Lecture on 30th January

We as people face many different problems every single day. Some problems we manage to solve while others linger on for a while. One problem that has stayed with us for more than four decades is global warming. Countries have gone back and forth re-prioritizing this problem every year but have never managed to find a proper solution. Global warming is the trapping of infra red radiation, due to the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

In the third lecture given, it was explained how greenhouse gases are produced and how they build up the thickness of the atmosphere, trapping infra red radiation. The lecturer explained that because of the build up of heat in the earth’s atmosphere; countries will start to experience many different types of disasters. The lecture was very similar to a movie made by former vice president Al – Gore. It made me think to myself, what will become of the countries that will be submerged by the rising seawater in a few years time? What will happen to its civilians and where will they go?

The first lecturer described the different techniques of fighting global warming. Some of his solutions included switching to alternative power sources such as solar power, wind power and fuelling of power plants by natural gas instead of coal. I was very intrigued by the methods that can be used to store carbon dioxide underwater. The most interesting of which was the “sausage” method. This method is used to store carbon dioxide in bubble like structures in the depths of the ocean. He also explained why this would be impractical because of the enormous amount of carbon dioxide we produce every day.

The second lecturer showed us the psychology behind using technology. Some people are just so used to certain types of technology that they would not be able to survive without it. Without electricity or the Internet I personally would not be able to survive. In the lecturer’s case study about the automobile, he showed us how commercials and publications can cause people to make choices that would harm our planet. The fact that there were electrical cars before fossil fuel cars puzzled me greatly!

There are many different techniques we can apply to save our planet. All we need is a little initiative and a good head start. If we don’t start acting now, who knows what disasters we will experience in the future.

Policies of my government that help reduce global warming

In recent years, global warming has become an all too common word used in the news. It is the result of greenhouse gases trapping heat within the earth’s atmosphere. The earth’s atmosphere is naturally made up of molecules of ozone, but with the increasing dependence on fossil fuels, this is slowly changing. With this change, a lot of problems are unfolding.

In the presentation entitled “The Inconvenient Truth”, they mentioned the numerous problems that could result from the increase in thickness of the atmosphere. Initially the earth’s atmosphere was supposed to protect us from ultraviolet and other types of cosmic radiation, but because of our excessive use of fossil fuels, it is now slowly turning against us. As a result, the oceans have become warmer creating more natural disasters, floods due to excessive rain, drought, more powerful hurricanes and typhoons.

In my country, Singapore, this can be disastrous. Singapore is just a tiny island that is only a few metres above sea level. If a flood or any other type of natural disaster hit us, we would have no place to escape to. Our homes would be totalled. Singapore has introduced some policies that indirectly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Most of these policies have been directed towards cars, which is a great contributor to greenhouse gases. The government provides people with many options of transportation including buses, MRT and taxis. They impose a hefty fine on anyone who wants to buy a car (C.O.E). They have put up a number of ERP gantries, which deduct a certain amount of money every time you pass under one with a vehicle. They also only allow you to keep your car for a limit of ten years. All of these are meant to discourage people from buying cars.

Singapore has also increased taxes on electricity bills and present awards to people with the lowest usage of electricity. This is to encourage people to use less electricity, which puts less demand on power plants to burn fossil fuels. Even the prices of fossil fuels are heavily taxed, preventing people from buying too much.

All of these policies aid people in making better choices for the environment. It is up to us to help put those policies in motion if we want to do our part to save our planet earth.

How do engineers think?

Engineers are trained from the start to look at problems in different ways. They don’t just take the solution head on, but try to find the various ways and possibilities around it. They not only have been trained intensively with mathematics in order to strengthen their logic, but with many other science subjects. This allows them to analyze situations taking into consideration the different hazards and problems that could occur.

If an architect presents a group of engineers with a sketch or drawing; the engineers build what the architect asks for in the most feasible and safest way possible. When they eventually find a solution; they tend to solve it in steps. In doing so, this helps them amend or delete any unnecessary steps, making the process faster. It is an engineer’s job to look at the problem as a whole and try to solve it systematically. If solutions cannot be obtained, a compromise would be reached.

As an engineering student myself, I have seen the difference between school education and university education for engineers. Unlike school, where you were required to memorize most of the time, the engineering course requires you to understand and explain every aspect of a situation. Even when presented with a set of problems, we are trained to sum up all those problems into a single equation. There is also a lot more hands-on training where we get to experiment and test out different methods of finding solutions.

It is all due to the rigorous mental training that engineers have gone through. Many of today’s solutions have been further enhanced by the minds of engineers. This is proved by the amount of engineers employed in various non-engineering sectors, where they are required to design complicated working systems and plans. Without them some of the world’s greatest problems would not have solutions today.