Global Temperatures and American Skepticism on the Rise

American belief in global warming is declining. A recent poll by Pew Research shows that just 34% of Americans see solid evidence of anthropogenic warming, down from 50% in 2006. Opinions are largely divided along party lines. Only 16% of Republicans believe in anthropogenic warming.

Much of this skepticism reflects a belief that there is no scientific consensus on climate change. In fact, the IPCC, a panel of the world’s leading climate scientists, found warming to be unequivocal and declared that it was highly probable that humans were responsible. Furthermore, they demonstrated that warming poses a serious risk to standards of living around the world. The science is certainly complex, but error bars should not translate to “erroneous.”

Has scientific illiteracy and media controversy eroded our ability to think critically and act positively? Has the fossil fuel lobby succeeded in its PR campaign? Do these numbers correlate with religious dogma and place the argument outside of the scientific discourse?

Green Tech and our fellow human beings would benefit significantly from a system of inclusive environmental accounting, such as cap-and-trade. A basic prerequisite for climate legislation is public education. Please join the conversation on the new NETG facebook page and everywhere.

Pew Report...

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NETG Teaches High-Schoolers About Energy Technology

Last Saturday Praneet Adusumilli and I woke up earlier than usual to head up to Northwestern to participate in the inaugural Splash! program. Splash! is an all-volunteer program where high-school students from throughout the Chicagoland area are welcomed to the NU campus to take classes taught by NU students and community members. The subjects of the classes are chosen by the teachers and span the educational realm of anything. We thought it would be a great opportunity to teach a class on "Modern Energy Technologies".

The curriculum consisted of
an

Splash! 2010 class on Modern Energy Technologies. Instructors were Praneet Adusumilli (far right) and James Wilson (taking the photo).

introduction on why we care about energy in both the U.S. and the world, followed by a group thought exercise on where all our sources of energy come from on earth. We then briefly covered most of the current supply-side technologies with a special in-depth focus on wind energy in order to emphasize the vertical levels of research and effort that are needed in technology implementation. We finished the class with a section on energy storage and transmission, showing hands-on laboratory examples of Li-ion batteries and solid-oxide fuel cells. It was an incredible experience as teachers and we hope that the students enjoyed it as much as we did.

The curriculum and slides from the class will be available on the NETG website at a later date. We hope to teach this class each year for Splash!, with the possibility of expanding the curriculum to include other classes that each focus on one specific energy technology. Please keep this program in mind for next year if you are interested in teaching!

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