Friday Night Live

Lecture 1
The lecturer mainly talks about global warming effects, the solutions to global warming and the obstacles faced in applying these solutions. He explained that US adoption of the Kyoto Protocol will be valuable, but not decisive, stating that the US uses 20% of the world oil consumption, hence a 50% cut in oil use will mean a mere 10% cut in world oil consumption. Also on a less serious note, that the US failure to adopt the policy is a gift to politicians who are not serious about handling the real pressing issues at hand.
I am fascinated by the idea of storing carbon dioxide in the oceans. Carbon dioxide is denser water at depths 2750metres and greater, and hence carbon dioxide can actually be stored in carbon dioxide ‘lakes’ at the seabed. To prevent the carbon dioxide from increasing the acidity of the seawater, they can actually be pumped into a membrane at the ocean bed. However, one large membrane can only store 2.2days of the world’s carbon emissions, and it is not feasible to dump a huge membrane into the ocean every 2 days or so. He also mentioned about depositing sulphate particles into the atmosphere to reduce global temperatures. However, this is costly and few countries will be willing to do it.

Lecture 2
I must say, the second lecturer left an impression on me with his casual dressing. He mentioned some case studies regarding renewable power and electric vehicles. Electric vehicles, with all their advantages and ability to reduce emission of greenhouse gases, were unable to replace the gasoline cars on the road. He attributed the failure to poor marketing strategies, and the resistance of the population towards change, particularly technological improvements.
He then went on to possible solutions, such as identifying the different actors and interests involved in technology, so that activists can approach and deal with the correct person. He also stressed on the importance of integrating new technology as part of the social system, so that the population can willingly step out of their comfort zones and accept new technologies as part of their everyday lives.
I felt that the point of integrating new technology into our social system is particularly important. It is common knowledge that people will rather stay in their comfort zones then to risk it and try something new. What I would have preferred is that the lecturer will go more in depth regarding the methods and agents that can drive this change of breaking down people’s resistance to change, instead of just mentioning that this should be done.

Lecture 3
This lecture is similar to the video “An inconvenient truth”, where the lecturer gives statistics reports such as the 2007 IPCC Report and the rise in global surface temperature for the past thousands of years. We have experienced thirteen of the warmest years since 1990, and the Arctic temperature has doubled. This might lead to rising sea levels which can engulf entire countries which are situated close to the current sea level.
Factors affecting the global temperature include the oceans storage of carbon dioxide, cloud cover, aerosol pollutants and photosynthesis of plants. Again he mentioned increasing energy efficiency, relying on renewable energy resources and reducing greenhouse gases.