• Question: how do you think science can save the enviroment

    Asked by anon-230557 to Sarah, Isaac, Hira, Elena, Anisha, Alex on 14 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Hira Virdee

      Hira Virdee answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      Science is crucial in solving climate change – and this is both on earth and in space. My background and expertise is in the space industry, so I’ll answer that side first.

      Humans launched the first artificial satellite in 1957. In the last 60 years, we’ve launched nearly 10,000 satellites and we’re now launching more than ever before. This has led to a problem with space debris – everything we launch stays in orbit for a long time. That means a risk of collision, so for every object in space we need to track where everything else is so we know there won’t be any collisions. Science is crucial to understanding and solving this problem, so that in the future we can visit and live on other planets.

      Science is important for saving the environment on the ground too. There are cleaner forms of energy, improvements to how we use power (electric cars for travel, solar heating for homes, improvements to how factories use energy), and these are all thanks to science.

    • Photo: Alex Leide

      Alex Leide answered on 15 Nov 2019:

      I think science can find solutions to many problems – we can design, discover and invent new things. Science cannot provide the full solution – society and economics needs to support the solutions so they are actually used. For the environment, I think it is important to move from burning coal, oil and gas for energy towards using electricity. So electric cars, electric heating, electric cookers… In the next few years, the world will need far more electricity than we make now. Then it is important to change how we create electricity. Now we (mostly) burn things to make electricity. This releases CO2 and other greenhouse gases and particle pollution. Scientific research and engineering has led to solar panels, and better wind turbines, but without batteries I don’t think these renewable sources can make enough electricity to be used reliably. Making better batteries is really really difficult! But scientists are trying hard to do it. In my opinion, nuclear power should be used more. The technology is very reliable, and it is still getting better and more efficient. The main problem is building nuclear reactors is very expensive, but there are new designs for cheaper ones which can be built quickly.

    • Photo: Anisha Wijeyesekera

      Anisha Wijeyesekera answered on 17 Nov 2019:

      Absolutely! There are so many great ideas that scientists have discovered that can help us to protect the environment. These include identifying the dangerous gases that were in aerosol spray cans and fridges which were responsible for causing a hole in the ozone layer, to creating clever packaging for foods that mean we can recycle more of our food waste. There are so many things that we now do differently as a result of science identifying how we can do more to protect the environment.

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