the lecture review

I personally felt that the speech given by Mr Palmer, Mr Benjamin and Mr Bala each was inspiring and gave me a bigger picture of the growing problem in the environment today. Global warming as we all know has been a topic that sits red hot on the pan due to humans doings to the environment.



Mr Palmer who was the first speaker gave a brilliant headstart into the lecture and briefly touched on the topics such as greenhouse gases, global warming and the inter-connectedness and link between one another. He was quick and bright to brought up a very intriguing idea of the capture and storage of carbon dioxide. I felt the this idea is a creative and innovative one that would be feasible if carried out properly.




The idea he mentioned in itself sounded compelling yet an efficient way in encouraging people worldwide to cut down on the carbon dioxide emission using cutting edge technology. Likewise, this technology serves to store carbon dioxide deep in the earth or seas as a storage compartment in the attempt to mitigate the problem at hand.



However, I felt that though this method seems technologically feasible, yet its seems impractical judging from the costs involved and process required for it to achieve its maximum potential to fulfil our very objective of a cleaner environment. Yet his idea was indeed substantiated with industrial evidence that he uses as examples.



He also mentioned that it was reasoned out that due to the current economic crisis that is occurring at our very eyes, policy makers would not be too keen on this method as their main priority would be the economy at hand. Soon after, Mr Benjamin continued the engaging lecture by pointing out that there is more to global warming solutions that what was touched by Mr Palmer. He then began to include examples to further elaborate his idea of the practical approach to renewable energy or power. In addition, he gave his personal opinion of Mr Palmer’s idea and thought what it would be perturbed by the global economic recession.





He then explained further reasons for accepting and adopting new technologies and how it can fuelled by our need to mitigate or solve a problem at hand which need due attention. It is not merely a technological problem as he pointed out, but rather it is a socially implicated problem that boils down to humans themselves whom play a huge part in worsening the problems. The examples he used to substantiate his claims were the electric motor car and wind turbine. These examples were quoted to show evidence of how making a certain new technology popular could go against certain interests of a nation in particular. In addition, cultural and behavioural aspects, the adoption of a new product may eventually force people to change their habits. These would lead to drastic outcomes and consequences and hence the rejection of new technologies would merely mean the failure of the market to progress. Lastly, Mr Bala addressed the issue of global warming as a specific rather than a bigger picture as painted by his fellow two other speakers previously. He encompasses issues that related more to the causes, consequences and several other possible solutions to mitigate and solve global warming at hand. Despite doing an excellent job on the explanation, his points were mainly a regurgitation and reiteration on what is known to everyone. I personally felt that he was repeating whatever that was said and mentioned in the mass media such as the newspaper articles and educational films; The Inconvenient Truth.




The two hours presentation was thorough and comprehensive however there should be more interaction between the speakers and the audience to make the lecture a more engaging and interactive one which would eventually spark interests in the audience to do their greater part in helping to reduce or mitigate global warming.