WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE DESIGN?

Sustainable design is the art of designing physical objects to comply
with the principles of economic, social and ecological sustainability.
This can range from the small scale of designing objects for everyday
use through to the large scale designing of buildings, cities and the
earth's physical surface. Examples on small scale are: Detergents,
newspapers and other disposable items that can be designed to
self-destruct or simply rot in the presence of air water and common soil
organisms. Or on a larger scale, urban and rural planning can be
designed with the main criterion being sustainability when laying out
roads, streets, buildings and other components of the built environment.
By doing this common problem such as the stagnation of streams,
mudslides, massive soil erosion, flooding and pollution will be
minimized, keeping the natural environment intact. Vehicles and
appliances can be designed in such a way that it is easily repaired or
disassembled (making recycling easier) In construction the use of
recyclable materials such as steel, aluminium, glass and renewable
materials such as wood from natural feed stocks should be practiced.
Sustainability and sustainable design goes hand in hand and is one of
the most important things to look into if we are to preserve our
resources for future generations.

Ilse Kotzee
Student # 2456349
2456349@uwc.ac.za

WHAT IS GREEN POWER AND IS IT VIABLE IN CAPE TOWN?

Green power is electricity generated from renewable energy sources like
solar energy, wind power, geothermal biomass and hydroelectricity. By
using green power we can shift away from our dependence on the burning
of fossil fuels to produce electricity. Wind power has created a lot of
interest in recent years and is one of the world's fastest growing
energy technologies. Cape Town would be ideal to harness this power as
in winter it gets very windy. The problem is that the turbines is
extensive in size and can be about 70 cm across. Wind farms are also
not very pleasing to the eye. A relatively low amount of power is
generated by the turbines. If by 2010 one thousand five hundred
turbines are built it would account for 25% of the energy generated
through wind. Tidal and wave energy- Wave energy can be used to turn a
generator or turbine and tides can be used to fill an electric dam. The
Western Cape has an extensive coast line which can be used for these
forms of power generation. Unfortunately there are very few sites with
great enough difference between low and high tides to make harnessing
tidal power possible Solar energy is the energy from the sun that is
harnessed in solar cells which are also called photo-voltaic cells.
This can be used to meet specific energy needs such as heating a
house's water or grouped together in large banks. Cape Town
receives a generous amount of sunshine right throughout the year so it
can be implemented. Although as with wind, it depends on the weather
conditions battery technology may need to be used to make it reliable.
This makes it expensive and it will need a high level of subsidy to make
it viable. Bio-mass/crop fuel- This is fast growing plants like willow
or elephant grass that is harvested and turned into wood chips which is
then burnt in power stations. It is a smart source of energy which is
easy, quick and cheap to develop. The increased biomass can also rescue
the rural community. In a combined heat and power plant as well as
turning a turbine in the same way as fossil fuels, the heat created,
which is normally discarded as a worthless by product, could be used to
provide steam for industrial processes or hot water which can greatly
increase energy efficiency. Huge amounts of crops would however need to
be grown in order to make use of biomass worth while.
Green fuel is still a growing concept and only time will tell whether
it can replace the use of fossil fuels.

Ilse Kotzee
Student # 2456349
2456349@uwc.ac.za

MOST PEOPLE ARE OVERWHELMED BY THE PROSPECT OF LIVING SUSTAINABLY, HOW CAN THEY MAKE A START?

