Green Lectures From Last Friday

On 30th of January, NUS has invited three special guests to shed some light on climate change and energy problems for NUS students and let me summarize the lecture given by the individual speakers.

The first speaker is Dr. Palmer. According to him the world is producing 7 gigatonnes of carbon emissions per year. He went through the usual list of things that could be done to reduce that figure. Among those items, he emphasized on one particular technology that has some potential as part of the solution in response to climate change. It is called carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The technology mainly comprised of three parts: the capture of CO2, transport of the captured CO2 to a storage site, and then the actual storage. Transport can be done using pipelines or vehicles. As for storage sites, he mentioned natural reservoirs, depleted oil and gas fields or at the bottom of oceans (since liquid CO2 is denser than water at about 2750 m below sea level). Capturing CO2 would be made easier for power plants and steelworks by burning coal in oxygen rather in atmosphere. It is expensive but still possible. The bottom line is that CCS is possible with existing technologies and so is possibly part of the solution.

The second part of the lecture is carried on by Dr. Sovacool. His focus was on factors having impact on technology including business and society. The example he brought to us was about how electric cars had become obsolete. Back then it was the electric cars that were introduced to the public first. However, when the cost of the oil plummeted, Henry Ford mass-produced fuel engines. Through advertisements and auto-shows, where electric cars were outnumbered by their fuel brethrens, they were able to change the public’s perception on fuel engines. To sum it all up, when the great depression occurred, the electric car companies were wiped out resulting in the current state of world’s transport portfolio.

The last speaker A/P Rajasekhar Bala also shared his knowledge about climate change. He showed us the evidences to support global warming with charts and figures. He then talked about some potential consequences of global warming which should be very much familiar to us by now. As he continued, he gave me a new insight on one topic which explained the difficulties in dealing with climate change. Since the problem is global and the effects are long-lasting which will not be easily remedied in any time soon. Besides, there are still nonnegotiable political issues centering global warming. Finally, the change or process to fight the climate change can also disrupt economy and life style.

I must say I really appreciate receiving the opportunity to attend the lectures of these top figures in green society. Let me stress again that we need everyone’s responsibility, contribution and immediate action to achieve the better world we all long for. Remember that this is not the only problem the world is facing right now. If I can recall correctly what Dr. Palmer said, if the global warming is the only most challenging problem we will be facing for this century, we are very much lucky indeed.