Group 1: Potential and usage in transportation of biodiesel. Biodiesel is a green and renewable energy that made from crops such as soya bean.
The supporting side went into details to explain that biodiesel is a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel that is made from crops. It can provide the equivalent energy power to run engines when the normal gasoline or diesel fuel is mixed with 20 per cent of biodiesel. With using biodiesel, the emission of carbon dioxide can be efficiently reduced compared to normal diesel fuel.
However, opponents said that the normal fuel may not be replace by biodiesel in cold countries because of biodiesel’s higher freezing point which will clog engines if the temperature is lower than its freezing point.
Another concern is that the farm and crops economy would be affected by replacing diesel fuel by biodiesel because the profit of growing crops such as soya bean will be increased exponentially as higher demand of biodiesel. So opponents pointed out that will cause imbalanced crop economy. But supporting side suggested that the problem can be solved by government to control the amount of crops that farmers grow.
Therefore, it will be encouraged to replace diesel fuel by biodiesel in future to mitigate climate change if the problems mentioned by opponents are solved.
Group 2 discussed about whether Singapore should adopt green chemistry or not. They focused on biodegradable plastic that is made from biomass such as corn and beans.
The advantages of biodegradable plastic given by supporting side is that they are renewable and safe as well as more efficient manufacturing and better waste conversion compared to normal plastic widely used in our daily life now.
The concern of opposite side are whether it toxic to human and will cause the price of plastic in Singapore going to very high because the cost of biodegradable technology is very high.
So whether to adopt biodegradable plastic in Singapore is depends on government or economy statement of Singapore.
Group 3 discussed about genetic engineering. It provides chance for human to alter ourselves but it’s also opposed by religious groups, ethnical and activists. So the topic of discussion was whether genetic engineering should be allowed.
Genetic engineering can give a chance to parents to get the baby with their expectations such as gender and characters. However, opponents said pre-deciding baby’s gender will cause sex imbalance all over the world which will result in decreasing of born rate if couple prefer having male over female.
The supporting side also pointed out that applying genetic engineering will be able to optimize gene of babies to help parents to obtain athletically stronger baby who will be more resistance to diseases. But it will be unfair to normal people if both normal people and optimized people are participating in sports competition.
In opinion, genetic engineering can make our beautiful, smart or stronger, but do we really know who we are.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Summary of two articles, Going underground and Warming signs
The topic of my group is to investigate one of technologies about climate changes mitigation and explicate why citizen groups should support, promote, or oppose such a technology.
The first article is ‘Going Underground ‘, written by Mark Schrope, a freelance science writer base in Florida. The article is talking about that development of Carbon dioxide capture and storage technology, which can mitigate the current climate changes by capturing and storing carbon dioxide gas emitted by industrial plants from worldwide. It is also pointing out some technical issues that the scientists have to research more, such as the measurements of the force of gravity to monitor carbon dioxide storage sites. Lastly, the article introduces encouraging outlook of CCS based on some achievements and progresses from different countries or scientists.
Basically, the carbon dioxide capture and storage technology is to capture the CO2 from power-station chimneys and to store them deep underground safely. But before implementing this technology, researcher must make sure that the stored carbon dioxide gas would not leak out to pollute surroundings. Therefore, a method called gravity measurement was tested to track the spread and store of the buried carbon dioxide. The principle of the method is that the force of gravity is slightly higher at a spot that has seawater below it, compared with one that has less dense carbon dioxide. Researchers believe that CO2 could be stored safely with this method.
The second part of the article gives some encouraging outlook about the CCS. It says, a team has been able to achieve the remarkable precision of gravity measurement, needed to effectively monitor the buried gas although they still need a lot of data to be collected later on to be analyzed.
Schrope, Mark. (December 2008). Nature report climate change, VOL 2, www.nature.com/reports/climate_change, macmillan publisher limited
The second article ‘Warming Sign’ written by Mohan Munasinghe, vice chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and chair of the Munasinghe Institute of Development in Colombo Sri Lanka, points out that nowadays, the climate changes are caused by recent human activities and greenhouse-gases emission. Here are two ways for human to deal with climate change, adaptation and mitigation, suggested by Mr. Munasinghe.
