Lesson 0.8 - 8 October

The recess week is over, and back to school we go! Thankfully, first lesson of the week is on TWC and as usual, this class consists of a highly interactive session that opened up room for various discussions.

Prof started the class with a quote: “IF EVERYONE CONSUMED AS

MUCH ENERGY AS THE AVERAGE SINGAPOREAN AND U.S. RESIDENT, THE WORLD’S OIL RESERVES WOULD BE DEPLETED IN 9 YEARS.”

The 8th session of TWC discuss the energy and world change of the past, present and future. It hit home when I digested the quote shared by prof. As a Singaporean, I find it shocking that our level of consumption (combined with America) is enough to cause the extinction of the world's oil reserves in mere 9 years. Oil reserves, a product of millions of years, gone in 9 years. It's pretty shocking don't you think? I found an interesting video which shows the stats of world energy usage in 2012. 

From the video, I notice a trend showing a direct relationship between energy consumption and economic development. As such, is it possible to maintain a sustainable economic development without the depletion of energy resources?

During class, prof pointed out some policies implemented by the Government in order to maintain a sustainable resource consumption, in the pursuit of economic development. This policies contribute to the key takeaways from this session- showing ways in which mankind can take to ensure sustainable energy consumption. Some of this policies include carbon tax and education campaigns to raise awareness towards the issue at hand. Earth hours is one of the popular education campaign carried out in order to gather support towards sustainable energy consumption. Being an avid supporter of such campaigns, I encourage such attempts in raising awareness towards this issue.I believe that education would lead to a massive increase in the level of awareness and this allows room for the pursuit towards sustainable consumption. However, the session did not delve on the different technologies and creations innovated to cater to the sustainable energy consumption. I would like to see more technologies created to cater to this global phenomena and also governmental and societal efforts that push for sustainable energy consumption. 

Rating: 7.5/10