Thinking about Sustainability: Issues and Themes for College Students
G. Bothun, Dept. of Physics, University of Oregon
The following reproduced the suggested student exercises in the printed volume.
Q1: Of the 7 stated reasons for resistance to change, write an editorial style 600-word piece on which 2 of these 7 reasons are the biggest obstacles to overcome and identify what strategy you would employ to overcome them.
Q2: Research the University of Oregon Zero Waste program and write a 600-word letter to the editor of your student newspaper advocating the benefits to your campus if it were to adopt this kind of program.
Q3: This data exercise makes use of This Database
An editorial in your student newspaper claims that US foreign policy has been oriented towards protecting US interests in the Middle East for the last 30 years because "almost all of our imported oil comes from the Middle East - everyone knows this.
a) Average the decade of the 80's ,90's, 00's and 2011--2015 of Annual import (units of thousand barrels a day) for two groups of countries:
- Group A: Canada, Mexico and Venezuela
- Group B: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait
b) Using this This Plotting Tool plot the data you just got and make a screen shot of that and insert it into your answer document
c) How does the Group B to Group A ratio change as a function of decade? What is that ratio currently?
d) Write a 150word rebuttal letter to the Editor of your student newspaper
Q4: William Cronon's The Trouble With Wilderness [1996]
is one of the most insightful works of environmental philosophy ever produced.
One of the fundamental tenets of environmentalism is the holiness of wilderness. It is considered a pure, pristine environment, "an island in the polluted sea of urban-industrial modernity," a landscape untouched by humanity. This concept is very much a human construct, however, and it is merely the latest version of an evolving human relationship to the wild.
The above is an excerpt from a review of Cronon's essay (linked above).
For this assignment, you are to read this essay and write a 600-800-word synopsis that included the following:
a) Explain why this essay is insightful and how it serves to illuminate a kind of environmental hypocrisy
b) In what ways does Cronon assert that the environmental movement is broken?
c) How does Cronon's view of wilderness help society realize sustainability?
Q5: Tesla's Powerwall Solution - let's do the energy math.
Here is the raw data /technical specifications for this new product needed to solve all parts of this question.
- Powerall modular Storage = 10 KWHs
- Continuous discharge power = 2KW
- Battery Technology = Li-Ion @ 100 watt hours per kg.
- Purchase + installation cost = $4000
- Residential electricy rate = 0.1$ (10 cents) per KWH.
- Typical residential rooftop PV array rated at 4 KW maximum output (=noon on a sunny day)
- Average output in a day = 1/3 of peak
- Rooftop cost + installation = $1.80 per peak watt.
- Average number of suitably sunny days per year = 160.
Show all work involved in making the following estimates:
a) What is the weight of the 10 KWH modular storage unit and how many hours does it take to discharge?
b) What are the up front costs to the homeowner for the purchase and installation of the storage unit and the PV rooftop?
c) Averaged over the year, what is average daily available solar energy that can be used to charge up the powerall system?
d) How many hours, given this average daily available solar power, would it take to fully charge the 10 KWH system?
e) given your answer for d - explain what the homeowner would need to do to overcome this basic problem and estimate how much more this might cost.
f) given d+e and the residential electricity rate described above, what is the approximate pay back time for just one of these storage modules?
g) The Global Lithium Market - Refer to the table in that document that shows 36,000 metric tons of Lithium were available for products in the year 2014. Assume that 1/3 of world lithium production can be used to build Powerwall storage units for American houses. In the year 2017, world availability is projected to increase by 20% from the year 2014. Using this information, how many houses in America could have a Powerwall installed in the year 2017? What fraction of houses in America does this represent?
h) Given what you know about scalability, write a 200 word statement on whether or not the Powerwall is a scalable alternative energy solution for American houses.
Q6: Your team is hired as the consulting team for the GigaFactory. There are numerous studies on the lithium supply chain/problem, etc that you can easily find via a Google Search. You are to access a variety of reports and synthesize a 500 word consulting report to Tesla on the probability that they can actually meet this production goal with existing resources. If they can not meet this goal, what needs to be then done to find new resources.
Q7:
Q8: