The UTD Mercury

Issue date: 3/19/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Jacob Naasz

Editor's note: This is the last in a three-part series on the various ways in which members of the UTD faculty are taking an interest in environmental policy, research and initiatives.

Unlike the weather, which everybody talks about but nobody can change, environmentalism is a topic that generates both buzz and action - including people at UTD.

Environmentalism is a big topic. Environmentalism includes everything from recycling Coca-Cola cans to researching alternative fuel sources, from growing organic tomatoes to lobbying members of Congress.

Environmental concerns have become more mainstream. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's documentary about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," recently won an Oscar for best documentary.

Partly due to the film's success, the December 2006 issue of Scientific American named Gore its "Policy Leader of the Year," and UTD nanotechnologists Ray Baughman, Mei Zhang and Shaoli Fang were among the 50 science and technology leaders on the list.

The UTD faculty is demonstrating an environmentally conscious approach through education, research and advocacy.

Teaching the Environment

Of the messages within "An Inconvenient Truth," retired geosciences professor Richard M. Mitterer said, "I teach that."

The film did not distort the scientific data, Mitterer said, adding the science in it is reasonably strong. Geosciences majors learn Mitterer's views on climate change in GEOS 4322, The Earth System, a required course Mitterer returned part-time to teach.

Geology majors study the composition, structure and history of the earth and its surroundings. The time span of their study ranges from the beginning of the solar system to the present day.

"Geology is the ultimate CSI," said geosciences professor Tom Brikowski. "Geologists are trained to go from smallest details to (arrive at) the most reasonable conclusions."

Brikowski teaches GEOS 3310, environmental geology, for non-majors. The course covers natural hazards and human interactions with the environment.

He says the course is a public service to give students the background to make their own choices in environmental issues.

Greenhouse effect

Physics professor Brian Tinsley is unconvinced that all global warming can be blamed on the greenhouse effect. The "greenhouse effect" refers to a rise in the Earth's temperature because atmospheric gases prevent heat from escaping from the Earth.

"There has been some warming (due to the greenhouse effect), but not such as to justify the (high) level of alarm in popular writings," Tinsley said.

One half of the Earth's warming from 1880 to 1970 is due to solar activity, Tinsley said. "Solar activity" refers to changes in the surface magnetic fields on the sun, most evident in sunspots, but also apparent in changes in the solar wind, a very hot, highly conducting gas that flows at supersonic speed over the Earth.

But since the sun hasn't changed much since 1970 forward, much of the subsequent warming is due to the greenhouse effect, Tinsley said.

Solar activity causes warming and cooling of the Earth in different regions by changing the atmosphere and cloud cover, Tinsley said. The warming causes decreases in some types of clouds and increases in others.

Clouds reflect sunlight back into space in the daytime causing cooling, but they also act as a blanket to trap the outgoing infrared radiation 24 hours a day (like greenhouse gases) causing warming, Tinsley said.

"We are decades away from a predictive model of how solar activity affects clouds and regional temperature, precipitation and wind systems," Tinsley said.

Alternative Energy

Four UTD professors and two doctoral students are researching alternatives for building fuel cells as an alternative source of electricity. The group, under the direction of chemistry professor John Ferraris, includes chemistry professors Kenneth Balkus, Jr., Inga Musselman and Duck Joo Yang and chemistry doctoral students Grace Jones Kalaw and Ann Chacko.

Fuel cell applications range from use in transportation and power production to laptops and cell phones. They convert chemical energy into electricity without combustion.

The conversion process is environmentally friendly because the end products are only heat and water, which could be reused and recycled back into the fuel cell, Kalaw said. Also, fuel cells will produce electricity as long as oxygen and fuels such as hydrogen are supplied. Conventional batteries generate only limited power because of the finite amounts of chemicals stored.

One fuel cell will produce 1.23 volts. To produce the 70 kilowatts needed to run an automobile would require a stack of fuel cells, Chacko said.

Recent advances in fuel cell technology have enabled some major car manufacturers to predict their introduction in the next few years, Kalaw said.

Advocacy

Recommendations on global warming by Lloyd Jeff Dumas, professor of economics and public policy, are reaching U.S. Congress.

His recommendations are detailed in a 48-page paper "Seeds of Opportunity: Climate Change Challenges and Solutions."

The paper was prepared for the nonprofit, nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI). The group has already conducted limited lobbying with Congress concerning those recommendations, Dumas said.

Dumas said he believes the evidence is overwhelming that global warming is due largely to human activity, and he says he is relieved by that evidence.

"That means we can do something about (global warming)," he said.

His plan calls for developing profitable new technologies to counteract the effects of global warming. By making these technologies profitable, people do not have to sacrifice much in terms of their lifestyle, Dumas said.

Solutions Dumas suggested in his paper include:

•Let firms trade government-issued pollution permits to allow the market to control the emissions level.

•Develop programs to conserve energy while maintaining or improving the standard of living. Examples are recycling and avoiding over design of systems thereby using excessive materials and energy.

•Increase development of renewable, ecologically-friendly energy sources.

•Enhance storage facilities for greenhouse gases. Examples are converting open land to forests and building underground reservoirs under old oil fields.

•Encourage development of technologies to reduce climate change effects.

CSI is building an interdisciplinary working group that will translate Dumas paper into politically-feasible recommendations and then present them to Congress, Dumas said, adding he will chair the committee.

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