Describe six personal assumptions (beliefs about how the world works, but cannot prove it) that have changed (or not) as a result of this course? (e.g. Related to the role of certain energy resources, impact of human activity on environmental change, business side of energy, the politics of energy, speed of change vs market share change, et al. Hint: Reference specific content and how it changed or confirmed your assumptions)

a.       What assumptions have changed?  (Three - 3)

Answer:

The first assumption that I had about the climate on the earth was, that the changes in climate are completely natural. However, this course has taught me that climate change can be caused by human activity as well. An example from this is how human beings nowadays have been burning fossil fuels which cause releasing greenhouse gases to our atmosphere. These greenhouse gases have the capacity in making the temperature of our earth become warmer if compare with its temperature on million years ago.

The second assumption I had was the human beings will always protect the earth along with its sources. This course has taught me that business purpose has made human beings to become selfish and more care around making the benefits for themselves rather than saving our earth. An example can be seen from how the business has developed shale gas and claimed that shale natural gas is safe. In fact, there is no guarantee at all for the safety of this shale natural gas. Notwithstanding how the shale natural gas has leaked and made the water to be unsafe for human beings and also animals.

The third assumption I had was oil will remain as the only dominant fuel for the next century. From this course, I have learned that nowadays a number of countries have been attempting to make gas as alternative fuel due to the oil sources have been dropping. For this reason, the countries have been started to use gas as the main fuel besides than solar, fossil, and electrical.

b.      What assumptions remain unchanged?  (Three - 3)

Answer:

The assumptions that I had before I took the course and after I gained the lessons from this course are:

·         Technology will able to deliver the expansion of alternative resources of energy. In fact, the only weaknesses toward the renewables are mentioned as the political indecisiveness, people who have the mindset that their actions would not change anything, and also the term of conservative energy resources.

·         Human beings have seen and foreseen impact on their environment. Indeed, a slight incoherence might drastically change the living standard of human beings. For example such as the oil prosperous, the advent of vehicles, and also the expansion of the electrical grid.

·         A key to political change is social engagement. It is the fact that without any involvement or teamwork from the human beings to request for the better and cleaner energy sources, then it is likely that the change will have appeared slowly.

2)      Imagine you have been asked to help create a national ‘Future of Energy & Environment 101’ educational campaign designed to reach the general public.

a.       First; what might be the top few ‘Myths or Misperceptions’ associated with the future of energy that you need to dispel?  In other words- first identify what you think is misunderstood by the public- then tell me how you might correct this misinformation.

Answer:

Some myths that really need to be driven out are the ones that mentioned if the renewables would not able to help the supply of energy, and also a myth that says that using less energy would be the same as efficiently use of energy.

Renewable energy sources would have the main part in the future since there is an increasingly vast speed progression in technology. As we have acknowledged how vast technology could improve in the context of computers, which relies on microprocessors. The quality of our microprocessor would be depended on the number of transistors, whereas the more transistors would make a better computer. The similar broad theory can be used to technology in further different fields such as improved efficiency within the solar panels, bigger fuel cells capacity that could be used to account for lost time, advanced capability to transfer electrical power throughout longer ranges by using the advanced technology, and also the progress in nanotechnology which able to totally change the context of renewable energy.

Now, energy-efficient does not simply mean that we should turn off the lights or not using any high voltages electronics. Instead, being energy efficient is considered as energy conservation. Energy efficiency is more about saving more of your money, further use out of fewer electricity production, which would able ultimately able to reduce the amount of fuel demanded by the power plants, and as a result, would create a better environment. In simple words, the more energy-efficient we can make, the lower amount of electricity bills that we have to pay.

b.      Second; what do you believe are the five (5) most important concepts that every person should know about the future of energy? (e.g. GDP + Population growth = Energy Demand, difference between ‘growth’ vs ‘market share’, carbon pricing schemes, et al).  This list is your vision, but please be sure to explain the value of each concept and why you selected it as a Top 5! Remember, blend specific course material with your own ideas.  Tie in names of people/stakeholders and content we’ve covered! You may include concepts not yet covered in the course but be sure to provide research support or links to sources if it helps us as graders. 

Answer:

The five most important concepts that every single person needs to know about the future of energy are as mentioned below.

1. The activity of human beings which is able to impact the environment would play an essential role within the future of energy, even though a decision made by each individual appears to have no impact on a complete system. In the end, the entire small selections which are created will be included in a bigger impact that is felt universally. These huge impacts which affect the human race would able to cause the persons to work together as a community and request a modification in the energy sources. As a consequence, it would come to a point in which the negative environmental impacts could be viewed as a form of social revolution (Stirling, 2014).

2. The growth of the human population along with the progression that performed recently by the underdeveloped countries would able to increase the request for energy globally. This case would also able to cause a shortage of energy due to the fact that fossil fuels are considered as a limited resource, and thus, if conservative resources would be exhausted, then the alternative resources would turn out to become further expensive to grow.

3. Since there are more countries in this world have agreed that there should be a tax for carbon, there is a big possibility that economic pressure will be appeared on certain energy companies, in order to improve cleaner technology with a purpose to avoid the tax of carbon. This tax of carbon should be similar to the standards of income tax, whereas the tax burden would be increased if the income would also increase.

