I recently had the pleasure of listening to a talk, “Scientific Challenges in Sustainable Energy Technology”, by Nathan S. Lewis, California Institute of Technology. Lewis summarized data on energy resources and provided his analysis of their implications for the future of human society. He has provided slides, text, and a streaming audio/video version at his Web site (1). There is much in this presentation that could (and should) be incorporated into chemistry pedagogy.

Briefly, Lewis argues that

• appropriate use of energy is by far the most important challenge facing both the U.S. and the world;
• scarcity and higher prices of fossil fuels will not limit our use of them;
• the influence of CO₂ from fossil fuels on global warming is likely to be the limiting factor;
• to keep atmospheric CO₂ levels from increasing above about 750 ppm by 2050 will require about 10 TW of power from carbon-free sources; to stabilize at 550 ppm will require about 20 TW of carbon-free power;
• these quantities of power are comparable to and greater than the current worldwide consumption of energy resources;
• except for solar, none of the carbon-free, renewable energy resources by itself can conceivably provide 10-20 TW;
• unless there is an R&D effort akin to the Manhattan Project or the Apollo Space Program, beginning immediately, we are betting that the predicted effects of global warming will not come to pass-a high stakes bet that, if lost, would be catastrophic.

Lewis’s lecture brings together in one place a great deal of information that can be useful to teachers. From the seemingly simple task of tabulating many different energy resources, such as barrels of petroleum, tons of coal, and cubic feet of natural gas, in the same units, either J or W, to the far more complicated thinking required to assess the impacts of different technologies that do not emit carbon, there are many lessons that students can learn.

Assignments might ask students to research the Web for data (such as the World Energy Assessment, http://www.undp.org/energy/weaover2004.htm, or the U.S. Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/overview.html) and then assess trends by graphing, evaluate the accuracy of data in Lewis’s lecture or another source, or apply scientific thinking to the data in some other way. Something as simple as a discussion of the tremendously large quantities of energy and power that human society uses would be very instructive. Students could verify Lewis’s statement that if nuclear power alone were to provide the 10 TW of non-carbon energy needed in 2050, a new 1 GW plant would need to be built somewhere in the world every other day. Or they could show that based on photovoltaics at 10% efficiency, generating 3 GW (the U.S. share) would require roughly the same area (1.7% of the U.S.) as the interstate highway system. Another student exercise could be to research methods for carbon sequestration. Students could be divided into groups that would be assigned different roles (oil company engineers, environmentalists, government regulators, general public) and these groups could then debate whether to site a carbon sequestration operation in the local area.

Another beneficial effect of classroom discussions of the science and technology of energy is that more than just students can be affected. There is at present a serious lack of interest in science on the part of politicians and the public (2). Lewis’s message, and statements from many other scientists and scientific societies, strongly present the case that business as usual in energy matters is a decision to ignore real problems that will affect all of world society (3). As our students learn more about these issues they will pass along their knowledge to many others. They may even be inspired to attempt to address the problems through the political process.

Most important of all is that energy issues will open for students vistas of the importance of chemistry in addressing major problems of our time and our society-problems that they themselves could work on if they became chemists. Chemistry may be a mature science, but that does not make it irrelevant or unimportant. Indeed its very maturity means that chemistry has tremendous potential to contribute to the good of everyone in the world. As I have said before, that is a strong motivating factor for getting students interested in chemistry (4). It is also an important message that all of us need to reiterate not only to students but to any member of the public who will listen-and even somehow to those who are not interested!

Literature Cited

1. Lewis, Nathan S. http://nsl.caltech.edu/energy.html (accessed May 2008); see also Lewis, Nathan S.; Nocera, Daniel G. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 2006, 103(43), 15729-15735.

2. Moore, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 2008, 85, 331.

3. Smalley, Richard E. New York Times, September 2, 2003, p F3; Whitesides, George M.; Crabtree, George W. Science 2007, 315, 796-798. (See also the review of Gusher of Lies, p 905.)

3. Moore, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 1255; 2007, 84, 743; 2007, 84, 1239.

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