Global Warming Awareness through Curriculum Immersion

1. Global Warming Awareness through Curriculum Immersion Dr. Steven Bullock Part Time Chemistry Professor-KSU June 9, 2018

2. Proposed Research Activity We are entering a phase of humankind where our stewardship of Earth is at a critical juncture.  Everyone is aware of global warming and many feel there is nothing they can do individually.  However, the premise is to pull from many disciplines, not just science to maximize the problem solving success.   This is a global undertaking with political, economic, social and scientific components to the solution.   Kennesaw can begin to weave this awareness in entry level classes of all disciplines.   Economics becomes a part of the solution to provide money and carbon credits as the motivation;  political science shapes the policy to enable recalcitrant administrations an incentive to become involved, social sciences can weave the emotional and community involvement of future generations.     Breakthroughs in science are another aspect to the solution space, with lower carbon emission fuels, hydrogen fueled cars and advanced hydrogen storage, involving engineering, both aerospace and automotive, and electrical and solar engineering.  Each field is involved, but there exists little communication between the subjects at the collegiate level, where our future generations will weave the fabric of social, scientific, economic, and political advancement necessary to have the global impact required by the end of this century.   E pluribus unum: out of many, one.

3. Curriculum Activity Purpose and Focus • Greenhouse gas accumulation is well documented, not just based on warmer temperatures, but recorded data of carbon dioxide buildup. • Many disparate fields that at first glance seem unrelated. • At first, this was part of a polymer chemistry course on “green” chemistry; using biological feedstocks rather than petroleum. • Not just a technical backgrounds will be required to solve the problem, it impacts every aspect of human life. • The purpose is to promote a immersion environment such that the opportunities to collaborate between field is encouraged at the undergraduate level. • Let’s investigate the aspects that lead to a reduction of CO2 by choices every person can make.

4. The Scope of the Problem The earth is big, but it’s the atmosphere and ocean as 1.45 x 1019 tons, only 0.2 % of the earth’s mass where the heat is stored. The culprit, CO2, carbon dioxide, whose molecular structure is shown here: It’s pretty simple, structurally, a linear molecule, that nearly every living creature exhales. The optimum concentration is ideally, less than 350 ppm back in the 1800’s , we are now >400 part per million. Which is not a big number, 0.0004, or only 0.04 % of our atmosphere. So, why the big problem?

5. Carbon dioxide and heat Sun • The sun’s heat is absorbed and reflected back but carbon dioxide traps part of the heat. • We’ll spare the science for now. • Another prevalent greenhouse gas is methane, which plays a huge role in our food supply. • Methane absorbs 23 X more heat than CO2. Actually all hydrocarbons absorb more heat than CO2. • Chlorofluorocarbons (Freon), 1000X worse than CO2 for absorbing heat. • Everything we throw away winds up in a landfill, which gets converted to methane gas. Heat Atmosphere Earth 1 Science Bulletin - Volume 62, Issue 8, 30 April 2017, Pages 589–596

6. Where Does It All Come From? Most of it does not come from cars. The Prius benefit is the proverbial drop in the bucket. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data Energy production (25%) Agriculture – farming and livestock (24%); Industry (21%) Transportation (14%). Other (10%) Building (6%). Other indicates sources that are hard to quantify. Forest fires are not counted in this. Each 50 ft. tall tree weighs over 1000 kg; (100 trees/acre); 9.7 million acres burned in the US in 2017. 1 trillion kg’s of wood (cellulose) burned in 2017 in the US alone! That’s not even counting other countries, this is a global problem; not just a US problem. Energy Production and Agriculture account for nearly 50%. As seen in the chart below, nuclear energy is the highest energy per gram of CO2. Nuclear energy is safe; the US Navy has not had an incident in 40 years. http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-and-the-environment/climate-change-the-science.aspx

7. The Hierarchy of Dependency Weather Why do we still burn fossil fuels to make our cars & trucks move? Money and energy density. 1 kilogram of diesel makes 10 kilowatt-hours. The best batteries make ~0.2 kWh per kilogram, and these batteries weigh 6 kilograms. https://www.bixpower.com/product-p/bat-cp1000-19v.htm That battery will cost $1,000 vs. $0.75/kg for diesel. • As the previous slide discusses basic science of global warming, there are numerous feedback loops, impacting economics, regulations, trade. • Extreme weather, sea level, ocean pH levels, the list is exhaustive. Budget MONEY Regs. Emissions

8. Tying It All Together • Money, finances, global trade; economics professors can play a vital role • How to work the economics into making this disparity in cost and weight is fundamental in engineering design for cars, planes, and nearly all equipment. • This ties in engineering, electrical, automotive, mechanical, civil, environmental. • The Paris Agreement would help achieve this economic tie in to global warming (GW) • It provides manufactures the economic incentive to make cars, appliances more energy efficient, and allows for developing countries to use REDD+ (Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) funds to prevent native forests from burning into farmland. https://tinyurl.com/yb8s24lp • Deforestation accounts for 11% of global warming according to this website. • Economics professors could make these global economics a topic for discussion in their classes, however most undergraduate textbooks do not cover GW economy. • Next, we’ll see how other disciplines could be tied, and how the interplay of policy, science and economics.

