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Today you will learn from expert guest Daniel Kammen about the energy sector, why it contributes to climate change, and how eliminate or mitigate the problems of the energy sector to solve climate change.
Dr. Daniel M. Kammen is a Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy where he directs the Center for Environmental Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL; rael.berkeley.edu), and was Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center from 2007 – 2015.
He was appointed by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in April 2010 as the first energy fellow of the Environment and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA) initiative. He began service as the Science Envoy for U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry in 2016, but resigned over President Trump’s policies in August, 2017. He has served the State of California and US federal government in expert and advisory capacities, including time at the US Environmental Protection Agency, US Department of Energy, the Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Kammen helped found over 10 companies, including Enphase that went public in 2012, Renewable Funding (Renew Financial) a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) implementing company that went public in 2014. Kammen played a central role in developing the successful bid for the $500 million energy biosciences institute funded by BP.
He has authored or co-authored 12 books, written more than 300 peer-reviewed journal publications, and has testified more than 40 times to U.S. state and federal congressional briefings, and has provided various governments with more than 50 technical reports. For details see http;//rael.berkeley.edu/publications. Dr. Kammen also served for many years on the Technical Review Board of the Global Environment Facility. He is the Specialty Chief Editor for Understanding Earth and Its Resources for Frontiers for Young Minds.
Follow Daniel:
The energy sector is our process of acquiring and converting materials at large scale to power our economy.
We are warming the planet at a dramatically rapid rate. Every scientific model says we need to limit the amount of greenhouse gases we put in the atmosphere dramatically to go from our current budget about 35 billion tons of emissions to zero by mid century. Most of the world is not on that path.
If we don't make the shift of our energy sector, the number one issue, all these other things will be just dramatically impacted if not completely destroyed.
We switch from our fossil intensive lifestyle to a clean energy.
Our guest recommends learning the following skills:
Activity: Carbon Emissions Comparison
Compare the carbon emissions produced by different fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Calculate the emissions per unit of energy produced. Reflect on the implications of these emissions for climate change and the importance of transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.
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