Reading Test 28
The Green Revolution in China
A couple of weeks ago, China’s highest government body published their conclusions from the second research session on continental climate change over a period of twelve months. Due to China’s new global role and the number of unprecedented environmental issues in China, the Chinese prime minister was very keen to raise climate change as an important issue at the upcoming G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan.
It should be highlighted that the Chinese central government also had a similar meeting and that China is a rapidly industrializing country with new coal-fuelled power plants opening every week. China is like a terrifying carbon-guzzling monster. As a result of thirty years of industrialization, China now has the highest level of carbon dioxide emissions in the world. Carbon dioxide emissions are increasing up to eight per cent a year. The EU achieved a twenty per cent reduction. In China, coal-fired plants waste so much energy that it is approaching the 2010 IPCC deadline for carbon dioxide emissions reduction.
However, it could be misleading to put too much emphasis on these statistics. A non-governmental organization (Climate Group) newspaper report presents a slightly different picture. According to the Clean Revolution in China, China is a nation that is more than aware of environmental issues but also has the potential to achieve a second miracle in 30 years.
The environmental price of the first “miracle” was that Chinese people always saw their daily lives. That’s why most of the policies are related to energy efficiency, energy-saving and other alternative energy sources. Those policies have already been met with some concern.
There is a grid, but personnel sectors are too strong and relations between energy experts and the central government introduce laws, like the National Renewable Energy Law in 2006. This has set hard targets, including increasing the amount of energy made from renewable sources from zero per cent to fifteen per cent until 2020. Also, it has guaranteed at least three per cent of energy per year from renewable sources.
Both wind and solar power are successful, but their origins are very different. With 6 gigawatts of energy made from wind turbines, surprisingly China is now ranked behind Germany, the US, Spain and India. Also, some believe China will reach 100 GW by 2020.
Wind power successfully shows that with central government aid China is ready for new policies, technologies, and advanced technology. The most important problem is the domestic market. The amount of electricity produced by wind farms can be a burden to find.
When it comes to solar power, even though a global leader is expected to dominate in China, there were few domestic tendencies for solar power. In the global solar photovoltaic cell market, it is second only to Japan and grows at a fast rate. But the domestic market is based on cell prices because the cells are so expensive. This puts pressure on the government to rapidly follow up with their policies, for example, the role of the Climate Group is important in developing domestic markets.
However, the image of new coal-fuelled power stations still looms large as they are opening every week. It is reported that China has achieved a 10.5 per cent growth rate of newly built power stations in the last quarter. However, how many people actually know that China has been closing small coal power stations over the last couple of years? Step by step China is reducing its small power stations, first the 50-megawatt ones and next will be the 100-megawatt ones and next will be the big megawatt ones.
This policy is operated by the Chinese central government and backs up the new generation of coal stations using the most advanced technologies with supercritical and ultra-supercritical advanced clean coal. Capture functions and plants of carbon are researched and developed, and they found the infrastructure for the future is based on the technology of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) that can turn coal materials into synthetic gas to make power.
These days, Chinese consumers demand better homes and vehicles. Public awareness of energy saving is on the rise. The Chinese government introduced a standard fuel economy for vehicles in 2004 of 15.6 kilometers per liter. This is higher than the US, Canada and Australia but behind Europe and Japan. In the meantime, in spite of a high 20 per cent tax on SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles), the sale of these sorts of cars continues to increase.
Up to now, China has been the kingdom of the bicycle, importing the electric bike at 1,500 yuan ($220) per vehicle. Some of these vehicles have adopted an intelligent recovery system similar to that of hybrid cars. In 2007, the sale of electric bikes increased considerably and China is estimated to make up three-quarters of the world electric vehicle market.
China, already, is doing a lot on the bottom line. So, could it do more? The answer is yes. China should learn and open its mind through international communities. According to the Climate Group, they report the world should refine their image of China, just not fear it and, constructively, work in unison. At the same time, China’s government should develop a clean revolution and maintain internal pressure for improvements.
This quiz is for logged in users only.
Electric Dreams
A. The days of the internal-combustion are numbered, and the fuel cell represents the future of automotive transport, says PETER BREWER. A. Some of the world’s greatest inventions have been discovered by accident. One such accident led to the discovery of the fuel cell and another led to its commercialisation. And in around 30 years, when most of the energy analysts have predicted the oil wells will run dry, motorists will be thankful for both these strange twists of fate. Why? Simply because without the fuel cell to replace the combustion engine, private motoring as we all know it would be restricted only to those who could afford the high price.
B. The exact date of the discovery of the fuel cell is not known, but historians agree it most likely occurred around 1838 in the laboratories of British physicist Sir William Grove, who one day disconnected a simple electrolytic cell (in which hydrogen and oxygen are produced when water contacts an electric current running through a platinum wire) and reversed the flow of current. As author records in his book: Powering the Future, Grove realized that just as he could use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen it should be possible to generate electricity by combining these two gases.
C. The principle behind the fuel cell is simple. Hydrogen and oxygen, two of the most common elements in the world, are a very explosive combination. But separate them with a sophisticated platinum coated barrier and an electro chemical reaction takes place, where positively charged hydrogen ions react with oxygen and leave the hydrogen electrons behind. It is this reaction, the excess electrons on one side of the barrier and the deficit of electrons on the other that creates electrical energy.
D. The early development of the fuel cell was fraught with problems and high cost. But by 1954 US giant General Electric had produced a prototype that proved sufficiently effective to interest NASA. The Gemini space programme proved the viability of the fuel cell to provide electrical power. The spacecraft used six stacks of cells with three cells in each stack. The electrical power output from each stack was quite modest — just one kilowatt and as a byproduct, produced half a litre of water for each kilowatt hour of operation. But these Gemini cells were very unstable and required constant monitoring.
