Just recently, the American Association of Advanced Science (AAAS) conference took place in Vancouver, BC and held a series of seminars including “Low-Carbon Innovation for an Electricity-Dependent World”.
Nissan Leaf. Image courtesy of Green Explored
As it has been largely apparent in everyday news, burning of fossil fuels for daily energy use around the world has been releasing an amount of carbon dioxide that is considered unhealthy for our planet. The Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI) is taking an active response to reducing these emissions with what they call the Equinox Blueprint: Energy 2030. They say that with an expected human population to rise to 9 billion by the year 2050, the reduction of these carbon emissions is a necessity and cannot be considered as a light matter.
Watch an introductory video by WGSI explaining our carbon problem:
Their Equinox Blueprint focuses on several difficult but do-able “pathways” that elicit a more electrical future. They mention the 5 following pathways: large-scale storage for renewable energy; enhanced geothermal power; advanced nuclear power; off-grid electricity access; and smart urbanization. WGSI claims these methods may help us tremendously.
An important question arose wondering how to convince governments and populations to take this matter seriously, and the WGSI panel representatives responded with a chuckle. According to the panel, this is probably the most difficult task to undertake and they are targeting the matter as we speak!
Reference
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI4ymqGvZ_U
Picture: http://www.greenexplored.com/2011/04/world-car-of-year.html (accessed 27/02/2012)
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