At the moment, I am working on a final year paper (FYP) on biomass energy as well as designing a more effective wind turbine that utilizes shrouded brim diffuser. Every day I delve more into my research, it becomes more apparent that alternative energy is no longer a Utopian vision but rather the future for humankind. Technological advancement has made our dream viable while the incredulous oil price has sweetened the attractive option of renewable energy. Think about this. Wind energy produces no greenhouse emissions and is potentiality capable of generating 5 times more power than the total world output today. Moreover, we are even capable of producing wind energy at just 1₵/Watt. Hence why are we still overly dependent on the expensive fossil fuels to power our daily activities?
Cynics would point to the setback of biodiesel in the United States and generalize that the promise of biofuel as merely an illusion, creating more carbon footprint than it vows to reduce. Yes there is still much room for improvement in the field of alternative energy. However, there are also many other success stories that have been ignored or simply failed to captivate the hearts of its audience. Did you know that 20% of Denmark’s total energy needs are provided by wind turbines and vehicles in Brazil regularly run on gasohol (20% ethanol)? The question we need to ask now is why aren’t the people standing up and championing the cause for alternative energy? Could the taint of biodiesel’s setback or the sheer science fiction promise of unlimited renewable energy be the cause of our apathy? Clearly, there is a need to discover the views of the people so an appropriate solution to inspire their interest can be formulated.
Research Question
Are the students of NUS Science faculty convinced by the promise of green energy and willing to invest in its potential?
Purpose Statement
The first objective is to provide information on the comparative advantages of alternative energy over fossil fuels. The next objective is to inspire NUS Science students to pledge their individual contribution towards the green energy movement, for instance by integrating solar panels into their homes or spurring the government to make the change.
Reason for Attitudinal Survey
The success of the green revolution requires the full support of the people. Therefore, an attitudinal survey would provide a deeper understanding of the people’s awareness towards green energy, their overall disposition towards it, and lastly what initiatives should be undertaken to gain their support.
picture courtesy of
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42655000/jpg/_42655357_windfarm_416.jpg
Edited
6 comments:
"Why aren’t the people standing up and championing the cause for alternative energy? "
Hello Yu Ming,
I love that movie, although it felt more like a wonderful and enlightening speech.
It is easy to imagine the benefits of using wind energy, however, to say the truth, I really do not know much about its limitations.
To gain support, I think it is important to not only educate the public about it benefits but also its limitations and how we can overcome them.
Being concern about the detrimental effects of human activities to our only home, I would really love to be able to support this idea. However, before I could do that, I need to be convinced. Perhaps the lack of support from people is, like me, simply due to the lack of awareness.
Yu Ming,
Maybe I didn't give enough information about this assignment. You need to frame your discussion of a potential research topic for this course in more clear cut terms, such as general research question, potential problem statement, survey group and rationale for working with that group.
Please look at Xin Yi's post, or at one by a student of mine in another class: http://danielleschannel.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
Dear Brad,
Thanks for the example. I have made the relevant changes.
Yu Ming
Hi Yu Ming,
I certianly agree that green energy has a promising furture. However, there are so many misconception on green energy. Educating the public is really a very important task that should be done.
Hi OXY,
I do agree with you that in order to gain support, we should also let the public know about the limitations of green energy how it can overcome. However, would that be a little too much information for the public? As there are so many types of green energy around. Just a suggestion, probably narrowing down to 1 or 2 types of green energy would be better?
Hi yuming,
I agree that climate change is a very pressing issue. In fact, the research topic I suggested has to do with climate change as well. Al Gore's movie was really inspiring and I recommend everyone to watch it.
In fact, this is also one of my ideas for the research topic. We might want to consider focusing on just one aspect of green energy, such as hybrid cars, e.g. why are people not changing over to "green" cars?
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