E. At this time if anyone had suggested to Canadian Scientist Geoffrey Ballard that he would become a world leader in fuel cell technology, he would have laughed. Ballard’s scientific background was actually as a geophysicist, but during the oil-crisis of 1973, the US government asked the Canadian to explore alternative forms of energy. Ballard threw himself into the project enthusiastically but soon became disillusioned by the politics of the programme. Energy systems take a long time to develop, Ballard said. The short-term vision of politicians, who voted to fund such projects in the desire for quick results to bolster their re-election chances, were frustrating for the scientists. However, since the US government lacked the vision for the job, he decided to tackle it himself.
F. The big breakthrough on Ballard’s fuel cell came by accident in the search for cheaper materials. Up until late 1986, Ballard’s team had worked with only one type of fuel cell membrane manufactured by DuPont, but Dow Chemical had also developed a similar membrane, which had not been released for sale. Ballard’s team tracked down an experimental sample of the Dow material, put it into a fuel cell and set up a standard test. Within a few minutes the fuel cell was generating so much electricity on the test bench that it had melted through the power-out cable.
G. Ballard immediately knew he had a saleable product. The problem was: Should he aim his fuel cell at small markets like military field generators, wheelchairs and golf carts, or try to sell it as a full blown alternative to the combustion engine? “It was needed and the world was ready for it,” Ballard said. “Los Angeles is dying. Vancouver is going to be eaten alive by its own pollution very shortly. It seemed like a massive problem to Brock.” Ballard Power Systems first built a small bus to demonstrate the technology, and then an even bigger bus.
H. As a result a number of multinational motor manufacturers, such as General Motors, Mitsubishi and Daimler-Benz all tested Ballard’s cells. Finally, Daimler formed an alliance with Ballard that has yielded some impressive prototypes, including a fully driveable fuel cell powered A-Class Mercedes-Benz compact car, known as Necar 4. Daimler Chrysler, as the merged Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corporation is now known, says the fuel cell represents the future of automotive transport. “The significance of this technological advancement (the fuel cell) is comparable to the impact the microchip had on computer technology when it replaced the transistor,” said Dr Ferdinand Panik, the head of Daimler Chrysler’s fuel cell development team.
This quiz is for logged in users only.
A new stage in the study and teaching of history
For hundreds of years, historians have relied on written or printed documents to provide the bulk of their source materials, and they have largely communicated with students and the wider public by writing books and journal articles. Today, however, the printed word is being superseded by a diversity of forms of communication, above all moving images on video or film
A
The development of this new form of communication is leading to a growing gap between the practice of professional historians based in academia, and the practice of those aiming to popularise the study of history among the general public, and to encourage people to create their own records for the future. On the one hand, there are mainstream academics who continue to use only the written word as they examine more and more fields with an ever-increasing number of sophisticated methodologies. On the other hand, film and video, especially as broadcast on television, are probably the major influence on the public’s consciousness of history, as they see film of events of fifty or a hundred years ago, events they had previously only read about.
B
In a related development, a great many people now document local and family events in the form of videos; many schools, too, produce video yearbooks. All these visual records may well prove to be invaluable sources of information for future historians. The glaring contradiction is that the two approaches—the academic and what we might term the popular—have intersected very little: with a few notable exceptions, professional historians have tended to avoid involvement in television programmes about history, and have even less impact on what is being captured and preserved on video. And the potential of moving images has wielded negligible influence on the academic study of history.
C
This gulf can be seen as resulting from the willingness or otherwise of individual historians to accept the validity of new forms of communication in the study of history. This is not the first time that the question has arisen. The study of history, as conceived of today, began with the transition from oral to literate culture, leading to the earliest written records and the earliest historical studies. The next great shift came with the advent of printing, which transformed everything. Today, as the printed word loses its dominance, historians are faced with a variety of forms of communication, ranging from simple audiotape to the promising complexities of videodisks linked with computers. As yet, however, the use of moving images to record current events for the benefit of future historians does not even have a commonly agreed name.
D
This does not mean that mainstream historians have totally rejected the use of moving images as sources: the majority seem intrigued by the idea, and valuable research has been carried out into the history and analysis of films with a broad circulation, using them as a source of information on the social and intellectual history of the twentieth century. Journals such as American History Review have played a significant role in this field.
E
Yet the number of historians using moving images in their research or teaching is very small. The barrier seems to be that the profession is structured around the medium of the written word, and somewhat insulated in its academic setting. The use of moving images presents a substantial challenge to this setting and its assumptions. As a result, historians have rejected the training, the institutions, the motivations and professional structures that would be needed in order to use moving images effectively. Above all, they have rejected the necessity to learn complicated new skills.
F
So why should historians make this change? Clearly, films or videos of events and people can be used as solid evidence of the past, linked to the words of the narrator (whether a television presenter/historian or a university teacher giving a lecture) but carrying information in their own right. Film has reintroduced the oral form as a mode of research and communication for documenting historical events. Now, with moving images, people are reminded that oral communication is not limited to word: it also includes body language, expression and tone, which can add a context. Little of this is evident in a written transcript. A further effect of video and film is that the narrator gives up some control and has less to give explanation, while the viewer becomes involved in the process of interpreting and understanding history.
G
Film or videotape can also aid historians by simplifying the work of the interviewer. Instead of trying to carry on an interview while simultaneously making notes about setting and other unspoken data, this new kind of historian can concentrate on the interview itself, and study the film later. The many benefits of using moving images as historical evidence easily outweigh worries about cost, technical skills, or the effect of a camera on a person telling his or her story. Moving images enhance the quality of historical research, and suggest new directions for historians to explore.
This quiz is for logged in users only.