The first thing you should do is to look around you. What can you see
that you can improve around the house or in your work place? Are there
opportunities for saving energy, resources, raw material and reducing
waste? Most people think that they have to make big changes that would
impede their quality of life, but you can start by:
1)Installing energy efficient lighting which has day light or
movement sensors.
2)Installing water saving devices and water recovery
systems.
3)Regularly checking for leaks in your taps, pipes,
hoses and tanks and fixing them immediately
4)Reducing the use of household chemicals, by buying
less, using less and looking for safer alternatives.
5)Using non toxic ways to repel pests in your garden.
6)Not pouring unwanted chemicals and oils into drains,
toilets or where they may end up in our waterways.
7)Disposing of old cellphones and their batteries
through a recycling program.
8)Making use of car pooling to reduce emissions and
congestion.
9)Taking public transport, walking or cycling.
10)Minimizing car emissions by buying a fuel efficient
car, removing unnecessary weight, keeping the tyres pumped and driving
smoothly
11)Planting more trees, or creating a vegetable garden,
more plants means cleaner air and a reduced need to buy pre packaged
food.
12)Separating your household waste, and recycling
newspaper, bottles, cans and plastics and using food waste to make your
own compost heap.
These are just a few examples I am sure you can find many other ways to
adjust your lifestyle, preserving the environment is our responsibility
and we should start today.

Ilse Kotzee
Student # 2456349
2456349@uwc.ac.za

HOW CAN GLOBAL WARMING AND POLLUTION BE STOPPED OR REDUCED:

Making sure that farmers use wind turbines due to the fact that wind
turbines are now 20 times more effective than they were before can
reduce fossil fuels. To make sure that all new coal based power plant
use coal gasification and carbon recovery technologies. All cattle
should be vaccinated for the reduction of methane output. The use of
solar cookers will also reduce the amount of pollution and global
warming. The solar cookers will be able to boil water, which will be
capable of reducing water pollution, and this will therefore reduce our
countries illnesses. I think that maybe the rich should start to help
the poor and this will also be a form to help us with our pollution.

HOW CAN OUR TRANSPORT SUPPLY BE IMPROVED?

The World Bank plus all its other sources of finance research have to
develop a plan for practical and cost effective alternative fuels, fuel
cells for motorcars. They will have to join or even collaborate with the
fossil fuel industries so that they can start to provide an overall
systematic solution than to compete against the transformation of energy
use. The oil reserves are soon heading for disaster the reason for this
is because we still have to drill for the oil instead of having to find
ways to improve our transport system by making cars, which are more
affordable.
By trying to develop cars, which will run on hydrogen instead of oil.
By making the cost of transportation even cheaper. Maybe we should find
other means of transport instead of using trucks, cars, etc, maybe we
should go back to the past were people used a horse and a cart which
took lots of time but the companies did receive there goodies. This will
be one way to reduce our oil and fossil fuel use sage. This will help
reduce our pollution into the atmosphere, soils, oxygen and the water
pollution we are faced with.

WHAT CAN WE AS INDIVIDUALS DO TO SUSTAIN OUR PLANET?

We as individuals need to reduce pollution and global warming. They only
way to reduce global warming and pollution is by reducing the amount of
fossil fuels being used. We will also have to improve our water supply
because many of our countries illnesses come from our polluted waters.
Wind turbines are capable of reducing our high electric use; it will
help to reduce global warming and pollution. The water could either be
boiled or may either be pasteurised using solar cookers.
Wind turbines can replace the use of fossil fuels. Wave energy
generators can be used for coastal regions. By planting trees within our
countries, cities and communities will also help to reduce pollution and
global warming, it will help increase our oxygen and improve our soils.
In cars we can try using non-polluting or less polluting fuels like
hydrogen fuels, compressed natural gas and hybrid gas electric. To
reduce the amounts of methane within our atmosphere, we need to find a
way to store electricity that is not used during about 10pm until about
6am this will also help to reduce our energy, electric sources. We need
to find a way to reduce our oil reserves.

How will the scarcity of oil and gas affect food production?

Food production is going to be an huge problem. As industrial
agriculture fails due to a shortage of oil- and gas-based inputs, we
will have to grow more of our food closer to where we live, and do it on
a smaller scale, like subsistence farmers. Agriculture may be the core
of the economy in the mid-twenty-first century, not information, not
state-of-the-art and not "services" like real estate sales. Farming.
This is no doubt a startling, radical idea, and it raises extremely
difficult questions about the reallocation of land and the nature of
work. The relentless subdividing of land in the late twentieth century
has destroyed the contiguity and integrity of the rural landscape in
most places. Food production will necessarily be much more physical and
manual than it has been for decades. We can anticipate the re-birth of a
native-born farm-laboring class. These masses of disentitled people may
enter into social relations with those who own land in exchange for food
and physical security. But their sense of grievance will remain fresh,
and if mistreated they may just claim that land.