For the first way, adaptation, we have to increase our adaptability such as build dikes against increased sea-level. The second choice is to mitigate climate change by sustainable lowering the emission of greenhouse gases which is a clean development mechanism of Kyoto Protocol.
The article also points out that climate change spans the planet, play out over the countries and concerns on every human being. For developing countries, they should reduce the greenhouse gases emission while continue developing their economy. But for developed countries, display more leadership in mitigating climate change and share their experiences in this area to help developing countries.
Munasinghe. Mohan, A World of Science in the Developing world, macmillan publisher limited
Evaluation:
The first article goes into details of CCS technology in aspects of helpless of CCS, the technical issues to be solved and encouraging outlook of CCS. These information is very helpful for reader to understand this technology and to make decision whether they support, promote or oppose the CCS technology.
The second article analyzes the situation of global warming and suggests what policy-maker from developing or developed countries should do depends on the situation of their own country.
Clean Development Mechanism—it permits the industrial countries transfer part of the obligations to reduce emissions to other nations in exchange for payment.
The first article is ‘Going Underground ‘, written by Mark Schrope, a freelance science writer base in Florida. The article is talking about that development of Carbon dioxide capture and storage technology, which can mitigate the current climate changes by capturing and storing carbon dioxide gas emitted by industrial plants from worldwide. It is also pointing out some technical issues that the scientists have to research more, such as the measurements of the force of gravity to monitor carbon dioxide storage sites. Lastly, the article introduces encouraging outlook of CCS based on some achievements and progresses from different countries or scientists.
Basically, the carbon dioxide capture and storage technology is to capture the CO2 from power-station chimneys and to store them deep underground safely. But before implementing this technology, researcher must make sure that the stored carbon dioxide gas would not leak out to pollute surroundings. Therefore, a method called gravity measurement was tested to track the spread and store of the buried carbon dioxide. The principle of the method is that the force of gravity is slightly higher at a spot that has seawater below it, compared with one that has less dense carbon dioxide. Researchers believe that CO2 could be stored safely with this method.
The second part of the article gives some encouraging outlook about the CCS. It says, a team has been able to achieve the remarkable precision of gravity measurement, needed to effectively monitor the buried gas although they still need a lot of data to be collected later on to be analyzed.
Schrope, Mark. (December 2008). Nature report climate change, VOL 2, www.nature.com/reports/climate_change, macmillan publisher limited
The second article ‘Warming Sign’ written by Mohan Munasinghe, vice chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and chair of the Munasinghe Institute of Development in Colombo Sri Lanka, points out that nowadays, the climate changes are caused by recent human activities and greenhouse-gases emission. Here are two ways for human to deal with climate change, adaptation and mitigation, suggested by Mr. Munasinghe.
For the first way, adaptation, we have to increase our adaptability such as build dikes against increased sea-level. The second choice is to mitigate climate change by sustainable lowering the emission of greenhouse gases which is a clean development mechanism of Kyoto Protocol.
The article also points out that climate change spans the planet, play out over the countries and concerns on every human being. For developing countries, they should reduce the greenhouse gases emission while continue developing their economy. But for developed countries, display more leadership in mitigating climate change and share their experiences in this area to help developing countries.
Munasinghe. Mohan, A World of Science in the Developing world, macmillan publisher limited
Evaluation:
The first article goes into details of CCS technology in aspects of helpless of CCS, the technical issues to be solved and encouraging outlook of CCS. These information is very helpful for reader to understand this technology and to make decision whether they support, promote or oppose the CCS technology.
The second article analyzes the situation of global warming and suggests what policy-maker from developing or developed countries should do depends on the situation of their own country.
Clean Development Mechanism—it permits the industrial countries transfer part of the obligations to reduce emissions to other nations in exchange for payment.
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