9. Multi-Discipline Involvement-Why? What do we as faculty have to sacrifice? Time, and effort. There are countless website devoted to this topic, and many use conservationism as its central theme. A small list to start: https://www.nrdc.org/ https://www.conservation.org/Pages/default.aspx These organizations rely strictly on human goodwill, not all are so motivated. What other disciplines could participate? FOOD SERVICE Our food, from what we eat to how we package it. One beef or dairy cow will produce from 70 -120 kg or methane. There are an estimated 1.5 billion cows worldwide. Raising one cow takes 600 kg of water, and the fuel used to raise the feed takes 32 kg of CO2 per kg of meat. https://timeforchange.org/ 1 kg of chicken is 4.6 kg CO2/ kg of meat. Or go vegetarian? Sorry I like meat (BBQ) What is the health and economic benefit? This action scores well on both counts

10. Social Media - Sociology and Culture No global movement or education approach today would not involve internet or social media. Awareness is at an all time high, so check the box on education. This is where sociology and the study on culture and communication assist in getting everyone involved. There is a wealth of resources and social awareness of global warming is there, but involvement from a culture perspective where it is part of a collective consciousness is not. How do my actions locally affect the global condition? Social sciences can adopt their curriculum where global warming impact through everyday actions is ingrained as a culture. Originally as a scientist/engineer, I thought well everyone should care about global warming, the technical reason is obvious. Not all agree. Many folks need a different approach.

11. Politics – The Last Frontier • Certain political groups need to start transcending knee jerk responses. Tree hugger, etc. • This is the ploy of the Republican party. • This is a side note for the Democratic party. • For the political science faculty or those with interest in political science: • Move towards a mainstream policy of energy and economics as related to the environment. • Both parties have an energy platform, why not a global warming policy. • Merge the disparities (easier said than done) so it benefits both parties ( again, easier said than done)

12. Technology – A Reasoned Approach Global warming models predict a warming trend, and an ocean level rise, with ocean currents changing. OK so why the need to change our daily habits? An aspect of excess greenhouse gas that is less publicized is the lowering of pH due to carbonic acid formation. It’s hard to predict weather patterns with complex feedback mechanisms and predict temperatures and hurricane paths and determine the amount of sea level rise. pH is easy! and you can’t argue with a standard (see photo). It threatens coral reefs and the ocean by 2100. That’s the reason to change, there's even a law for it. https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/ The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) was established in May 2011, by the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring (FOARAM; 33 U.S.C. Chapter 50, Sec. 3701-3708) Act. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Phytoplankton/?src

13. We Are Not Solving This Today • Humankind has been burning fossil fuels for almost two centuries. • We are still coming out of an ice age 10,000 years ago, already warming planet. • Crafting a global economic reason and a trade compliance components can establish the real change. The Paris agreement tried to approach this. • This alone would take decades, and the aspect of incorporating the 2015 Paris Agreements and getting cooperation, much less having scientist agree on the models. • Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC’s) for greenhouse emissions, still needs a boost to reduce the emissions to meet a temperature goal that is doubtful based on models. • Propose a measure of ocean pH as a sign of reducing CO2. That is far easier to measure and monitor. • There is far more economic benefit in saving the ocean fauna; corals, fisheries, than relying on global temperature models that are still debatable. 00 Month 2016 | VoL 000 |nature| 3

14. Systemic Approaches for Curriculum Development • The strictly conservationist approach only works on those with empathy for the planet and wildlife. • The approach to date is focused on awareness and education. • An approach is needed to address the larger populace; policies, culture, self preservation. • Rather than a fringe of society working on these issues, have everyone contribute. • Next the trade and economics that are more involved in our teaching styles. • No economics text books even talks about carbon economies, it’s a graduate thesis at best. • That is a start, and we work to get other disciplines involved as a part of curriculum How do we start? Develop a shared network drive or website. Individual contributors can publish to this website, as easy as a Google search but in a concentrated forum for educators. Each discipline contributing has its subfolder, and other discipline with dependencies can cross reference the folder. Develop this as a free service, at some point money (drive maintenance) will be a factor, as always, we look for academic funding.