This lesson will cover the basic principles of global climate change and how the warming of the climate is driving the push towards innovation and adoption of renewable energy technologies, processes, policies, and cultures. This lesson will look at the push for renewables as a necessary condition for beginning to address the climate problem at its main source, namely, greenhouse gasses emitted as a byproduct of the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial processes. The call to address climate change is, at its root, an ethical imperative which further underpins the drive for renewables.
This lesson will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Course Syllabus for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignment below can be found in this lesson.
Requirements | Assignment Details |
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To Do | Familiarize yourself with all the Lesson 3 Readings and assignments. |
Read | Week 3:
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Assignment |
Week 3: Post questions and comments in the discussion forum. To post, go to the course in Canvas, click on Lesson 3 folder, and post to Lesson 3 Discussion. Complete Ethics Matrix 2 and Stakeholder Analysis Worksheet. To submit, go to the course in Canvas, click on Lesson 3 folder, and click on Submit Ethics Matrix 2b and Stakeholder Analysis Matrix. |
If you have any questions, please post them to our Questions? discussion forum (not email), located under the Discussions tab in Canvas. I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
The links between energy use and the global warming of the atmosphere are significant. In 2011, the global total output of CO2 from energy production was 32,579,000,000 metric tons (32.6 Gigatons) or 71,824,400,397,211 pounds. That is just for one year, for energy consumption alone.
First, read Chapter 1 of the IPCC report on Renewable Energy (RE) and climate change.
This is a rather complex document with a significant amount of data and figures, and it is sometimes easy to lose the thread of the argument. This document expects you to already know something about how climate change works. For a quick background on how the greenhouse effect works, please have a look at HyperPhysics [6] and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) [7].
In Chapter 1 of the IPCC RE Report:
In Part 1, you read about the linkages between energy, renewables, and climate change. Now, read the International Energy Agency's Methodology for the "450 Scenario" and Chapter 8 of 2012 World Energy Outlook.
This report by the IEA works through various energy policy scenarios based on requirements to meet certain targets.
Links
[1] https://www.pexels.com/@fastflash?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels
[2] https://www.pexels.com/photo/photography-of-factory-929385/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels
[3] https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-model#
[4] https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/2db1f4ab-85c0-4dd0-9a57-32e542556a49/GlobalEnergyandClimateModelDocumentation2022.pdf
[5] https://www-oecd-ilibrary-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/energy/world-energy-outlook-2019_caf32f3b-en
[6] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/grnhse.html
[7] https://www.ucar.edu/
[8] https://www.pexels.com/photo/alternative-energy-environment-power-propeller-356060/
[9] https://www.pexels.com/@pixabay
[10] https://www.pexels.com
[11] https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/