Summery:
The article ‘Going underground’ by Mark Schrope, a freelance science writer based in Florida, discussed about the feasibility of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, and held some pilot studies which focused on how to monitor the carbon dioxide storage sites.
CCS technology is promised viability by its proponents, but there are still worries from public about the stability of the storage. Before moving the technology to wider pilot study and finally apply it, we need to enhance the technology to make sure that it is stable and effective. The article introduced a precise and effective method that used to monitor the buried carbon dioxide, called ‘gravity measurement’. It is not a new technology, but applied to track the spread of seawater into a natural gas field for a few years. The principle of the technology is that the density of seawater and carbon dioxide are difference, so that different gravity forces are generated by different layers. According to record the gravity changing at one spot, we can get the movement of carbon dioxide layer. Comparing with seismic survey, gravity measurement is more cheap and low risk for marine life.
The equipment for gravity measurement is gravimeter, which is proved sufficient accurate through a certain volume of carbon dioxide monitor. Since the gravity measurement varies with location, measurements of surrounding location are necessary to get a precise changing of carbon dioxide layer underground.
The second article ‘Warming Sign’ written by Mohan Munasinghe, vice chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and chair of the Munasinghe Institute for Development in Colombo Sri Lanka, shows the situation of climate change at present, and suggest the reaction that governments should do. He analyze the Clean Development Mechanism held from Kyoto Protocol and pointed out that it may lack of equity and burden sharing between developed country and developing country, because their emission level are different, and they are emphasizing different problem during their development at present. He introduced ‘sustainomics’ in order to suggest the government to find the proper role when handle with the climate problem.
Evaluation:
In the first article, author showed his confident of CCS technology, according to the study of certain volume of carbon dioxide movement stored underground. At the same time, he also pointed out the attitudes of researchers and policy coordinator: since the movement of larger volume of carbon dioxide has not been studied yet, it is too early to affirm the stability of CCS technology.
The second article analyzes the ‘psychology’ of different countries. It is helpful to analyze the different reaction of people from different country due to a same climate change mitigation technology.
APA citation:
In the first article, the author numbered the position where he got the information from other place, and gave the references at the end of the article.
In the second article,
Relevant vocabulary words:
Geology—the science of the earth, including the composition, structure and origin of the rocks. It is essential and useful during the process of Carbon Capture and Storage.
Seismic measurement—produce an image of the Earth’s subsurface using reflected sound waves. Gravimeter—equipment that can measure changes in gravity through the compression or expansion of a spring with a weight attached to the bottom.
Clean Development Mechanism—it permits the industrial countries transfer part of the obligations to reduce emissions to other nations in exchange for payment.
Sustainomics—make development more sustainable, balancing environment with social, economic.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Summary of lecture on 30th January
On 30th January, 3 distinguished lectures were invited to give us a speech so that we can further understand the effects of global warming and energy problems after watching the movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. And we have also seen that governments and scientists are trying to face the global warming scientifically.
Professor Andrew C. Palmer, who comes from Centre for offshore research & Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, showed us his idea of technology and politics of carbon dioxide capture and storage. He concluded what actions should be taken for both government and individuals if climate change is happen, for example switch to alternative energy sources from coal to gas, nuclear, solar or biomass fuels, save the energy during our daily lives etc. His proposal of capture and store carbon dioxide is really interesting and attractive. He proposed that CO2 can be stored into depleted oil or gas field rather than dumped it into atmosphere, or liquid CO2 can be stored on the bottom of ocean by putting it into a membrane in order to prevent the biological effect, because CO2 could make ocean more acid. Professor finally concluded that carbon capture and storage is technically feasible, but whether it actually can happen depends on political will and the corporation between organizations and countries.
Dr Benjamin K. Sovacool, coming from Science & Technology Studies, tried to prove his point that economic, educational, legal, administrative and technical elements formed a seamless system, and STS is used to analyze how society and technology influent each other. He presented two cases, renewable power and electric vehicles, and analyzed the technical, economic, political and cultural challenges for new technologies. He finally summarized that, no technological system is truly self sustaining, and also showed us how powerful the STS method is when applying it to evaluate new technologies. The presentation is amazing because we become so realize that, to successfully applying a new technology, we need to consider much more beyond technical problem only.
The associate professor from Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dr Rajasekhar Bala, gave us a presentation about Assessment and Mitigation of Climate Change. He stated the potential consequences of enhanced global warming and options to deal with climate change, at last he also mentioned the duties of both government and our personal.
It is a long term issue to fight for global warming and we need to find suitable techniques to solve it; it is not a simple issue also to balance the global warming solutions and economic development. We need the cooperation between countries, as well as the understanding and support from the public.
Professor Andrew C. Palmer, who comes from Centre for offshore research & Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, showed us his idea of technology and politics of carbon dioxide capture and storage. He concluded what actions should be taken for both government and individuals if climate change is happen, for example switch to alternative energy sources from coal to gas, nuclear, solar or biomass fuels, save the energy during our daily lives etc. His proposal of capture and store carbon dioxide is really interesting and attractive. He proposed that CO2 can be stored into depleted oil or gas field rather than dumped it into atmosphere, or liquid CO2 can be stored on the bottom of ocean by putting it into a membrane in order to prevent the biological effect, because CO2 could make ocean more acid. Professor finally concluded that carbon capture and storage is technically feasible, but whether it actually can happen depends on political will and the corporation between organizations and countries.
Dr Benjamin K. Sovacool, coming from Science & Technology Studies, tried to prove his point that economic, educational, legal, administrative and technical elements formed a seamless system, and STS is used to analyze how society and technology influent each other. He presented two cases, renewable power and electric vehicles, and analyzed the technical, economic, political and cultural challenges for new technologies. He finally summarized that, no technological system is truly self sustaining, and also showed us how powerful the STS method is when applying it to evaluate new technologies. The presentation is amazing because we become so realize that, to successfully applying a new technology, we need to consider much more beyond technical problem only.
The associate professor from Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dr Rajasekhar Bala, gave us a presentation about Assessment and Mitigation of Climate Change. He stated the potential consequences of enhanced global warming and options to deal with climate change, at last he also mentioned the duties of both government and our personal.
It is a long term issue to fight for global warming and we need to find suitable techniques to solve it; it is not a simple issue also to balance the global warming solutions and economic development. We need the cooperation between countries, as well as the understanding and support from the public.
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