Sustainable Design in Engineering

Course No. 0909.403-01 and 0909.504-03

Autumn 2005

Due Thursday, 8 September 2005, 4:45 PM

Homework Assignment 1
– Read the Handout Articles from Class and provide short answers the following questions:

The End of Cheap Oil – National Geographic – June 2004, pp. 84-109

1. How does US Oil consumption compare with other industrialized countries like Germany and Japan?

2. Through 1970 how much of our (U.S.) consumption did we produce domestically? What % do we import today?

3. What was done in the U.S. the last time we had oil price surges and reduced supply?

4. What should be done today to control rising prices after Katrina? Why?

5. What is the World’s Use of Oil today (2004) in millions of barrels per day?

6. When will the world (and the world outside the Middle East hit peak production using Campbell’s estimates and the USGS?

7. What are the benefits of deep water oil drilling technology? What are the pitfalls?

8. Should the U.S. government require SUVs have mile per gallon standards like the car fleet? Why or Why not?

Global Warning - National Geographic – September 2004, pp. 2-33, 58-75

1. Why do you think the global temperature is rising?

2. What impacts is the warming having on the planet?

3. What is the rate of shrinking sea ice?

4. Can weather be affected by climate change?

5. How can ice cores form the Arctic or Antarctic enable us to understand historic climate variability?

6. What types of impacts has climate change had on historic human cultures?

7. What might some impacts be today?

8. Do you think climate change is for real? Why or Why not?

9. If you said yes to the question above what are your obligations as a citizen of earth?