Question1

(a)
A list of the main points made in the article-
1.The G8 recently made an agreement in Japan to half Co2 emissions
by 2050 was not realistically achievable.
2.These targets of reducing carbon emissions are dangerous for the
economies of the countries.
3.Meeting these targets would require a huge cut in standards of
living.
4.Scientific evidence linking carbon emissions to global warming is
wrong.
5.We are facing huge energy shortfalls in the near future.

(b)
Quantitive evidence.

1. The combined output of all the UKs 2000 wind turbines is less than
a single medium gas fired power station
2. The EU's emissions trading scheme has cost £40 billion but not
reduced any carbon.
3. –
4,
5. By 2015 we will lose 40% of our current electricity generating
capacity.

Qualative evidence.
1. China and India didn't sign up to the agreement, and China is now
emitting more carbon than the USA.
2. Biofuels do not save any carbon.
4. (i)Some scientists believe global warming to be caused by
sunspots..
(ii)There was a flattening of the "temperature increase curve" in 2000
and temperatures have dropped to 1980s levels

(c )

Evaluation of this evidence.

Quantitive Evidence
(a) Reliabilty (b) Validity (c ) Possible different interpretations.

1.(a)This looks to be reliable.

(b)It is not really valid with regards to the argument as no
presentation of costs or other renewables are made.
(c ) Maybe the turbines cost £20 each and were bought from a high
street store, this would be great.

2.(a) Even for the EU £40 billion is a lot to waste on an emissions

trading scheme which doesn’t work.
(b) If this example is true the validity is good.
(c Presumably the scheme allows companies who pollute must pay
companies who save carbon. Therefore they would make a significant
drive towards saving a lot of carbon as £40 billion is a lot of money.

5. (a)This is possibly reliable evidence.

(b) This is relevant.
(c ) It would be unlikely that we would actually shut down these power
stations and cause power cuts if we have no other option. He also
forgets to mention the added capacity from actual wind farms which
will be in operation and maybe other renewable or new “clean coal”
or nuclear plants.

Quantative evidence

(a)Reliabilty (b) Validity (c ) Possible different interpretations

1. (a) Yes
(b) No as China and India are developing countries – China
is still producing far less pollution per head than the USA
or UK.
(c ) 30% of China’s pollution might be attributed to
producing Western goods.
3.
(a) No. They do if grown sustainably.
(b) No
(c ) No.
4. (i)(a) No
(b) No
(c ) Yes global warming (climate change) is due to man made green
house gas emissions, not sunspots.

4 (ii) (a) Yes

(b)No
 (c ) Yes there might be many and most scientists would tell him to
look at a proper long term graph.

(490 words)

Question 2
Discuss the contribution that renewable
energy technologies could make to
environmental sustainability.

Introduction and Definitions

In this report I will attempt to look at some of the factors involving
renewable energy technologies and other solutions to environmental
challenges. I will first attempt to define the concepts of renewable
energy technology and environmental sustainability and outline 2
types of renewable technology. I will go on to look at some of the
positive and negative effects of renewable technologies, and other
influences on environmental sustainability.
Finally I will look at some of the factors interplaying with
environmental sustainability, and draw some conclusions to the
report.
What is meant by the term “environmental
sustainability?”
The environment as taken in this context can mean all of the area
around us, contained within the confines of our planet. Blackmore
defines the natural environment as “the physical and biological world
which we and all living things inhabit, interact in and share”.
( Blackmore,2000)
To achieve environmental sustainability is to be able to live in a state
where we are not depleting or degrading the resources found around
us.
An interesting definition is made by Bruntland of sustainable
development:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generation to
meet their own needs.” (Brundtland 1987)
Obviously the term “needs” is a broad one and it might be seen that
our present situation in terms of standards of living is one that for
some of us we have far exceeded our needs, whereas a large
percentage of the world’s population have little or no access to food
or medical care and thus are not meeting their basic needs. To be
environmentally sustainable, we should allow for an increase in the
consumption in developing countries to fulfill at least basic needs
otherwise we are not being sustainable.
What is meant by Renewable Energy?
The term means energy that comes from a renewable resource.
These resources “can be regenerated over short or relatively short
timescales” (Alexander and Everett 2000). So in this context
renewable energy can come from sources such as the sun, wind,
water, biomass (that is trees or plants) and geothermal (heat from the
earth’s core). Non-renewable resources will include fossil fuels (coal,
gas oil) and nuclear power sourced from uranium. These take much
longer to renew and this period can be millions of years. In contrast
renewable resources will replenish quickly although in the case of
biomass this may be longer than other forms.
What is meant by technology?
The term technology can be taken to have a far wider scope than one
might initially think. In the OU course T172 the authors of the course
have defined it as
“the application of science and other knowledge to practical tasks by
people working in organizations and using machines” (intro p5)
In other words we do not necessarily need a complex piece of
machinery, but in fact technology can imply a method of interacting
or a system of applying knowledge. For example agricultural
technology might mean simply using crop rotation, and not
necessarily advanced computer and technological machinery.
The meaning of “Renewable Energy Technologies.”
Renewable energy technologies are designed to harness electricity or
other power production such as heat from a renewable energy source.
Two such technologies are wind power and biomass (energy from
biological material such as plants or trees).
Wind power is generated by the wind blowing the aerodynamically
shaped blades and powering a generating turbine. Wind turbines can
also be ideal for microgeneration of electricity that is in small sites
which are not connected to the electricity grid, with small turbines
costing a few thousand pounds to install or less. Equally large projects
such as the London array and other offshore windfarms are in
development which will produce a significant proportion of the UKs
electricity.
Biomass , that is trees or plants can be used to be converted to liquid
fuels for transport or left in its original form to provide direct heat for
dwellings or heat to generate electricity. In well managed schemes it
can be appropriate such as wood being harvested sustainably from a
forest, and may be seen as renwable. If not managed sustainably
then biomass is not rewable.
Positive and Negative effects of renewable energy
technologies.
Greenhouse gases are gases which form a layer in the earth’s
atmosphere, allowing heat to enter but preventing a lot of this heat
from escaping. In naturally occurring quantities they are beneficial,
but the extra carbon, and methane, nitrous oxides, CFCs and other
greenhouse gases released by consuming fossil fuels are thought by
most scientist to be leading to climate change. Fig one shows the
reliance of our energy sources on fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and
coal)
Given this, renewable energy technologies can offer energy solutions
with very low costs once installed and effectively will not emit
significant amounts of pollutants in their operation, thus providing
energy whilst not contributing significantly to the man made effects
of climate change.
Moving away from fossil fuel dependency to renewable technologies
can have other benefits such as energy security, that is not being
dependant on other countries fossil fuel reserves.

