The Sustainability Imperative

In this module, we set the stage for the entire course. You will learn about the current state of the world, ranging from climate change and its consequences to ocean acidification. We then see how climate change and our own direct impacts such as deforestation are affecting the plants and animals that share this planet with us. We then turn our attention to the problem of plastic pollution, and how this is rapidly becoming a crisis of monumental proportions. Some have even suggested that we humans are changing the planet in so many ways that we’re entering a new geological epoch referred to as the Anthropocene.

Of course, sustainability is more than just an environmental issue. To this point, we will discuss the social inequity across the globe, and how those at the bottom of the economic pyramid often suffer the most. While this may seem a rather depressing start to the course, we need to understand the magnitude of the challenges facing us and our current understanding behind them if we are ever going to get to a more sustainable future. With that in mind, we conclude with some uplifting initiatives pioneered by scientists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs and often just passionate individuals that want to make a difference.

In this module, you will learn why the climate is changing using the latest science-based understanding. We start with an explanation of carbon emissions, the greenhouse gas effect, and the carbon cycle. You will learn where these emissions are coming from, notably the production of energy, transportation, and agriculture to name a few. We then discuss organizations such as the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the models predicting future scenarios about climate impacts based on carbon emissions and our actions to reduce them (or not). Understanding these scenarios, you will see why 2030 is such an important milestone to transition from fossil fuels to more renewable resources.

You will learn that many of our global challenges such as climate change are a result of an intense focus on never ending economic growth pursued by most nations around the world. Competition among businesses is a good thing. Yet without accounting for costs known as “externalities”, you will see how business growth readily leads to social inequity, natural resource depletion and environmental degradation. We finally introduce the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development, and how the UN has defined several “Sustainable Development Goals” for the future. We introduce the “IPAT” equation and relate that to what happens as the planet continues to grow to 9+ billion people, all wanting the same quality of life as that of so-called developed nations.

In this module, we focus our attention on the largest source of greenhouse gases on the planet, the consumption of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. Specifically, we show how coal and natural gas are used to generate electricity and why oil is used in transportation, and the economic factors of why their use is so widespread around the world. You will learn about coal, the driver of the industrial economy for the past 250 years and why its use is actually decreasing these days, being replaced by natural gas as the primary fuel for power generation. You’ll learn why natural gas has a lower carbon footprint, thus leading to its characterization as a “clean fuel” and why some believe this is a necessary “bridge fuel” as we transition to more renewables. Finally, we revisit the climate change models from Module 2 and see what happens under different scenarios of energy production. The world’s population is increasing, and people need access to energy. You will understand how a “status quo” approach to future power generation leads to irreversible temperature increases, and why this is the “existential threat” we often hear about.

In this module, we look at how energy is produced today. We start by understanding what we mean by “fossil fuels”, and where they come from. We then turn our attention to how we get electricity by burning them in a power plant. We’ll go into how a power plant works, so you can understand what the coal or natural gas is actually doing in the process of producing electricity. We then examine the relationship between how electricity is produced and the quantity of greenhouse gases that are created. This will be a useful thing to know as we evaluate our own energy usage, and therefore our own contributions to greenhouse gases. Any discussion of energy needs to include nuclear energy. Today this remains is a highly controversial issue, as there are many pros and cons to nuclear power plants. We’ll go over a few of those so you can make up your own mind if nuclear energy needs to be in the mix for the future. Finally, we end on a bright note illustrating that many positive changes are taking place when it comes to transitioning to net zero power generation technologies - technologies that are inherently more environmentally friendly and even less expensive than the traditional fossil fuel technologies used today.