#3 Sumary of Lecturer's Presentation

Professor Andrew Palmer, Dr Benjamin K Sovacool and Professor Rajasekhar Bala were invited to give a presentation on global warming. Each presenter bought fore their different perspective on issues to tackle global warming, and their views on global warming.

Professor Andrew Palmer is a fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a Chartered Engineer. He discuss about the seriousness of carbon emission and the need to reduce it to 500 parts per million, by using Carbon Capture and Storage technology. Carbon Capture and Storage technology captures carbon dioxide and stores them in liquid form in "sausage" membrane in the depths of the sea. He argues that this technology is cheaper compared to conventional ways to reduce carbon emission and to stabilize carbon emission at 500 parts per million. Conventional ways includes the usage of solar power, wind power, biomass fuel, fuel cell, which requires more cost to implement compared to Carbon Capture and Storage technology. With 1400million of the world's population surviving on less than $1.80 per day, the dire poverty situation in third world countries and an average spending of $3.3million on a country's defence, governments are unwilling to spend on the cause of global warming. Therefore, Professor Andrew Palmer states that Geo-engineering would be the solution against global warming.

Dr Benjamin K. Sovacool has worked as a researcher, professor, and consultant on issues pertaining to energy policy, the environment, and science and technology policy. He discusses from the science and technology studies(STS) to address energy problems. In his speech, he sees technology as nature and uses two examples of renewable power and electric vehicle to explain that the failure of a technology often has nothing to do with the technology but with social, cultural, political and economic challenges. For a technology to succeed, it needs to have the support from its system it was build for, this comprises of security, economic, political, and social factors.

Professor Rajasekhar Bala is an Associate Professor and the Deputy Head in the Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, NUS. He states the troubling facts of global warming, the difficulties in dealing with global warming and discusses the conventional ways from an individual to government level in dealing with global warming. Overall, I feel that the government plays the major part in the fight against global warming, as they are capable of regulating and implementing policy on a large scale, example, carbon taxes, carbon dioxide cap for industries.

In conclusion these three presentation has brought valuable knowledge bout the reality of global warming from three different perspectives. There is an urgent need to fight global warming, and changes have to be implemented now to prevent future catastrophic.

#2 An Inconvenient Truth

The documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore, former vice-president of the United States, has successfully shown us the dire consequences of global warming and increased our awareness of the current situation. Global warming is ongoing, and the main culprit is us, humans. The earth's population has rose to a staggering 6.4 billion since the baby boom after War World II. During world war II, the earth had a population of only 2 billion. In this lifetime, the population is projected to rise to 9 billion. It took 10000 years for human to reach a population of 2 billion, however it will only take one more lifetime to reach a population of 9 billion. In order to sustain this exponential growth in the population, more resources would be required. Humans are thus becoming the biggest parasite on Earth, increasingly straining the earth's resource. It is up to the government and individual to help in the problem of global warming.

The signing of the Kyoto Protocol is an example of the government's effort in tackling this issue. Singapore is now committed to reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases in a bid to slash pollution and address climate change concerns. Steps have already been taken. Incentives are being given for energy efficient design buildings, and for factories to reduce their carbon emission to within acceptable levels which adhere to the Carbon Emmision Policy and Green Mark Building Policy. The Green Mark policy evaluate a building based on its environmental impact and performance. It encourages the incorporation of environmentally friendly and energy-saving features in buildings. Buildings are awarded Platinum, GoldPLUS, Gold,Certified or ratings depending on the points scored on several key criteria. From 2008, all new and existing buildings with gross floor area (GFA) above 2,000m2 that are undergoing major retrofitting works must meet the Green Mark Certified standard. To support this policy a $20 million Green Mark Incentive scheme was put in place. New and retrofitted buildings with GFA above 5,000m2 that have achieved ratings of Green Mark Gold and above will be awarded monetary incentives.

Currently, Singapore is limited in its expertise on energy savings, majority are foreigner talents. In the years to come, there is a target to train 4000 more personnel profession in this area. There is a limit to how far the government can help in this area. Every individual must be made aware of the situation, and one effective way is through education to inculcate the next generation on energy conversation and ideals of innovation. Education must especially be provided to third world country where the main budge of growing population lies.

As Stephen Pacala and Roberts Socolaw said, "Humanity already possecces the fundamental scientific, technical and industrial knowledge to solve the carbon and climate problems.". We know that electriticity end-use efficiency, other end-use efficiency, passenger vehnicle efficiency, other transport efficiency, renewable technology, carbon capture and supply efficiency, when implemented, will drop the worlds carbon emissions to levels below 1970. The solution is in our hands, we need determination to move towards a brighter furture.

#1 The Expanding World of Engineering

Technological advancement, a diversifying world economy and globalisation have brought about an evolution of an engineer's role in the society. Once thought to be related to people who construct, engineers are sough after in the service, banking, finance, logistic and commerce sector for their analytical skill in dealing with complex problems and to design innovative solutions. The route that an engineer takes results in his professionalism in this area.

During the course of an engineer's education, basic concepts are often taught and thereafter implemented to solve complex problems which encourages deep thinking. As the student progresses through these stages, it would be of second nature for them to systematically solve complex problems. Firstly, a systematic overview of the problem would be pictured, analysed and broken down, using knowledge acquired, the student would design a solution or find an alternate solution.

Engineers are constantly exposed to new technology, skills, hardware and solution during their tertiary education. They are akin to this changing trend and do not shun away but embraces and thrives on it. The engineer knows that these are tools that will aid them in the constant fight against time. On the tertiary level, groups are formed for solving problems and project work with crucial deadlines. This comes the need to share knowledge and make fast decisions which in the process fuels the student to continuously improve and develop soft skills.

The attributes of an engineer to systematically analyse complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions, along with the urge to continuously improve and critical thinking skills would enable them to face greater challenges of the future and branch into different fields.