WYNN HAUPT
2219585@uwc.ac.za

Would it be possible for hydrogen to replace the use of oil and gas?

The wide "hydrogen economy" is a particularly cruel hoax .It would not
be possible to replace the automobile and truck fleet with vehicles that
operate on fuel cells. Firstly, the current generation of fuel cells is
largely intended to run on hydrogen obtained from natural gas. The other
way to get hydrogen in the quantities wished for would be electrolysis
of water using power from hundreds of nuclear plants. Apart from the dim
prospect of building that many nuclear plants soon enough, there are
also many severe problems with hydrogen's nature as an element that
present forbidding obstacles to be use as a replacement for oil and gas,
especially in storage and transport.

WYNN HAUPT
2219585@uwc.ac.za

What is meant by *global oil-production peak*?

The term "global oil-production peak" means that a turning point will
come when the world produces the most oil it will ever produce in a
given year and, after that, yearly production will inevitably decline.
Graphically it can usually be represented in a bell shaped curve. The
peak is the top of the curve, meaning half the world's oil will be left.
That seems like a lot of oil, and it is, but it's the half that is much
more difficult to extract, far more costly to acquire, of much poorer
quality. A substantial quantity of it will never be extracted.

WYNN HAUPT
2219585@uwc.ac.za

WHAT ROLE DOES ECONOMICS PLAY IN ENERGY RESOURCE USE?

According to most analysts the key to making a move to more sustainable
energy resources and societies, is not technology but economics and
politics.
Analysts feel that governments can use 3 basic economic and political
strategies to help dampen the short-term and long-term use of a
particular energy resource by:

1. Allowing all energy resources to compete in a free market
without any interference from the government.
2. Trying to keep energy prices artificially low to encourage the
use of selected energy resources.
3. Keeping energy prices artificially high to discourage the use of
a particular resource.

Many economists favour increasing taxes on fossil fuels as a way to
reduce air and water pollution and also to slow down global warming.

Michelle Baatjies

Third year BCB student

Email 2431471@uwc.ac.za

CAN SOLAR ENERGY BE USED TO PROVIDE HEAT AND ELECTRICITY?

Some people feel that solar energy can be used to produce heat and
electricity by making use of direct solar energy or indirect solar
energy such as windmills
Firstly we will save some money by making use of windmills; it will
also reduce air pollution, the carbon dioxide emissions would be greatly
reduced, the dependence on imported oil could be reduced and solar
energy can least as long as coal and nuclear plants.

In order to make use of solar energy we need solar cells and window
glass systems. When these solar cells are produced it in turn creates
toxic chemicals. One would also need back up systems at night and during
cloudy and rainy days.

Michelle Baatjies

Third year BCB student

Email 2431471@uwc.ac.za

WHAT IS GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AND IS IT RENEWABLE?

INTRODUCTION

The center of the Earth is around 6000 degrees Celsius - hot enough to melt rock. Even a few kilometers down, the temperature can be over 250 degrees Celsius.

In general, the temperature rises one degree Celsius for every 36 meters you go down. In volcanic areas, molten rock can be very close to the surface. Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating.

The name "geothermal" comes from two Greek words: "geo" means "Earth" and "thermal" means "heat". Geothermal energy is renewable. The energy keeps on coming, as long as we don't pump too much cold water down and cool the rocks too much.

HOW IT WORKS

Geothermal energy is an important resource in volcanically active places such as Iceland and New Zealand. How useful it is depends on how hot the water gets. This depends on how hot the rocks were to start with, and how much water we pump down to them. Water is pumped down an "injection well", filters through the cracks in the rocks in the hot region, and comes back up the "recovery well" under pressure. It "flashes" into steam when it reaches the surface.

The steam may be used to drive a turbogenerator, or passed through a heat exchanger to heat water to warm houses. A town in Iceland is heated this way.

