Energy and Society Exercises

1 Logic Model

Choose an energy or social transition you are interested in and think about how we could move toward it. What would you do that would eventually produce the desired results, through a series of direct or indirect causes and effects.

  • Draw a potential logic model for this action and consequences.

2 Energy, Climate, Environmental Justice Article

Choose a justice topic of interest to you and find an article from a reputable news source.

  • Link to the article
  • Summarize its main points
  • Demonstrate how the issue in the article is directly or indirectly related to our energy system

3 Energy Policy Article

Choose a recent proposed or enacted policy and find an article on it from a reputable news source.

  • Link to the article
  • What is the name of the policy?
  • What is are the key goals of the policy?
  • How do the concepts we’ve covered relate to this policy?

4 Roy Scranton Essay

Please read the essay by Roy Scranton at this link and answer the following questions.

  • What do you think the author means by civilization is already dead?
  • How do you define the Anthropocene?
  • What is the argument that you think the author is making?

5 Sovacool Energy Justice

Please read the linked chapter on energy justice and energy access.

  • What energy justice issues have you observed in the news or in your community?

6 Energy Policy Review

Please read this linked Policy and Regulation of Energy Transition chapter.

  • Which of the policy types are most interesting to you and why?
  • Which of the policy types do you think could be put into law most easily in the US?

7 Motivated Reasoning and Fact Polarization

Please read the linked article on motivated reasoning research.

  • Where have you seen yourself diverging from scientific evidence or consensus?
  • Where have you seen others diverging?
  • What do you think drives these differences?

8 Examples of Information Polarization

Find an interesting polling result that demonstrates a belief that is polarized in some way (political party, age, etc.).

  • Provide a link to the poll or article.
  • Why do you think this difference in opinion exists?
  • Which of our mechanisms do you think explain this (identity protection, science cognition, implicatory denial, motivated reasoning, biased assimilation)?

9 Energy and Wildfire

Please read the linked article from the Nature journal and answer the following questions.

  • What tensions and disagreements are discussed in the article?
  • What energy markets are proposed?
  • What is the key argument the author is posing?

10 Energy and Wildfire Local Issues

Find an article from a local source discussing a policy or social response to the wildfire risk in California.

  • Provide a link to the article
  • What new policy or behavior is being proposed?
  • What are the difficulties with that new policy or behavior?
    • Are these difficulties techical, economic, or social?

11 Energy and Society Backcasting

Revisit the first paragraph of the the linked chapter from Natural Capitalism to begin visualizing an ideal future human society. If you find other sources also describing a positive energy future please cite it.

  • Your essay should be about 100 words
  • Describe an aspect of an ideal future human society in terms of energy, humans, and the enviroment.
  • Propose a few changes to technology or rules or thinking that we should be making now to move toward that ideal.