OU beyond Coal Panel

Going into the meeting, I had no clue what to expect. Besides reading Lost Mountain I am not really environmental conscious so the panel discussion was a new experience for me. I thought the discussion was very interesting, listening to members of the OU team explaining alternative energy sources. Each person had their own area of study; they were biofuels, ammonia usage, wind energy, and solar power. They all stood up individually to talk about what needs to be done so their alternative source could be a sustainable form of energy and shift away from the usage of coal.

The most interesting speech was by the man who works for Campuses beyond Coal. He went into great detail on how campuses like Wisconsin have shifted away from using coal. When he was talking this sounded like a great idea that every campus should be doing, but then questions were being raised from the audience. After questions were answered I still think it is a great idea, but campuses are only supplied for a short amount of time. They haven’t found ways for them to be ran for the long periods of time.

This panel reinforced the idea that we need to be able to shift away from coal, but it is the matter of having the materials. OU is very lucky because it is one of the few schools that are actually researching ways on how to become more efficient. The panel made me realize that we need to make sure that society is ready for the transition stage away from coal and into the energy efficient power. Another major point is that we need the data to find out if we can actually use these alternative sources or not. I think that OU professors are working hard to find ways to be efficient and move away from coal, but it is going to take more time and resources. Finally, OU is in the process of trying to become an efficient school. We say that in the future we want to stop using coal, but the real question is when? When are we going to be able to make this change to better the environment? The panel made me realize that there is so much more that goes into finding alternative sources then I thought, and it was also nice to see the people behind the scenes working towards this goal.