Impending energy crisis

最近的飓风灾害给美国的石油产业造成了严重损失, 石油短缺的现象不仅限于美国国内, 也将会成为一个全球性的危机. 欧洲的批发汽油价格已经上涨了10%, 亚洲许多国家经历了电荒煤荒油荒. 这些, 都在提醒着人们:能源危机不是危言耸听, 开发利用环保新能源, 减少对传统能源的依赖和无序开采、掠夺, 才能保护大自然馈赠给人类的有限资源, 造福子孙.


windpower station


terrestrial heat

As an American expert commented earlier this year, "The peaking of world oil production presents the U.S. and the world with an unprecedented risk management problem. As peaking is approached, liquid fuel prices and price volatility will increase dramatically, and, without timely mitigation, the economic, social, and political costs will be unprecedented. Viable mitigation options exist on both the supply and demand sides, but to have substantial impact, they must be initiated more than a decade in advance of peaking". Thomas Edison, the famous inventor once sighed, "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that."

Jimmy Carter, American President from 1976, announced to Congress in his Energy Report, "We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren. We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us".

Nowadays, it's obvious that oil is becoming more expensive and less available. This is painful in the industrialized countries which have become totally dependent upon oil, and in the less developed countries where oil use is extremely sensitive to price escalation. To solve the energy crisis, other possible replacements for the traditional oil and gas have been studied, including solar energy, geothermal energy, marine energy, biological energy and many other new substitutes.

 

 

Solar energy, God's blessing for mankind
By Happy Hong

How much oil is burnt in total all over the world each day? When you come to answer such a question, please first think about how many cars are dashing around the planet, or just look around to see how much "white pollution" (plastic rubbish) is produced every day. The ever-increasing numbers of cars and chemical plants lead to an uncontrolled exploitation of oil and coal, which does greater harm than pollution of our environment.

The miserable life of the Iraqi people today is ironically due to their abundant "black gold" underground. Oil is lucrative but crisis-ridden: we may be living on an empty planet in decades if people keep pumping it from the earth without any restraint. We can't turn a blind eye to the fact that we are overdrawn on the wealth belonging to our descendants.

Don't we have other ways to bring us out of the energy crisis? The sun generously bestows on us a great deal of light and heat. Without gratitude, we sometimes even complain about the dazzlingly bright light and the burning heat from the sun. However, as we keep the golden sunlight off our windows with thick and heavy curtains, we are also shutting out God's blessing.


solar fluorescent tiles

Why don't we attach importance to solar energy, which has been so neglected? If all the city streets were painted with a coat made of special materials that could collect the sunlight and turn it into electricity, the street lamps overnight would save a lot of energy made by burning at the power station. If all automobiles were driven by solar energy, the exhaust pipes would cease emitting harmful smoke into the air, and engine noise might be eliminated. This kind of engine-free automobile would be called a "clean quiet angel". The air would be bluer and brighter; and the pedestrians would not have to breathe in the dizzy petrol fumes.

Some scientists predict that it will still take at least 30-50 years for a solar energy car to become popular due to the current expensive cost, low speed and basic level of technology. But others say that fantastic spurts in technology nowadays are so astonishing that scientific wonders may take us by surprise. For example, at a low conversion efficiency (less than 30%) of solar energy, Belgian scientists have succeeded in developing a solar energy car with a maximum speed of 150km/h. Though the solar energy era has not yet come, we have grasped the rudiments of the technology to the point where solar energy can partly replace coal and oil. On a hot summer's day, when you get in your car after it has been exposed under the burning sun for hours, you don't have to suffer the wave of heat and sweat. The electricity generated from solar energy would drive the air conditioner and maintain a comfortable temperature of 25°C. The lighting system and FM radio can also run with the solar energy battery.

These are my greatest wishes, but they are not just a dream. I heard some inspiring news two months ago: newly-built houses for sale in Xiamen must be equipped with a solar energy collecting system on the surface of the building. This compulsory rule will save part of the household expenditure on power. Although it will increase the price of purchasing the house, never forget that an investment, once made, can benefit you forever.

To be honest, I have the impulse to buy a flat like that right now. I promise I will do it if somebody would like to sponsor me a loan of one million yuan.

 

 

Science & technology round-up

Versatile plant offers solutions to erosion problem
沙棘解决土壤侵蚀问题



Seabuckthorn is a valuable multi-purpose plant which grows in mountainous areas and which can help to rehabilitate degraded land and alleviate the ensuing rural poverty. The plant has also been turned into food and medical products, as a way of facilitating poverty reduction for poor farmers in West China.

Lunar probe program facing 3 major difficulties
月球探测计划面临三大难题
China is expected to launch its first ever lunar probe satellite in 2007, but the program is still experiencing three major difficulties: orbiting, observation and control of the satellite, and its capacity to endure the lunar environment. The lunar environment is quite different from earth's. The difference in temperature from one side of the moon to the other is about 300 degrees Celsius. The satellite will orbit the moon at a speed of one cycle every two hours.

Scientists find human brain still evolving
科学家发现人脑仍在进化



The brain, the most important organ of a human being, is still in the process of evolving. New research tracked changes in two genes thought to help regulate brain growth, and the results suggest that changes were still occurring well after the rise of modern humans 200,000 years ago.

Polar ice reveals pre-industrial pollution
极地冰块显示工业革命前污染
Pre-industrial humans may have had a much bigger effect on the atmosphere than previously thought. The new discovery came as scientists tried to pinpoint the cause of changes in the amount of methane in the atmosphere over recent centuries. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and is believed to contribute to global climate change.

 

Vocabulary
rehabilitate 恢复
seabuckthorn 沙棘
methane 沼气
pinpoint 查明