The steam must be purified before it is used to drive a turbine.

ADVANTAGES

Geothermal energy does not produce any pollution, and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect.

The power stations do not take up much room, so there is not much impact on the environment.

No fuel is needed.

Once you've built a geothermal power station, the energy is almost free.
It may need a little energy to run a pump, but this can be taken from the energy being generated.

DISADVANTAGES

The big problem is that there are not many places where you can build a geothermal power station.
You need hot rocks of a suitable type, at a depth where we can drill down to them.
The type of rock above is also important, it must be of a type that we can easily drill through.

Sometimes a geothermal site may "run out of steam", perhaps for decades.

Hazardous gases and minerals may come up from underground, and can be difficult to safely dispose of.

Geothermal energy is renewable.
The energy keeps on coming, as long as we don't pump too much cold water down and cool the rocks too much.

REFERENCES

http://www.geothermalhawaii.com/

http://www.geothermal.marin.org/GEOpresentation/sld037.htm

http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/geothermal.htm

Anzio Abels
Biodiversity & Conservation Biology Department
University of the Western Cape
2429667@uwc.ac.za

WHAT IS BIOFUEL AND HOW USEFUL IS IT?

Biofuel is a gas or liquid, such as ethyl alcohol that is made from
plant material (biomass). Most biomass is burned directly for heating,
cooking and industrial processes or indirectly to drive turbines and
produce electricity. Burning wood and manure for heating and cooking
supplies about 11% of the world's energy and about 30% of the energy
used in developing countries.

Advantages foe using biofuels is that there is a large potential supply
and that its' costs are moderate, but if harvested unsustainably it
can become nonrenewable. Other disadvantage of using biofuel is that
there may be soil erosion, water pollution and a loss of wildlife
habitat. Some analysts feels that the production of biofuel on a large
scale is not an alternative to the current use of oil and I not even an
advisable option to cover a significant fraction of it.

Michelle Baatjies

Third year BCB student

Email 2431471@uwc.ac.za

WHAT IS GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AND IS IT RENEWABLE?

INTRODUCTION

The center of the Earth is around 6000 degrees Celsius - hot enough to melt rock. Even a few kilometers down, the temperature can be over 250 degrees Celsius.

In general, the temperature rises one degree Celsius for every 36 meters you go down. In volcanic areas, molten rock can be very close to the surface. Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating.

The name "geothermal" comes from two Greek words: "geo" means "Earth" and "thermal" means "heat". Geothermal energy is renewable. The energy keeps on coming, as long as we don't pump too much cold water down and cool the rocks too much.

HOW IT WORKS

Geothermal energy is an important resource in volcanically active places such as Iceland and New Zealand. How useful it is depends on how hot the water gets. This depends on how hot the rocks were to start with, and how much water we pump down to them. Water is pumped down an "injection well", filters through the cracks in the rocks in the hot region, and comes back up the "recovery well" under pressure. It "flashes" into steam when it reaches the surface.

The steam may be used to drive a turbogenerator, or passed through a heat exchanger to heat water to warm houses. A town in Iceland is heated this way.

The steam must be purified before it is used to drive a turbine.

ADVANTAGES

Geothermal energy does not produce any pollution, and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect.

The power stations do not take up much room, so there is not much impact on the environment.

No fuel is needed.

Once you've built a geothermal power station, the energy is almost free.
It may need a little energy to run a pump, but this can be taken from the energy being generated.

DISADVANTAGES

The big problem is that there are not many places where you can build a geothermal power station.
You need hot rocks of a suitable type, at a depth where we can drill down to them.
The type of rock above is also important, it must be of a type that we can easily drill through.

Sometimes a geothermal site may "run out of steam", perhaps for decades.

Hazardous gases and minerals may come up from underground, and can be difficult to safely dispose of.

Geothermal energy is renewable.
The energy keeps on coming, as long as we don't pump too much cold water down and cool the rocks too much.

