Balancing World Energy Needs

Another lecture at the Chemistry Society, this time entitled "Balancing World Engergy Needs: Securing the Future".  

 

I got there at bit later than usual.   Although I left work on time, as I was walking up the escalator at Green Park I suddenly became aware that there was something wrong with my shoe.   On having a look, I discovered that the sole had almsot come adrift and was just held to the shoe at the heel.   It was possible to walk carefully on it, but the slightest mishap would obviusly result in my being shoeless, which was not a good idea.   I was a little bit annoyed, as they were Clarke's, and although I had had them for years, I had hardly ever worn them.

 

There were no shoe shops in Piccadilly, but Clarke's in Regent Street was still open, and I managed to get quite a nice pair of tan sandals in the sale, which I wore for the rest of the evening, with my old shoes stuffed in my bag.

 

However, despite the detour, I was back by 6 o'clock, when the hall opens, and spent a very pleasant half hour chatting over coffee and biscuits to a woman I had met previously at a couple of their lectures.   The people at the Chemictry Society lectures are generally very friendly and chatty and interesting to talk to.

 

As usual there was a good crowd there and almost every seat was taken; however with many people's liking for sitting at the back, I was still able to get a seat near the front where I could see and heal.

 

The lecture was given by a Prof. Karl Rose - an Austrian with perfect English (why do so many Continentals speak such perfect English!).   Director, Policy & Scenarios st the World Energy Council in London, his subject was the challenge of balancing world energy needs to bring about real change for future generations of the planet, and we were given details of various scenarios based on demonstrable trends, which will be published at the World Energy Conference in October.   He emphasised that their three possible scenarios were based on facts; there was no room in their scenarios for scaremongering and theories with nothing to back them up.   

 

He also pointed out that different countries had different objectives, and that the cost of energy varied enormously between different countries, so that what was practical in one might be totally unacceptable in another.  

 

He was also sceptical about global warming, and the effects of CO2 on climate.

 

Altogether an interesting lecture, and I'm sure many people left feeling that they could live very happily with American level energy costs!