Fossil Fuel Discussion – Description
We learned this week that fossil fuels are finite and most predictions have them running out within the next 100 years or so. We also learned that the cost of most renewable sources of energy has come down to a point where they are comparable to the cost of fossil fuels. This begs a few questions:
Why aren’t we seeing a bigger shift to renewables?
What do you think is a reasonable timeline to stop mining/using fossil fuels? 10 years? 50 years? Why switch until we need to when things run out in 100 years?
What obstacles stand in the way of our shifting fully to renewable sources of energy? What will it take to overcome those obstacles?
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this topic this week.
With this being our last discussion of the semester, I’d love to hear any final thoughts about your experience in the class. Which topic overed this semester did you find most interesting? Which was the least interesting? Which discussion board topic did you most enjoy? Was there a topic you thought would make a good discussion that I should swap in next semester? Any advice you’d pass along to future students taking this 6 week course?
(MOST FAVORITE) DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS POST JUST STATING MOST FAVORITE
This week we learned about air pollution and the accumulation of greenhouse gasses. We know that burning fossil fuels (like gasoline in automobiles) is a major contributor of greenhouse gasses. In April the EPA proposed changes to the regulation of emmissions that seem poised to push the production of Electric Vehicles (EVs) way up (see this news story from CNN).
For the discussion this week I’d love to hear your thoughts, supported by research, on whether or not we should be giving up on alternative fuels (like biofuel) and going all in on EVs. A few questions to consider:
Are EVs really going to be much better for the environment than gas engines if we are still generating most of our electricity with fossil fuels?
Would investing in biofuels be a better long term solution, or will all energy be generated by renewables soon enough that we should just convert fully to EVs?
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