Figure 1 Source - (Elliot 2000)

Cost is one major consideration in today’s market driven global
market place and many renewable technologies can be seen to be
cost effective, and even more so when looking at the environmental
side effects and hidden costs of non renewable energy sources. These
hidden costs will include local pollution, extraction costs of the fossil
fuels and other effects. Figure 2 shows hydro and wind to be more
cost effective than all the other technologies once external costs are
added.

Figure 2 – Relative costs of energy generation with and without

external environmental costs added.–Please note I have averaged the
data for each type (where the table showed 5-10cents I have
averaged it at 7.5 cents). Source Worldwatch (2004)

One of the technologies which can produce the highest impact on

local ecosystems can be large scale hydroelectric schemes which can
cause problems such as displacement of local populations, problems
downstream, seismic activity and destruction of indigenous forest and
wildlife. One such project was the Bakun Dam in Malaysia. Before
undertaking such schemes more accurate assessments are needed
and sometimes renewable energy projects don’t factor in these and
other impacts as in the case of this dam, where there displacement of
9000 people was ignored in the environmental impact assessment
beforehand (Hewitt and Wilson 2000). The assessment is meant to
look at possible impacts of any project and encourage participation
and reviews.
Intermittency is another problem which some renewable energies can
face. This is when the supply of the renewable energy is not constant
or accurately predictable. For example in the UK most of the useful
solar energy falls in the summer , when space heating demands
(household interior heating not hot water) are at the lowest. This
makes the technology unsuitable for space heating.
Production methods for renewable technologies can use pollutants
and embedded carbon , that is the carbon used in the manufacturing
process. It has been suggested that some solar panels manufactured
and then used in countries such as the UK will never payback the
embodied carbon, that is recover the carbon over their lifetime.
When weighing up the costs and benefits of renewable technologies,
each one should be carefully assessed and properly acted upon.

Other Influences on Environmental sustainability.

As transport is one of the major sources of energy uses and resultant
barrier to environmental sustainability, it is therefore one of the areas
in which the most progress can be made. The graph (fig 3) shows
how the increase of road miles by car has increased in the UK. What
must also be remembered is that this form of transport is generally
less efficient in terms of energy use than most forms of public
transport. Data sourced by Potter and Warren (assuming average
occupancy) suggests in the UK per passenger kilometre the average
car uses 2.1 megajoules per passenger kilometre and train 1.1 , with
bus or coaches at around 1.2 (if minbuses are excluded) (Potter and
Warren 2000(a). So movement towards public transport in terms
would help move us forward in terms of sustainability.

Figure 3 – Trends in Personal Travel (Department for Transport 2003)

What is needed is a move away from the car as a viable form of

transport, as in terms of pollution, embodied carbon , traffic
congestion and road accidents it is not environmentally sustainable.
Schemes investing in public transport are required such as
Manchester’s Metrolink which by 1998 carried 13.9 million passengers
a year. It runs through the town centre , and studies showed 65% of
passengers have a car which they could have used instead. (Potter
and Warren 2000b).

