Area | Description |
Name | Energy and the Environment |
Facilitator | Pete Murphy, Professional Engineer, business educator, and WISE instructor. |
Goals | The group gathers to discuss how energy has enabled our industrial economy, created wealth, and improved the quality of life. It also deals with public policy on how energy is produced, used, conserved. |
Benefits | Members view how government officials in New England and the world seek to change how energy is produced and used to see how the proposed solutions may or may not be beneficial. |
Audience | All members of WISE with an interest in the subject. |
Meetings | Discussions will be held eight times during the academic year, typically monthly, in two-hour sessions on campus. |
Focus | Meetings may focus on a technology of producing energy, how the technology fits into the energy production mix, or public policy regarding it. Participants often bring publications and data relevant to the discussion. |
Topics | Fossil fuels of coal and natural gas for electricity production, oil for transportation, nuclear for electricity production, solar power, wind energy, electric power distribution, and storage. |
Community | Outside experts in the subject are invited to participate. |
Areas of Interest
- Environmental policy and planning
- Environmental resource management
- How energy is produced, used, and stored
- Sustainability and sustainable development
- Interaction of humans with nature
- The impact of urban sprawl
- Organization of the environment
- Fossil fuels, oil, nuclear, solar, and wind
- Activism in the community and public policy
|