Topic Shuffle

Markets: Russo-Ukraine war upsets supply chains, markets and international trade balances. Prices rise on the instability. Supplier’s eye higher profits. Customers pay up or use less; or stop using the product if possible. Substitute products appear on the market to further upset markets. The shakeout of supply and demand plays out in the marketplace. All sorts of causes upset market balances. Housing. Food. Transportation. Energy. Water. You name it, unsettled circumstances unsettle markets. Price volatility remains with us until it doesn’t.

Energy sources: coal, oil, gasoline, natural gas, hydroelectric dams, tidal power, wind and solar power. Thermal, too. Fossil fuels have been our go-to source of energy. That supply is finite. We have found new supplies in unlikely places and engineered extraction methods to supply the demand for energy. Still, the fossil fuel energy pollutes, alters land use and climate conditions. Finding new supplies and types of energy addresses supply issues, at first marginally, then larger. Still not enough to meet current demand. War upsets supply routes. Energy providers use their muscle and power to demand political agreement. Fundamental energy uses are threatened and changed.

Energy innovation: engineering research attempts to solve energy problems. Electric cars and trucks avoid oil products but use battery power that strains the ability to make batteries that are efficient, nonpolluting and affordable. Each of those elements is a challenge. The road forward is not yet clear.

Alternative energy invention is needed. Hydrogen power. Solar power for automobiles, trains, buses, and more. How to convert. How to amass. How to store. More questions to research and build solutions. Some are tantalizingly nearby. But scale poses another problem to solve, questions to answer. The energy supply topic is huge and begs innovation on use, creation, engineering, and paying for it. Careers are beckoning for creation to meet this need. Interested? Research universities and corporations await your willingness to try.

STEM Education: listening to music, dancing the night away, and reading a good book are attractive uses of time. So are naps. And eating, cooking, traveling. Gardening as well. But does our society value and pursue science? Technology? Engineering? Mathematics? What about Art? Does that fit within STEM? That would make it STEAM. And yes, Art is part of the educational puzzle, isn’t it?

The topics mentioned before this item demonstrates the demand for STEM education. The following item, too. Science, math, engineering, technology and art are all driven by logic, need, purpose, potential, creativity, and expression of complex thoughts. All are part of the educational process, the business of learning, and then doing.

When we focus instead on the politics of education – religion, creed, morals, agreement/disagreement – we distract ourselves from the heavy business we need to do. STEM or STEAM should do that. Let the power politicians put their heads around that for a change. Stop the foolishness and get back to work. Meaningful work.

Natural Resources – Water: Drought, western states, Colorado River, mountain snows and melts, etc. These topics are interrelated. Dependent really. Heavy weather in winter produces massive snowstorms at higher elevations. Mountains become engulfed. Snowpack melts in spring and summer. Runoff from the melts flow to rivers, natural basins, and then to larger rivers. Colorado River is a main tributary fed by mountain snow melts. That water then feeds the southwestern states culminating in Lake Powell and Lake mead. Along the way hydroelectric plants produce most of the power used by regional states. the water is diverted to canals for crop irrigation and to municipal reservoirs and water systems. Finally, the water arrives in California to provide much of Southern California’s drinking water.

A drought at lower elevations soaks up the water quickly. A drought of snowstorms in winter months causes less snowpack to melt. The cycle of short water supplies is apparent. Conservation is one temporary solution. Desalinization of seawater is a longer-term solution. Wastewater treatment engineering breakthroughs is yet another long-term solution. Of course, population controls in the affected regions are an unpopular potential solution. Market pricing of available water supplies is yet another dampener of water use, and population size.

We have worked hard on this problem. It has been continuous throughout my lifetime. Yet the problem persists. Climate change adds to the pressure whether short- or long-term. It is an unknown. An imponderable. Yet a mission and objective remain on the table. How will this be managed?

May 5, 2022

 

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