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Sustainable Management Futures

Lord

Ashcroft

International

Business

School

Week 3: Technology and Energy

Module Leader: Sandhya Sastry

Module Code: BB315014S

Sastry, S. & Ucan, Z. ©Sustainable Management Futures BB315014S

Global Encounters (e.g. Japan)2

Japans three line train system is very efficient and environmental friendly.

The city Kobe is crowded, but only a handful cars can be seen on the roads

less smell of smog and diesel. Kobe has a lovely nature

and silent gondolas a place for Japanese to escape the

“urban bustle”.

Japans other side: underground malls, singing toilets, automatically rolling

toilet paper and the latest technological gimmickry.

Birth rate: lowest in the world, only little in-migration, the population will

not only be aging, but also be shrinking.

The economy is stagnant and is endangered to research shortages.

Japan is the First World power in Asia and is seen as exceptional. However

Japan will face the same problems as the entire advanced industrial world will

face.


Power Surge: The Advance of Technology

3

1945 in Mexico was the first nuclear blast; scientists

were wondering whether they see a new Prometheus’s

fire or whether they open a Pandora’s Box.

Technology always existed and was based on trial and error.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was on the age of science. He

was designing impractical things from helicopters to

submarines, even though he never achieved to actuate them.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) studied the stars as many others,

but he rapidly refined and employed a telescope.


The Fires of Industry4

When Britain was building all from tea kettles to big steam

engines and France was spying on China in order to produce

superior porcelain as the Dutch, the industrial world with its

greed, rivalry and competition was born.

Egypt, Greece, China, and Mayan States had great mathematicians, who

helped to design buildings and built machines.

Later in the 1800s countries such as Germany, Japan and the USA joined

the industrial world as main powerful countries.

The French invented the Jacquard loom and the punch

cards that were used to guide the first computers to guide looms.

Britain jumped on the idea and became the biggest textile producer

in the world. These textiles were exported across Europe and

North America.


Booting Up the Electronic Age5

In 1950s computers were used for the military.

Internet was first invented for defence.

In 1880s telegraphs were replaced by telephones.

Nowadays cell phones are multifunctional.

The postmodern information age is built by the electronic technology.

Production, consumption and social relations are changed through technology:

Communication is easier by now, but face to face contact became less.

In 2004 six out of ten of the richest multibillionaires on the Forbes list, have been

related to technology such as Microsoft, Oracle, Intel and Sun Systems.

Although the music business is dominated by a handful of superstars, more music

is recorded than ever before.

There are only a few book titles that make massive profits (including movie and

merchandise rights), although more books than ever are produced.


The Information (and Misinformation Age)

6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uphDHRfO5w

In 1999 Bhutan was the last country on earth that got television. New

issues occurred: e.g. fights in schools became more energetic, copied from

wrestling “heroes”, elderly women neglected their religious duties while

watching soap operas. The society changed.

The media produces rather international misunderstanding than understanding.

Through media the creation of extreme consumerism is made: e.g. rich people show

how they spend their money in order to support their lifestyle beyond their individual

means and beyond the means of our planet.

Simultaneously people in poor countries are encouraged to

copy the behaviour of rich countries, although their

high-consumption causes so many problems.


7

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration.

Available online at www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/world.html

Energy: Fire from Above and Below

Individuals are

dependent on

international networks of

electrical transmission.

However, the past has

shown that these

networks are fragile.

Every year the energy

consumption increases.


Wood8

Wood is used as vital fuel in many countries.

In some regions in Haiti, Sahel and India desperate

individuals stripped the land of trees for fuel.

The wood is becoming scarce people in these poor

countries have to walk longer to get some wood.

North American and Northern Europeans heat with high

efficiency woodstoves, whereas poor countries have to discover

alternatives.

Alternative methods to generate fuel

Reforestation, what is

already tried in Haiti

with fast growing

meleluca trees.

Using resources more

efficient (with stoves

and ovens instead of

open fire, which

wastes wood).

Some stoves even can

generate fuel by using

grasses.

The perfect place for

solar energy is hot and

dry climate. Curved

mirrors could be used

for cookers in order to

heat the food.


Coal9

Coal is a limited resource and varies in quality and ease of extraction.

The existing sulphur in coal, goes into the atmosphere as sulphur dioxide and

comes down as sulphuric acid as a component of acid rain, what kills fishes and

trees and erodes the face of buildings.

In eastern Europe coal soot fills the air and slowly causes black lungs of adults

and children

Today’s majority use of electricity is produced by coal-fired electrical plants.

