- Hi, everyone, I'm Jess, I am a mechanical engineer
currently working at an ecological institute.
I make videos about engineering technology and conservation.
I find that engineers have a very objective
way to solve a problem.
Sometimes this is actually good because that's how engineers
solve problems very efficiently.
But in the case of electricity and power production,
let's call it energy production for the sake of this video,
I find that the engineering approach
is a little too simplistic.
And this objective way at looking at problems
is actually to the engineer's detriment.
Before we start this video, guys,
I did wanna say this video is sponsored by DevMountain,
and if you don't know DevMountain,
they are a coding school in America with several locations.
They teach iOS development, web development,
UX design and a bunch of other things.
And if you take one of their courses,
you get to stay at their housing campus for free.
So, if you are interested,
then please click the link in my description.
Thank you to DevMountain for sponsoring this video.
So, the way we're taught in school is to look at a problem
and go, how much CO2 does this emit?
How much does it cost?
And how much energy do we produce from this?
And because of this approach that we are taught in school,
and the way that we have learned to look at problems,
I've heard engineers would give really dumb solutions
to the energy crisis, for example.
We should just put nuclear everywhere
and run entirely on nuclear.
I do like nuclear, but I think that we should think about
where we put nuclear power plants.
We shouldn't be putting it in places
where there are earthquakes,
or where the climate is super unpredictable.
That's kind of dumb.
Or we should put wind turbines along every coast.
Well putting wind turbines on every coast would destroy
just thousands of kilometers of reefs.
Or another solution that was suggested that's great is
we should put solar panels in the desert
and cover the entire desert with solar panels.
Well first of all, it's like logistically a little difficult
to get that electricity from the desert
to the rest of the world, or let's use Europe as an example.
Second of all, I don't think it's really nice
to go into someone else's country,
and cover their beautiful desert in solar panels
for our own electricity.
And then third of all, we need to think about
where are the raw materials of solar panels coming from?
A lot of the time,
because solar panels are now being subsidized,
and a lot of companies are starting to produce
more solar panels, the material is now tending to come from
Africa and Asia, from places where there's a lot less
strict labor and environmental laws.
So the mining of these raw materials is actually also
really bad for the environment and for people.
So covering the whole planet in solar power
is also not a solution.
Or as you all know, my favorite one that I love to argue is
we should just dam all the rivers.
I think it's so stupid to dam up small rivers
which give you virtually no power,
and destroy the entire ecosystem.
Which, by the way, highly diverse ecosystems
are actually able to adapt better to changing climate.
And are able to continue providing us with several
ecological functions like fish, water purification,
flood control, sediment transport, climate regulations,
CO2 sequestration, air quality regulation.
And all of these functions,
these ecological functions from rivers,
are functions that most of the time
local communities actually rely on.
And a lot of engineers are also quick to suggest,
for example, gas turbines.
And although gas turbines don't directly emit a lot of CO2
into the atmosphere, mining for methane natural gas,
leaks a lot of methane into our atmosphere.
So what I'm trying to say with this video
is that we need to stop pretending like there's one
Holy Grail to energy, electricity, power production.
There isn't, because all the methods
that we're currently using come at a cost.
And I actually challenge you to go speak to people
outside of your field to learn about these costs.
Talk to urban planners, spatial planners,
someone in the mining field, ecologists, and biologists.
I'm learning so much at my new job now, that I had no idea.
I didn't know why biodiversity is important.
I don't have a feeling for that because I'm not a biologist.
I don't understand how important
these functions are to life. (laughs)
But from talking to other people,
you learn more about emissions from mining,
emissions from construction.
I think it will make you, first of all, a better engineer.
But also second of all, a better human being.
And I think it'll help you gain a more holistic view
of engineering problems.
Which I think is the way we should be focusing on problems,
if we want to solve them together. (laughs)
I think also we need to be thinking about
this energy problem from not only the perspective
of how do we meet our energy demand,
but also maybe how do we reduce our energy demand?
How much electricity are you consuming?
How much stuff are you consuming?
Is there a way to switch to a non-consumerism
based society and economy?
Can we change our economy to be focused on
something else and still grow?
It would be really interesting to focus on the problem,
yeah, from different perspectives,
and not just, how do we meet our energy demand,
but how do we reduce it?
So I know this was a short video,
but if you're interested in any of those topics
that I mentioned, nuclear, solar, wind power,
let me know in the comments below,
if you want me to do a dedicated video to any one of those.
And let me know what you think of this video.
If you like it, then please give it a thumbs up.
If you wanna see more, then please subscribe.
Thank you so much for watching this video.