For those of you who did not see it, the United Nations’
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest “Synthesis
Report,” a new report that said that the time is now for action to correct the environmental issues that the global
economies currently face. It was their
strongest admonition and one in which they said is already “irreversible” – and
if policymakers don’t act, a dangerous 2 degrees Celsius warming threshold will
be breached. In the last several months,
I have taken four massive open online courses (MOOC) by renown professors at
top-notch universities (see below), each of the courses have echoed the same
message, but more subtly.
Our Energy Future, Prof. Stephen Mayfield et al., University of
California, San Diego;
Fundamentals of Global Energy Business, Prof. Michael J. Orlando, University
of Colorado, Boulder;
Wheels of Metals: Urban Mining for a Circular Economy, Prof. Ester
van der Voet et al., Universiteit Leiden and;
The Age of Sustainable Development, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia
University.
What is interesting about the messages from a collective
perspective, is that they can be traced back to the IPCC reports. They messages are derived from the sharing of
data; whether it is carbon dioxide emissions by OECD countries relative to
developing countries; carbon footprints on a per capita basis; energy use, data
produced by both the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the
International Energy Agency (IEA); and recycling. What was even more interesting was the same
uses of terms and phrases of these threads throughout the video lectures, which
were watched by tens of thousands of students from many countries. For instance, The Our Energy Future course was watched by 15,000 students from 170
countries. So, these concepts, terms and
phrases are being widely and thoroughly disseminated. This global reach to all of these students will
become the new, more educated environmental movement. They will help deliver the IPCC message.
Another common theme in each of these courses and is that
natural resources, which include conventional energy (natural gas and
petroleum) and all mining operations (sand and gravel, base metals, coal,
uranium, rare earth metals – required in all green technology, and precious metals),
deplete and require additional exploration to increase reserves (underground
stocks or inventory). But due to falling
metal concentrations (naturally occurring), remoteness and falling reserves
(based on economic extraction costs), attempting to increase production to
match demand is becoming increasing more difficult and expensive. From the recycling perspective, the recycling
rates around the world will have to increase from current levels, both to meet
demand for metals and materials and reduce landfill waste.
To offset these falling trends, changes will need to be
made. We will need to increase our recycling
rates for all metals and materials. We
will need to reduce energy consumption or be more thoughtful and efficient with
its use. What is also clear is that
metals will still come from primary production (natural resource production
coming from earth) and supplemented with secondary production (recycling). Primary energy production will be supplemented
with renewable energy. Consumption will
be more efficient with new LED lighting technology, energy star appliances,
higher R-values of homes, water savings technologies and a basic rethink on
design in particular. This will be an impactful next decade.
