CAJ 13 - What my topic is about

My CAJ is about environmental technology. This whole semester I read about new ideas and concepts that could help to minimize or reverse the negative impacts of humans living on Earth because that is what environmental technology is all about. Humans have done harmful things in the past and are still doing it, like for example exploiting every last drop of crude oil and burning it, which pollutes the atmosphere. Environmental tech wants to find technologies that serve the same purpose but without harming the environment. I found many concepts that seem very promising, like solar energy, infrared energy and also a cleaner form of nuclear energy. As all these technologies are quite new and have not been tested for a long time, it is always possible that they have negative consequences, as well. However, their whole purpose is to be environmentally friendly and if researchers realized that there was something wrong, they would correct it as fast as possible. One thing is sure, however: It is better to generate energy by letting the sun shine on a solar cell than digging for fossil fuel and the burning it. Of course, new technology is always expensive and rare but if enough people buy it and if there is enough demand, technology will get cheaper and easier to get and there is the possibility of the government paying for parts of it. When most people have an electrical car it will seem just normal and people will drive on solar roadways is if it has always been that way. Environmental technology may not be perfect but it is the step in the right direction to safe humanity and this planet.

CAJ 12 - Ethical Issues concerning Environmental Technologies

We discussed in class, what ethical problems could arise from the implementation of each students CAJ topic. After this lesson and the assignment about ethical issues, I often thought about what I might have forgotten or what else might be relevant. This resulted in three ethical issues that seemed particularly important to me.

The first and probably most obvious one is the uncertainty if what we are doing is better than what we did before. What I mean with this is that new technologies like solar panels and biomass energy are trying to make up for the damage done by fossil fuels and other harmful human technologies. However, soon after the introduction of solar panels, it was clear that solar cells in this form were harming the environment as well because they used up a lot of energy and rare natural resources in their production. What if there are more mistakes like that in the new technologies we are using now? Maybe there are disadvantages we cannot foresee and what if it is too late when we have finally realized what they are?

Secondly, if there is going to be real change, politicians have to make decisions. We all know that hard decisions are not their strength. But let us say that there is one politician, who is tough and smart and has decided to change something in the world. He decides that fossil fuels will run out in the next couple of years anyway and that we need alternatives right now. That is why he signs a law that prohibits the use of fossil fueled cars because there are so much better electrical cars that everybody could use. After his signing the law, the whole country would be furious and in the next election no one would elect this politician again because all his opponents would promote the cheap, old fossil fueled cars. The new legislation would simply reverse the law and everything would go back to normal but without the smart politician.

The third issue is the availability of environmentally friendly technology. Let us take a family of the working class. There is a single mother with three kids between the ages of three and eight. The money is scarce as it is and now you tell this woman that she can not use the second hand car she has been using for the past couple of years because it pollutes the environment too much. How is this woman supposed to afford a new shiny electrical car? No government will be able to pay for every new car that has to be bought and that means that people are on their own and have to pay themselves if they want to drive a car at all.

CAJ 1 - Description of Environmental Technology

My topic “Environmental Technology” is a very widespread field as it includes everything that helps to weaken negative impacts of humans on the environment. These negative impacts involve phenomena like air pollution, water pollution, pollution of the soil, global warming and many more. All possible solutions to such problems can be counted as environmental technology. Popular examples for this are photovoltaics, wind energy, water purification or also just simple recycling. Questionable energy sources such as nuclear power could also be included if it does not produce radioactive waste, like the fusion-fission hybrid reactor does not. The main point is that the destruction which is caused by humans living on this planet is reduced.

CAJ 4 - Nuclear Power

For a change of topic in my CAJ, I decided to look into nuclear power as an environmentally friendly option. I am aware that the common fission reactors are not really considered environmentally friendly, even though many people feel that way. Granted, they to not emit greenhouse gases. However, they are insecure and produce huge amounts of radioactive waste. To these problems there already have been found solutions, which results in two better ways to generate energy through nuclear power.

The first and probably more established idea is the fusion reactor. This process does not split the atoms, like in typical fission reactors, but join them. There are many advantages to this idea, like lower waste, more security and higher availability of the resources needed. However, the technology is not quite far enough and many more billions of dollars have to be spend for fusion power research.

The second solution is not as known as the first one but maybe the more realistic one. This concept is called nuclear fusion-fission hybrid and combines nuclear fusion and fission. It was invented back in the 1970s but has not received much interest because fusion seemed more promising. Now that research has shown that fusion power will not be implemented soon, the hybrid version has attracted attention again. As in fusion power alone the energy input is still higher than the energy output, the hybrid version is the only way to make fusion power profitable. Through this hybrid enough energy is produced, waste is reduced to the minimum and safety issues shrink extremely. That is because the fission depends on neutrons provided by the easily stoppable fusion reaction and if the fusion is turned off, the fission reaction stops almost instantly. All this means that this way of generating energy seems reasonably safe and clean.

CAJ 3 - Rhetoric Comment

I comment on the rhetoric in this article:

http://singularityhub.com/2010/08/08/solar-roadways-crackpot-idea-or-ingenious-concept-video/

The overall rhetoric in the article “Solar Roadways: Crackpot Idea or Ingenious Concept?” written by Aaron Saenz is not very convincing. For me the main fault is that there is no ethical appeal. The author writes as if he was an expert on this topic and presents many arguments against the solar roadways but he never even tells the reader who he is or what his connection to the topic is. His pathetic appeal is not much better either. Throughout the whole article he uses no pathos. The main emotion I get from reading the article is anger but not because the author provoked it but because his writing style and his arguments are so bad. If depressing and angering the reader is his goal, he achieves it. The logic in the article is not satisfying either. He argues that solar roadways are too expensive and that asphalt roads are cheaper because they are expensive only on highways and not on small roads. However, he doesn’t mention that asphalt roads can never pay for themselves and therefore solar roadways are cheaper in any case, even if it takes 50 years to pay off. All in all the rhetoric in this article is very unconvincing.

Paper progress

I can not claim that I am making a great deal of progress with my paper lately. I do know what I want to write about and I know my sources. I even know how my paper is supposed to be structured and I have already written an introduction for it. I am waiting to receive feedback on that and hope that what I did is not too far away from what an introduction should look like. What I have not managed so far, however, is starting to really write. Even if I know what will come first in my paper, I do not know how and when to start. For really writing my paper I would need time, which I unfortunately do not have right now. I suppose that the Christmas holidays will give me enough time for that as I am not making great progress right now.