Andrew C. Palmer, Dr Benjamin K. Sovacool and Rajasekhar Bala presented issues relating to global warming and steps taken to fight against global warming. In general, global warming is becoming more severe due to massive amount of carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere.
Professor Andrew C. Palmer is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a Chartered Engineer. He discussed about carbon dioxide emission and how its emission quatity has grown over the years and in the past 20 years it has increased exponentially, to the extent that 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide is being dumped every second. Carbon dioxide emission has to be reduced to 500 parts per million and has to be kept at that level if not the consequences will be great.
One of the way to tackle this issue is by carbon dioxide capture and storage option. The gas will be captured from factories, industries, vehicles and then all the captured carbon dioxide will be pumped into the ocean. In the long run this can be troublesome as carbon dioxide will diffuse into the ocean and it will be too acidic resulting a in biological effect on marine life as well as ours. Therefore one of his colleagues have came up with an idea to store all the liquid carbon dioxide in a membrane called 'sausage'. Another way to deal with the problem was to scatter sulphate particles into the atmosphere, thereby reducing the amount of infra radiation from the Sun to Earth, this will help to keep the Earth surface temperature cooler. This is an efficient method but is very costly to implement unless there is involvement and participation by developed and developing countries.
The second speaker, Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His main point was using STS to solve energy and technological problems. Then he presented two case studies, the first one on Renewable Power and the second case on Electrical Vehicles. Using both the cases he gave us an analysised view of the two cases which showed us that technology can succeed but sometime it is the society which fails them. Other factors which act like barrier are economical cost, political, regulatory, cultural and society behaviour. He ended his presentation by concluding how STS methods provide a useful lens to evaluate new technologies. This method make people think about technology, the social science way.
The final speaker was, Associate Professor Rajasekhar Bala, Division of Environmental Science & Engineering. He addressed the factors for global warming, steps the government can take and have been doing and what we as an individual can do to help reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emission. He informed us why global warming is taking place and provided evidence that global warming is taking place. Like the report by IPCC made in 2007, rise in global surface temperature, 13 warmest years since 1990, Artic temperature have risen twice as fast and land glaciers which are melting. The potential consequences of enhanced global warming are tremedously huge as lots of damage would be done and may take many years before the damage can be healed.
From the three presentation, what I found interesting was that global warming is not a battle that can be fought over easily. It is like a never ending war between us, humans, and global warming. Many people are working on this issue coming up with new ideas and way to reduce greenhouse gas emission, storage of greenhouse gas, to reduce the intensity of the infra radiation that is coming from the Sun to the Earth, working on renewable energy which is sustaniable and cost effective. There are many such lone 'warriors' or 'clans' around the world trying to do that to save the Earth. This can only happened and take place worldwide if governments of different countries, developed and developing get together, put aside economic gains and benefits for themselves or their country aside and attend to the bigger problem.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Global Warming
After watching "An Inconvenient Truth" a documentary by Albert Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States of America from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton then, zooms in on a critical issue. This issue is Global Warming and its effects are serious. Global warming is a process where the overall temperature of planet Earth rises, this happens because the heat which is radiated by the Earth is not able to escape the Earth's atmosphere as it is prevented by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxiode, which has been accumulating over the years.
As global warming take place, its effects are felt everywhere in the world in the form of natural disasters like droughts, floods, hurricanes, melting of glaciers at North and South pole. Taking a look at Singapore, she has yet to suffer any natural disaster due to its geographical location, but her people should not make a mistake by not taking global warming seriously. As it is every person and every country duty to tackle and cut down the sources that contribute to global warming. All of us living on Earth, its our only home and we have to protect it and make it a better place.
Singapore's goverment has taken part in the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty intended to bring countries together to reduce global warming, in April 2006. This is just one step that Singapore have taken in combating global warming. Other measures Singapore has taken such as having tax incentives given out to people who purchases hybrid cars, as they tend to be more environmental friendly and also provide better mileage. Broadcasting advertisement on television informing people that turn off electrical appliances when not needed, set your air-con temperature at 25 degree Celsius and so money can be saved. Encouraging people to take public transportation and encourage people to recycle unwanted products. By setting up bins which collect paper, plastic and metal rubbish in the neighbourhood.
The National Environmental Agency in Singapore has also enforce limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that industry can release into the air. When it comes to deal with global warming, it is like a balancing act as every government running their country they would look at their economy first and then global warming.
This is the mindset that needs to be change as global warming is everybody problem. I personally feel that developed countries should do more in the fight against global warming and we humans should not be greedy and use only what we need.