4. The subsidy given by the government is basically not in a purpose to shrink the prices in renewable energy sources. Instead, the subsidy is more to improve occupation, along with capital productivity. This could be considered as a brief-term impact, and actually, this impact would eventually decrease the prices on renewable fuels. In addition to this, this would also able to stabilize the market and make it be less weak to the possibility of fluctuation. As a consequence, it would finally permit renewable energy to put more focus on technological improvement instead of the power of both demand and supply (Keynes, 2018).

5. Human beings need to really figure out how to efficiently use energy sources. The reason is due to the world has presented that all of the energy has its limited sources. This simply means that we cannot just sit down and relax in consuming electricity or fuel without considering that all of those sources of energy that have been facilitating us could be finished one day. Thus, it is quite important for the entire human beings to anticipate and plan the proper usage of energy sources, in order to give a better future for our next generation.

3)      Describe the transition from conventional to unconventional hydrocarbon supplies.  What does it mean for dynamics of supply, production, emissions, costs, geopolitics, et al? Describe both perceived benefits and trade-offs with this transition.

Answer:

The conventional hydrocarbon supplies define as the fossil fuels that quite simple to extract right from the ground. On the other hand, some extraction procedures by human beings to be conducted regarding the unconventional hydrocarbon would be required so that fossil fuels could flow easily. A primary sample of unconventional natural gas extraction process is the hydraulic fracturing, whereas the formations of shale would be fractured along with the explosives, with a purpose to release the locked-in gas. Due to the unconventional hydrocarbon supplies require more phases to gain certain advantages of the extraction process, and it would cost for further pump and refining.

Furthermore, there would be an environmental impact from the extraction process of the unconventional sources to the market place and would end up in the release of more greenhouse gases rather than the conventional oil resources. The reason is due to there would be extra burning in the process of refinement. Thus, the environment is frequently get damaged due to this extraction process of the unconventional resources. For instance, if we take a look at the tar sands, which the natural trees and grasses were being removed, natural environments are damaged, and also the sink of CO2 has also been removed.

On the other hand, this discovery along with the extraction process of the unconventional hydrocarbon supplies would able to improve the domestic supply which would lead a less reliance on importing oil from other countries, lower the prices, as well as extending the availability of resources. It is the fact that natural gas would release less CO2 into our atmosphere. However, the leaks from many pipelines and also from further storing resources would able to cause an upsurge of methane discharges. Now, methane would able to trap the heat for 25 times greater than CO2, and eventually, even though it would not slowing the change of climate, but it would surely help the human beings to move away from coal, and on the way to a further supportable future with natural gas.

4)      Explain why GDP + Population growth is the most relevant measure for forecasts used to understand future energy demands.  Then link and introduce two separate Demographic transitions likely to occur in nations around the world, and why they are relevant to the future of energy and the environment.  (Tip: Be sure to integrate the Energy Ladder concept into demographic transition answers)

Answer:

Gross Domestic Product or more familiar as GDP defines as the complete amount of the entire products and services manufactured within a country for a year duration period. The growth of population is considered as the main factor in increasing this GDP. The reason is due to if there are more individuals working in the country, then they would able to make more contributions to the economy of that country. One point that we should note from GDP is that, along with the increase of GDP, the demand for energy would also get increase.

GDP per capita could be described as the amount of the GDP per individual, in which the terms of how wealthy the individual is on the average of a country. This GDP per capita has been rocketing in China, Israel, India, Bolivia, along with other developing countries. This simply defines that there would surely be a bigger demand required per every single individual in every country, in the context of energy supplies. Along with the increment of demand, the countries would be enforced to shift up Energy Ladder and also provide their people with higher quality of energy. Then, since the citizens would become healthier in these countries, then life expectancy would definitely be increased and there will be a decrease in child mortality. This would further improve the population mass, and therefore, if there would be more people live nearby and organized, then the energy demand will surely further boosted up. This is aligned with the reason that the cities would demand more electricity power along with energy if compare with the rural regions. Hence, it would generally offer a greater living standard since the contiguity of health care, the water treatment accommodations, adequate waste removal, and further modern facilities.

5)      Support or critique the proposition that climate change policy and educational campaigns should focus primarily on oceans.  Why (or why not) might this framing of climate change issues be more important for impacts, policy change, restoration efforts, et al.  In your answer be sure to highlight the fundamental reasons why oceans might be considered a central lens for climate change (e.g. salinity, micro-organisms and CO2 sink, heat exchange).

Answer:

The science has taught us that the oceans are a big sink of CO2. However, the bigger amount of CO2 absorbed, the more possibility for water to become sourer and acidic. This situation might be deadly for the micro-organism if an alteration in pH impacts the inner procedures of the organism, and would cause the entire processes to become less effective, and thus, lead to ultimate death. In case if these micro-organisms would suffer a huge extermination incident, then oceans’ capacity to absorb would be decreased and would lead to a progressively vast global temperatures’ change. The humans have been observing how an increase in ocean temperatures surface which able to cause the water to magnify, ice would melt quickly, and there will be rising of the sea levels. This would surely disturb the system of cooling and heating in our earth, which could be compared with what happened in the dinosaurs’ era where there were high temperatures, huge levels of extinction, high levels of CO2, and thus, would eventually lead to the demolition of the human race.

References of personal assumptions

Keynes, J. M. (2018). The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. Springer.

Stirling, A. (2014). Transforming power: Social science and the politics of energy choices. Energy Research & Social Science, 83-95.