#14 Energy and Global Warming
Wednesday – 10:00 a.m. Fall Term 2008 (14 Weeks)
Coordinator: Mary Gallegos Co-Coordinator: Vic Weingarten
Course Description
How did we get into this mess? Oil costing $135 a barrel, gas over $4 a gallon, commodity prices going through the roof, the dollar at an all time low. People are starving throughout the world and Asians are even guarding their rice fields with guns. There are cyclones in Burma, hurricanes in New Orleans. Nations are rushing to build nuclear power plants, there is a war in Iraq, a threat of war with Iran, threats to destroy Israel. Unemployment is rising, the U.S. is in a recession, the stock market has dropped more than 20%. People are losing their homes as are polar bears. Ice is melting at the North Pole. Are these problems traceable to running out of energy sources, greenhouse gas emissions and global warming? Come and join us as we try to understand the problems, the myths and realities and discuss with us the possible solutions to the problems. Scientists say that we must act now to save our civilization. What should the world, the nation states, businesses, agriculture, private industries do and what should each of us, you and I do?
Topics
- Defining the mess we’re in: How did we get there; challenges we face; possible solutions.
- Early man’s use and development of energy: Social and economic changes that occurred in the past because of energy use; historical background of the development of fuels and technology.
- Energy Consumption: Impact on the world economy; is this a possible cause of the present US recession, the stock market collapse, and the large US deficit?
- Alternative Energy Sources: Solar; fuels from living creatures; biofuels; ocean energy; geothermal; clean coal; wind power; nuclear fission.
- Global Warming: Myth or reality, evidence for and against; Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.
- Republican and Democratic Party Platforms: On energy; carbon cap; global warming; offshore drilling; drilling in Alaska; ethical and philosophical implication of each party’s platform.
- Bush Administration Policies: Are they solving or contributing to energy and global warming problems; can the new President, whether Republican or Democratic, solve these problems that they will inherit.
- Private Industry and Government Solutions: Changes in government policies; how to get the government and private industry to act.
- Education and Research: How to increase the number of college students and faculty members majoring and teaching science and engineering; government funding for energy and science research; competition with China and India for world’s best scientists.
- World Leadership: Change in U.S. world leadership position due to U.S. energy policies and Iraq war relationship to U.S. oil energy needs; declining U.S. leadership position and rise of China and India.
- Terrorism: Terrorism funded with U.S. money from U.S. purchase of oil from the Mid-East; Iraq war’s relationship to terrorism.
- Solutions in Addition to Alternative Energy: Re-engineer power plants for clean energy; carbon cap; carbon tax; Kyoto Protocol; electric cars; cars that run on natural gas; public transportation.
- World Solution: Negotiate with both friendly and hostile nations; inducing leaders to focus on energy and global warming problems.
- Biological Changes: Biological changes due to global warming; what happens to humans as the earth warms; implication for survival; random selection and evolution.
Bibliography
Core Book:
Krupp, Fred and Horn, Miriam. Earth: The Sequel. W.W. Norton & Company,2008.
Others:
Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth: The Crises of Global Warming. Penguin 2007.
Greenspan, Alan. The Age of Turbulence. The Penguin Press, 2007.
Nordhaus, William. A Question of Balance Weighing: The Options on Global Warming Policies. Yale University Press, 2008.
Pre-Meeting: Wednesday, August 13, 2008; 10:00 a.m.
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