Coal produces tons of carbon dioxide, which might build-up in the atmosphere

and cause global warming and other unpredictable climate change.

In the 1800s young boys, who could crawl into the narrow tunnels

were preferred in the mines. These boys became “black lungs” other

diseases or sustain accidents.

Strip mines: A safer method for workers where coal could generate faster and.

There is still plenty of coal, but it is hard to mine, to transport and not easy to

work with. Coals long-term usefulness is questioned.


Oil10

Oil did become the “black gold” of the world’s economy.

Many countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nigeria, and Guinea have large

oil reserves, but only a few benefits from it.

Oil wealth caused bitter wars in the past.

Not only environmental, but also economical and political problems are caused

through oil.

The fuel of diesel put numerous particulates into the air (black and sooty

smoke from busses and trucks)

Gasoline produces some harmful gases, such as nitrous oxide acid rain.

Global warming is caused by burning of oil products.

Having cheap oil is good for oil-driven economies,

but bad for the air and the water. The scarcity of oil

would affect the way cities are built and the way food

is grown.


Natural Gas11

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration.

Available online at www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/nat_gas.html

http://www.youtu

be.com/watch?v

=BzLZnidztpI&fe

ature=related


Nuclear Fission: The Power of Distant Suns

12

Our main energy sources are produced with solar power, except nuclear power. This

kind of power is not only viewed with hope but also with fear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJfIbBDR3e8

Countries with less access to oil, have built more nuclear power plants.

The radiation of nuclear power is very dangerous. In 1986 in Chernobyl

(Ukraine) the worst nuclear disaster happened. Released invisible radiation

killed hundreds or even thousands people.

Nuclear power is on the one hand a smoke-free alternative to fossil fuels that produces no

greenhouse gases, but on the other hand it is risky (terrorist attacks, nuclear weapons,

hazardous waste that will remain ages).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCNFMoe8ASI


Alternative Energy: Sun, Wind, and Water

13

Electricity can also be generated by solar power. Although the amount of solar energy that

beams down on the earth is vast, the amount of any square meter of space is comparatively

little. This kind of power works well in cloudless regions, but not in cloudy and smoggy areas.

Wind power same limitations as solar power. It is easier to generate wind

energy for a building rather than an entire metropolitan area, which requires

a huge “wind farm”.

Geothermal Energy (Iceland): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfUQy86ZMpQ

Since the world has an ever-growing energy consumption, it is

important to find better ways of using the energy.


Chariots of Fire: Automobiles and Transport

14Region/Country 1990 2005 2020

Average Annual

Percent Change,

1999-2020

Industrialized Countries

North America 7.6 10.2 13.0 1.7

United States 6.6 8.9 10.7 1.4

Canada 0.5 0.7 0.7 1.0

Mexico 0.4 0.7 1.6 5.1

Western Europe 2.6 3.0 3.0 0.3

United Kingdom 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.5

France 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.2

Germany 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.3

Italy 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.2

Netherlands 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.6

Other Western Europe 0.7 0.9 0.9 0.3

Industrialized Asia 1.0 1.3 1.3 0.4

Japan 0.7 0.9 0.9 0.1

Australasia 0.3 0.4 0.4 1.1

Total Industralized 11.2 14.5 17.3 1.3

EE/FSU

Former Soviet Union 1.1 0.6 0.8 2.9

Eastern Europe 0.3 0.4 0.5 2.1

Total EE/FSU 1.3 1.0 1.3 2.6

Developing Countries

Developing Asia 1.0 2.6 5.5 5.2

China 0.4 1.2 3.4 7.1

India 0.1 0.2 0.5 6.7

South Korea 0.1 0.2 0.3 2.0

Other Asia 0.4 1.0 1.3 2.4


Turning Down the Heat: Global Warming and

Appropriate Technology15

Worldwide the first years of the 21st century have been the

warmest years.

Tons of greenhouse gases pour

into the atmosphere day by day.

In Palau the residents are already

watching the big waves. If the sea

level rises one more meter their houses will be gone.

Climate change irony: In some regions in the world it might

get even colder.

Everything that people take as normal could be disrupted

through a rapidly changing climate.

http://www.youtube.

com/watch?v=XPz7

B6ers4k


Turning Down the Heat: Global Warming and

Appropriate Technology16

Steps to slow global climate change

Placing better reliance on

efficient mass transportation,

most remarkably

trains.

Emphasizing energy-efficient homes

(effectively using wind and sun).

Seriously exploring

alternative energy

sources.

Reversing the trend toward disposable

mass consumption.

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