{"id":3920,"date":"2007-03-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpdev.hmc.edu\/physics\/2007\/03\/20\/physics-of-sustainability\/"},"modified":"2007-03-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-20T00:00:00","slug":"physics-of-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"physics_colloquium","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/research\/colloquium\/physics-of-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics of Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"page-featured-image\" class=\"wp-block-image is-style-alignleft\" data-pic=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/01\/\" alt=\"Promotional image for talk: Elements of a successful scientific talk\" data-pic=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Speaker(s):<\/strong> David Hafemeister<\/p>\n<p>Sustainability movement will be defined and described.  The physics part of sustainability is driven by energy use and environmental impacts.  Recent data on energy and climate change will be displayed.  This will be followed by back-of-the-envelope calculations, which prove the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>King Hubbert\u2019s equations for oil production are modified, using supply and demand economics.  The additional production from higher prices will not be sufficient to stave off the problems of \u201cpeak oil.\u201d  The impact of energy regulations on cars and appliances greatly exceeds the impact of market forces.<\/li>\n<li>Energy savings from enhanced\u2013end\u2013use efficiency has been far greater than new production from alternative energy and this will continue to be so.  Using a scale model for buildings, it is shown that it is possible (with appropriate investment) to heat a house in Wisconsin with energy of two\u2013persons fighting.  To make energy decisions on an economic basis for refrigerators and solar collectors, it is more meaningful to use the cost\u2013of\u2013conserved energy as compared to payback periods.<\/li>\n<li>Most of the progress on energy since the oil embargo has been on the \u201cdemand\u201d side and not the \u201csupply side.\u201d  Combined cycle gas turbine power\u2013plants now obtain 60% efficiency and release less than 40% of a coal plant\u2019s CO<sub>2<\/sub>.<\/li>\n<li>More carbon dioxide raises the Earth\u2019s surface temperature; the concept of little or no rise in temperature is not logical.  Several models will quantify this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-3920","physics_colloquium","type-physics_colloquium","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/physics_colloquium\/3920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/physics_colloquium"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/physics_colloquium"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/physics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}