REFERENCES

http://www.geothermalhawaii.com/

http://www.geothermal.marin.org/GEOpresentation/sld037.htm

http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/geothermal.htm

Anzio Abels
Biodiversity & Conservation Biology Department
University of the Western Cape
2429667@uwc.ac.za

WHAT IS GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AND IS IT RENEWABLE?

INTRODUCTION

The center of the Earth is around 6000 degrees Celsius - hot enough to melt rock. Even a few kilometers down, the temperature can be over 250 degrees Celsius.

In general, the temperature rises one degree Celsius for every 36 meters you go down. In volcanic areas, molten rock can be very close to the surface. Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating.

The name "geothermal" comes from two Greek words: "geo" means "Earth" and "thermal" means "heat". Geothermal energy is renewable. The energy keeps on coming, as long as we don't pump too much cold water down and cool the rocks too much.

HOW IT WORKS

Geothermal energy is an important resource in volcanically active places such as Iceland and New Zealand. How useful it is depends on how hot the water gets. This depends on how hot the rocks were to start with, and how much water we pump down to them. Water is pumped down an "injection well", filters through the cracks in the rocks in the hot region, and comes back up the "recovery well" under pressure. It "flashes" into steam when it reaches the surface.

The steam may be used to drive a turbogenerator, or passed through a heat exchanger to heat water to warm houses. A town in Iceland is heated this way.

The steam must be purified before it is used to drive a turbine.

ADVANTAGES

Geothermal energy does not produce any pollution, and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect.

The power stations do not take up much room, so there is not much impact on the environment.

No fuel is needed.

Once you've built a geothermal power station, the energy is almost free.
It may need a little energy to run a pump, but this can be taken from the energy being generated.

DISADVANTAGES

The big problem is that there are not many places where you can build a geothermal power station.
You need hot rocks of a suitable type, at a depth where we can drill down to them.
The type of rock above is also important, it must be of a type that we can easily drill through.

Sometimes a geothermal site may "run out of steam", perhaps for decades.

Hazardous gases and minerals may come up from underground, and can be difficult to safely dispose of.

Geothermal energy is renewable.
The energy keeps on coming, as long as we don't pump too much cold water down and cool the rocks too much.

REFERENCES

http://www.geothermalhawaii.com/

http://www.geothermal.marin.org/GEOpresentation/sld037.htm

http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/geothermal.htm

Anzio Abels
Biodiversity & Conservation Biology Department
University of the Western Cape
2429667@uwc.ac.za

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT WE CAN GO INTO A "DARK AGE"?

At the rate we are consuming energy and depleting our natural resources,
this seems unavoidable. To prevent or just slow the process down, we
need to downscale and rescale everything we do and the way we do it.
Solar and wind technology could be used to generate some electricity but
probable at a very local and small scale. Even hydro-electricity could
be used; the downside to it all is that all these methods need fuel to
start off with and to maintain. Natural gas production all over the
world is declining at a steady rate. Ignorance by the public and our
leaders aggregate matters even further. So prepare yourself, what Cape
Town is going through at the moment will be nothing compared to the
"Dark Age" we will most definitely enter in the near future.

Eugene Marinus
2357422@uwc.ac.za

FOOD PRODUCTION AND FUEL SHORTAGE GOES HAND IN HAND: WILL A CITY LIKE CAPE TOWN BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN ITSELF?

With the current rate at which Cape Town are growing, this might be an
impossible task. Although the city has a good infrastructure, with
Philippi, an agricultural area not far from the city center, it will
still not be able to reach the demand. Even if the city had less than
half the residence it has at the moment, there are other factors that
make Philippi unproductive. It is situated on the Cape Flats aquifer and
over the years, with fertilization and herbicides it has contaminated
most of the ground water. Most of the farmers farm on a relatively small
scale. Machinery to plough and maintain these crops uses a lot of fuel.
If the city was much smaller and the groundwater was not so badly
contaminated this would have been ideal. Transport cost would have been
minimal and would have been enough water to get good crops. Cape Town
would not be able to stand on its own.

Eugene Marinus
2357422@uwc.ac.za