Lesson 8

This week's lesson was about Energy and World Change and one of the quotes particularly caught my attention - "Conserve your planet, it's the only one you've got". How true! People and industries are using up the world's resources like no tomorrow because they are indifferent about the consequences. Since the backlash of the depletion of resources will only effect decades later, the current generation is not THAT concerned since it will not affect their lives. However, we often fail to realise that our descendants, the future generation who will be affected, is going to be living on the same Earth as us. And this planet had already been ruined by us.

Prof started off by showing us a really interesting video about Germany's Solar Experiment which depicted Germany making use of resources that they need to make all sorts of things happen and they afford this through the aid of bank loans with a fixed return rate. I feel that this is a really encouraging video as it shows that at least someone somewhere in the world is making an effort to make a change to reverse the energy depletion in the world.

The first speaker, Joe, spoke about Smart Grid in South Korea which talks about the South Korean government investing in a Korean citizen who made use of smart grid in his home to conserve and generate energy. The system cost 2 billion euros but has an annual savings of 500 million euros and hence only takes 4 years to cover the initial cost before it starts making money and saving energy for the Earth. I think this is a good initiative that South Korea is taking as it is one of the first in Asia. Furthermore, with South Korea taking a lead with such initiatives in Asia, other countries like Singapore, Japan etc may follow suit too.

The second speaker, Ishita shared about 'The Tar Sands' which was an interesting topic as I have never heard about it before. Tar sands are an alternative to crude oil and exists in abundance, however, it brings about many disadvantages like heavy pollution and damage to the habitat of people living near the tar sands mines. The controversial question discussed was whether Tar Sands is an immediate and effective alternative to the gulf oil, despite the disadvantages it carries? Personally, I feel that it is an immediate alternative but not an effective one as it will just create more problems for the environment and planet if it is used as a long term source of oil hence it may alleviate the situation temporarily but is definitely not a long term solution.

I rate this session 9/10 as the guest speakers shared on very interesting topics and I learnt about many initiatives around the world to save energy and the planet!