some words about the lecture on 30 Jan

On 30 January,three professors, Mr Palmer, Mr Benjamin and Mr Bala each gave a presentation related with global warming, a hot topic which had been discussed over the years. The first speaker,Mr Palmer had briefly introduced greenhouse gases,global warming and the link between each other before rising up a very interesting idea---capture and storage of carbon dioxide. This idea sounds attractive because that instead of nagging about how to cut down the emission of carbon dioxide,cutting edge technology now is used to store carbon dioxide deep in the earth or seas.However, even though this method is technological feasible, it is difficult to be adopted at this stage due to factors like its low economic return. Moreover,due to this current economic crisis,policy makers most likely would choose to put environment problem aside.

The second speaker,Mr Benjamin, indeed looked deeper into the problem which had been risen up by Mr Palmer at his later part of presentation.In other words, he explained more why accepting or adopting a new technology or product is a complicated social problem rather than simply a technological one.He used two main detailed examples to elaborate his idea,namely, electric motor car and wind turbine. There were political reasons, for instance,popularization of a new technology may go against certain interests of a nation. In cultural and behavioural aspects, adoption of a new product may force people to change their habits. Besides, intensive competitions and unsuccessful marketing plans, such as unattractive advertisements or insufficient information, may cause a new product failing to be introduced to market. Therefore,rejection of new items is because of the whole social system.

The last presentation, which to me was not as beneficial and interesting as the previous two, was given by Mr Bala. It addressed the issue of global warming more directly. His speech covered the causes, consequences and several possible solution to global warming. However,most of his points had been mentioned again and again in newspaper, articles and educational films in recent years.As a result,it became a little boring towards the end of this presentation. This is not helped by the fact that he was the last speaker and audiences were beginning to get tired, and hungry as well.

At last,the two hours are generally meaningful to me. However, it can be better by rearranging the order of the three presentations. Mr Bala's one, which introduced global warming comprehensively,should be put at the beginning. "Carbon dioxide capture and storage" then comes in to bring the audiences a relatively new and interesting solution towards the problem.
In the end, Mr Benjamin could use his " social science system approach" to tell us why all the new ideas, which sounded manageable, are only technological feasible.