Earthday 2008 arrives in just a few days. I’ve been thinking and reading about Earthday, and about how our dependence of fossil fuels impacts all of us all of the time. From buying groceries, to going to work, to enjoying leisure activities. Our dependence on coal and oil as our primary source of energy has led to a critical problem that we face today.

About a year ago I read and wrote about James Lovelock’s book, The Revenge of GAIA: Earth’s Climatic Crisis & The Fate of Humanity. You are probably familiar with Lovelock’s and Lynn Margolis’ (co-discoverer of the GAIA hypothesis) idea that “the Earth behaves as a single, self-regulating system, comprised of physical, chemical, biological and human components. The interactions and feedbacks between component parts are complex and exhibit multi-scale termporal and spatial variability” (Lovelock, The Revenge of GAIA, p. xvi).

In his book, Lovelock discusses the sources of energy that are available to us, and raises the issue that humans need to seriously consider sources of energy that are being used to derive the energy from various sources. He points out that chemically burning carbon provides at best about 9 kilowatt hours per kilogram of coal or other source of carbon. Nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms gives us several million times as much, and the energy from splitting uranium is even greater. He then outlines what we might consider Earth’s portfolio of energy sources, and discusses how this energy source has evolved among human societies.

Our energy portfolio includes: Fossil Fuels–coal and oil, natural gas; Hydrogen; Renewables–wind power, wave & tidal energy, hydro-electricity, bio fuels, solar energy; Nuclear Energy–fusion energy, fission energy.

Lovelock suggests that nuclear energy should be relied more than it is, and that reality of the cold war, nuclear proliferation, Chernobyl (and to a lesser extent, Three Mile Island), have created a mind set that nuclear energy of any sort is to be feared. Many of us have grown up in the “nuclear age” or “atomic age” and have come to see nuclear energy and nuclear power plants has harmful and dangerous to the environment. I remember taking one of my graduate classes (a course in Environmental Education) to see The China Syndrome, a film about a reporter and cameraman who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant.

Lovelock is not the only one to weigh in and see nuclear energy as important to our energy policy. Patrick Moore, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace, in a Washington Post article, makes the case for nuclear energy. As does Lovelock, Moore does not minimize the threat posed by nuclear material getting into the wrong hands.

You might also want to watch the video in which Stewart Brand, author of the Whole Earth Catalog addresses the 2006 Nuclear Energy Assembly.

Stewart Brand addressing the Nuclear Energy Assembly

One of the reviews that I read of Lovelock’s book that I think is pertinent is how Lovelock’s ideas (according to the reviewer) are consistent with Native American or Indigenous science. Energy policy needs to take into consideration Indigenous science, and the GAIA hypothesis as depicted by Lovelock.

As science educators, what views do we hold on an Earthday energy policy? This is a rich area for investigation and study in any of our science classes. As teachers we have an opportunity to help students inform themselves of the way we have used energy, how energy policy is developed, and what policy recommendations should be reviewed and discussed at the government level. And it does not have to be at the national level. More has been done at the local level—the level of cities and towns—than at the national level in many areas of energy policy. A case in point is the US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection plan that puts to shame what is happening in the US Congress and Administration.

What steps do you think teachers might take in involving students in studies and investigations that might be relevant to them?