makes me realize that people have been using oil uncontrolled and now we must accept the consequences. However, our actions to fight global warming cannot be done by individual but must be done by the whole communities in the world and with the support of the politicians. We all face with recession, diseases, and poverty, but if we do not take the action to reduce carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere, then we will face with extreme cases of natural disasters and viruses. More people will die, and who will benefit from this?
The second lecturer explained to us on how technology dictated the pace and the direction of social change. The most interesting part in his topic was technology can succeed technically but not socially. It makes me thinking that for a technology to be a great success, it must be accepted by the society. Just like how the automobile defeated electric car. Thus for us to change and fight the climate change, we need to educate the public about new technologies that are useful and essential. If not the public will not accept technologies, instead they will fear it and reject the changes made by new technologies.
The last lecture was about climate change: assessment and mitigation. The lecturer showed to us the evidences of global warming and its consequences. Global warming caused the rise in global surface temperature, changes in glacier and hurricanes pattern, and rises in ocean level. The consequences are intense storms and hurricanes, droughts and floods, extinction of organisms, incurable diseases and economic and social disruption. Some parts of the world will remain dry and some part of the world will be drowned because of the sea level keeps rising. The interesting part is that some part of the world will benefit from global warming, maybe countries like USA or Europe, but the third-world countries will receive the tremendous impact of global warming.
The main point that I grasped from these lectures was to fight global warming, the developed countries like USA, Russia and China should reduce their oil consumption and switch to renewable energies. However, it might takes a long time for that to happen as the politicians always make excuses and trying to manipulate the society to accept their decisions not to switch to renewable energies.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Second Entry: How can policies of your government either contribute or help to reduce the problem of global warming?
The earth is a magnificent planet, the only known place where living things exist. It has experienced many different climate changes from beginning until now. However, the extreme case of climate change is happening right now, Global Warming. Since the industrial revolution, human has been consuming oil uncontrolled, without thinking of the consequences. Now this generation and the future generations must fight and solve the problem of global warming. One of the best ways to reduce global warming is for the government to introduce new policies. Singapore has introduced new policies such as reduce, reuse, recycle, and energy-efficiency.
The future generation of Singapore will have the policy of reduce, reuse, recycle, programmed into their way of lives. At school students are taught to throw their plastic bottles and papers into the bins for recycling, also if they want to print out lecture notes, they are encouraged to print both sides, to reduce their paper consumption. Moreover, in supermarket such as NTUC Fairprice, the customers are encouraged to bring their own bag or to buy the environmental friendly bag, which helps to reduce the plastic bag usage. Plastic bags and plastic bottles are made of oil. Thus by reducing the amount of plastic used by many people, it helps to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the air.
Singapore’s government also persuades its people to be more efficient. Now most of the air-conditioned buildings and houses have set their temperature to twenty-five degrees Celsius. Also, the cars nowadays are fuel-efficient. By making higher tax for cars and petrol, the public is more relied on public transportation than private cars. The government also teaches the public on how to be more energy-efficient through media. If the whole Singapore has the carry out the energy-efficiency program, at least Singapore will be a better place, and other countries will follow its example.
All the actions and policies taken by the government of Singapore can help to reduce the problem of global warming as it involves the whole community of Singapore. If the whole community does not work together in fighting the global warming, then the world will not be magnficent anymore.
The future generation of Singapore will have the policy of reduce, reuse, recycle, programmed into their way of lives. At school students are taught to throw their plastic bottles and papers into the bins for recycling, also if they want to print out lecture notes, they are encouraged to print both sides, to reduce their paper consumption. Moreover, in supermarket such as NTUC Fairprice, the customers are encouraged to bring their own bag or to buy the environmental friendly bag, which helps to reduce the plastic bag usage. Plastic bags and plastic bottles are made of oil. Thus by reducing the amount of plastic used by many people, it helps to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the air.
Singapore’s government also persuades its people to be more efficient. Now most of the air-conditioned buildings and houses have set their temperature to twenty-five degrees Celsius. Also, the cars nowadays are fuel-efficient. By making higher tax for cars and petrol, the public is more relied on public transportation than private cars. The government also teaches the public on how to be more energy-efficient through media. If the whole Singapore has the carry out the energy-efficiency program, at least Singapore will be a better place, and other countries will follow its example.
All the actions and policies taken by the government of Singapore can help to reduce the problem of global warming as it involves the whole community of Singapore. If the whole community does not work together in fighting the global warming, then the world will not be magnficent anymore.
Monday, January 19, 2009
First Entry: The Expanding World of Engineers
What are engineers? This question usually makes the general public associate engineers as the people who invented and built sophisticate machines, advanced computers, and exquisite skyscrapers. However, engineers are not only manufacturing these, they are the people who enhance the growth of the economy. Through their training, they are able to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions, as written by Prof. Ramakrishna in the article of “The expanding World of Engineers”.
Engineers since the beginning of their study, they have been trained to look at a problem, and use the most effective ways to solve it which is the combination of science, arts and mathematics. They do not like to complicate a problem by trying to solve the problem from the middle or end result; instead they will work out the problem in steps from the beginning until the end. If there is a difficulty they will not give up but compromise and use another method.
Also for the fact that new technologies are emerging, engineers rather than shun it like what the society tends to do, they embrace it and very enthusiast to learn the new software, hardware, or machines. Engineers are trained to combine their knowledge and the technology to design the solution of the problem.
Moreover, some problems need diversity of expertise to be solved, such as creating an artificial heart. Engineers must be able to work in a team, thus their soft skills such as communication skill, leadership skill, time management skill, and many more, have been developed throughout their study through working together within a group of engineering students.
As a result of good training, engineers have the combined skills of systematical and critical thinking which enable them to go into different fields other than engineering.
Engineers since the beginning of their study, they have been trained to look at a problem, and use the most effective ways to solve it which is the combination of science, arts and mathematics. They do not like to complicate a problem by trying to solve the problem from the middle or end result; instead they will work out the problem in steps from the beginning until the end. If there is a difficulty they will not give up but compromise and use another method.
Also for the fact that new technologies are emerging, engineers rather than shun it like what the society tends to do, they embrace it and very enthusiast to learn the new software, hardware, or machines. Engineers are trained to combine their knowledge and the technology to design the solution of the problem.
Moreover, some problems need diversity of expertise to be solved, such as creating an artificial heart. Engineers must be able to work in a team, thus their soft skills such as communication skill, leadership skill, time management skill, and many more, have been developed throughout their study through working together within a group of engineering students.
As a result of good training, engineers have the combined skills of systematical and critical thinking which enable them to go into different fields other than engineering.
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