For every tree that is cut down, the same species of tree should be planted. Our future depends on planet Earth so we have to care for it.
As global warming take place, its effects are felt everywhere in the world in the form of natural disasters like droughts, floods, hurricanes, melting of glaciers at North and South pole. Taking a look at Singapore, she has yet to suffer any natural disaster due to its geographical location, but her people should not make a mistake by not taking global warming seriously. As it is every person and every country duty to tackle and cut down the sources that contribute to global warming. All of us living on Earth, its our only home and we have to protect it and make it a better place.
Singapore's goverment has taken part in the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty intended to bring countries together to reduce global warming, in April 2006. This is just one step that Singapore have taken in combating global warming. Other measures Singapore has taken such as having tax incentives given out to people who purchases hybrid cars, as they tend to be more environmental friendly and also provide better mileage. Broadcasting advertisement on television informing people that turn off electrical appliances when not needed, set your air-con temperature at 25 degree Celsius and so money can be saved. Encouraging people to take public transportation and encourage people to recycle unwanted products. By setting up bins which collect paper, plastic and metal rubbish in the neighbourhood.
The National Environmental Agency in Singapore has also enforce limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that industry can release into the air. When it comes to deal with global warming, it is like a balancing act as every government running their country they would look at their economy first and then global warming.
This is the mindset that needs to be change as global warming is everybody problem. I personally feel that developed countries should do more in the fight against global warming and we humans should not be greedy and use only what we need.
For every tree that is cut down, the same species of tree should be planted. Our future depends on planet Earth so we have to care for it.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
"The Expanding World of Engineers"
From the article, I agree with Professor Seeram Ramakrishna views on the changing face of engineering. This is due to the engineering tertiary education system, which is design in such a way that is helps to train the mind of engineers to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach for designing solutions.
These trainings help engineers prepare themselves to face real problems at their workplace. Problems like making sure the final product or solution is cost effective, user friendly, is the product environmentally friendly, can the production be done or solution to the problem found in the given time frame. Problems will keep arising as globalisation continues to take place and to deal with these problems, engineers must come into the picture and play their role.
All the training is provided by the university as they want future engineers to excel in their respective fields. The university provides the infrastructure, services and support needed for the student to build and master their core engineering knowledge and then carry out practices at laboratory work where students are required to use their knowledge and put to practical work. Then there are also industrial attachment programs where one get to encounter real time problems and feel how is the life of an engineer like. As this will give them sufficient experience and would be able to design proper solutions.
Having core engineering knowledge is important but soft skills are equally important as well. Since engineers work in groups, they should be able to interact, share their idea and thoughts, work as a team, teams' should have good leader who can motivate and drive their team to perform in their task.
Once one is an engineer he or she has to keep upgrading themselves with new set of skills for their respective line and also with the latest technology advancement. This would help an engineer's mind to analyze complex information and apply better designing solutions relevant with time. With all this benefits or gains, it would not be surprising that tertiary engineering education would be become the next "' liberal arts education' of today and tomorrow" (Ramakrishna, 2007).
Ramakrishna, S. (2007, August 5). The expanding world of engineers. The Sunday Times, p. 25.
These trainings help engineers prepare themselves to face real problems at their workplace. Problems like making sure the final product or solution is cost effective, user friendly, is the product environmentally friendly, can the production be done or solution to the problem found in the given time frame. Problems will keep arising as globalisation continues to take place and to deal with these problems, engineers must come into the picture and play their role.
All the training is provided by the university as they want future engineers to excel in their respective fields. The university provides the infrastructure, services and support needed for the student to build and master their core engineering knowledge and then carry out practices at laboratory work where students are required to use their knowledge and put to practical work. Then there are also industrial attachment programs where one get to encounter real time problems and feel how is the life of an engineer like. As this will give them sufficient experience and would be able to design proper solutions.
Having core engineering knowledge is important but soft skills are equally important as well. Since engineers work in groups, they should be able to interact, share their idea and thoughts, work as a team, teams' should have good leader who can motivate and drive their team to perform in their task.
Once one is an engineer he or she has to keep upgrading themselves with new set of skills for their respective line and also with the latest technology advancement. This would help an engineer's mind to analyze complex information and apply better designing solutions relevant with time. With all this benefits or gains, it would not be surprising that tertiary engineering education would be become the next "' liberal arts education' of today and tomorrow" (Ramakrishna, 2007).
Ramakrishna, S. (2007, August 5). The expanding world of engineers. The Sunday Times, p. 25.
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