The second and most important move towards environmental

sustainability is reducing our present energy use and resource
consumption. The United Nations Environment Programme’s
Millenium report on the Environment states:
“a tenfold reduction in resource consumption in the industrialized
countries is a necessary long term target if adequate resources are to
be released for the needs of developing countries” (UNEP 2000).
Modelling of this resource use helps us to determine the areas
subsequent steps which should be taken to improve sustainability. To
measure environmental sustainability the concept of an ecological
footprint is one important tool which has been developed by William
Rees and Mathis Wackernagel (Wackernagel and Rees 1996). They
developed a method of simplifying the total area of resources
required to support a person sustainably called an “ecological
footprint”. This gives an area of sea and land in hectares, which would
be required to sustain a person without depleting resources or
degrading the environment. This footprint can determine the
consumption of resources and determine which countries or people
are overshooting (that is using more resources than their country can
support without degrading the environment). From this it can be
calculated which areas need improving in individuals or a countries
footprint. The figure suggested for sustainability is around 1.9 global
hectares per person.
What is apparent from this and other models or figures of resource
use is that developed countries such as the UK and US are hugely
overshooting their resource use, and are being subsidised by the
minimal footprint of some poorer developing countries. (see fig 4)
Source Redefining Progress (2001)

Social factors are factors which come about through people’s

influence on each other and can allow activities to become the norm
or socially acceptable. These changes can often be gradual and
influenced by the media, peer pressure and other factors. As social
factors change, consumption patterns change, for example looking at
the decline of larger cars and a move towards smaller more energy
efficient models could now be seen as a social trend. Imagine a city
without cars – in fact this idea seems so alien shows how as Potter
and Warren say
“Cars have become a key part of our culture” ( Potter and Warren
2000)
Economic factors come into play with regards to the above example
as the larger car becomes more and more expensive to run as energy
costs rise, this can lead to a more energy efficient model being
chosen, but not for social reasons but economic ones.
On a political level, international agreements on trade such as the
Kyoto protocol attempt to reduce the carbon emissions of the richer
more polluting countries, whilst still allowing for the development of
poorer countries, but Governments such as the US Government have
undermined these treaties by refusing to sign them. This can show
the complex political issues often underlying any progress towards
sustainability.
Successful campaigns have been orchestrated by independent
organisations such as Greenpeace who have highlighted
environmental problems and led consumer boycotts which have in
turn led to companies changing policies with regards to the
environment . These organisations can also provide reports and
influence up to the level of international agreements as the World
Bank report acknowledges
“Nonstate actors” are playing an increasingly important role in the
negotiations surrounding international agreements” (World Bank
1999)
In fact there is always a complex relationship between governmental
policies, business and corporate concerns and legislation. Figure six
highlights this, and points out that each group in turn can influence
the policies of another.

Figure 6. Factors affecting environmental decision making

Conclusion
What is apparent as traditional methods of generating energy are not
sustainable and we will need increasingly to rely on renewable energy
technologies which are becoming more viable than fossil fuels in
terms of direct economic costs and environmental costs. In doing so
to be sustainable we need to allow developing countries to increase
their standards of living and in doing so reduce our consumption of
goods and energy in our richer developed counties such as the UK.
The pressures on any move towards environmental sustainability can
act in a myriad of different directions with self interest groups, ill
informed consumers and fossil fuel magnates pulling in different
directions. Whilst this is happening it is being argued that we have
gone past the point of having done irrevocable damage to our planet.
In terms of the factor 10 reduction in resource use, in my opinion not
many people would be willing to vote for a Government whose main
policy is to cut peoples standard of living. Ironically it may be the
market driven forces which lead to collapse of our present system and
the birth of a new greener , sustainable economy simply due to the
limitations of our resources. We have already seen a near collapse of
the banking system in 2008, and we aren’t out of the woods yet…

Total Words : 2130

REFERENCES
Alexander G & Everett B (2000) T172 Energy File 1A : Energy and it’s
use , p5 . Open University Course Material.
Blackmore R (2000) – T172 Introduction to working with our
environment p7, OU course material.
Brundtland GH (Chair) (1987) Our Common Future, The World
Comission on Environment and Development.
Defra (2009) Municipal Waste Statistics 2007/8
Department for Transport (2003) Transport Statistics Great Britain
Everett Lane and Enoch (2000) T172 Energy file 2 – p4 OU Course
Material.
Hewitt and Wilson(2000) T172 Theme 4 Thinking Globally p52 . OU
Course Material
Potter and Warren a (2002) T172 Theme 2 –Travelling light p47 , OU
Course Material.
Potter and Warren b (2002) T172 Theme 2 –Travelling light p80 , OU
Course Material
Redefining Progress , Oakland CA (2001) The Ecological footprints of
Nations www,rprogress.org
UNEP – United Nations Environment Program 2000 – Facts and figures:
Products, consumers and design.
Wackernagel M. and Rees W. (1996). Our Ecological footprint.
World Bank (1999) World Developement report 1999/2000.
Worldwatch (2004) Mainstreaming renewable energy in the 21st
Century.