A panel headed by 3 experts, Shanjun Li, Greg Poe, and David Wolfe, enlightened the audience on how the environment is impacted by human activity and possible ways to preserve the environment, e.g., nuclear energy.

One important topic discussed was fracking, which is injecting liquid at high pressures underground to break shale and release gas. It is a necessary practice to satisfy our growing energy needs but transporting natural gas is actually inefficient because it escapes before it can be used, making the destruction of the environment essentially wasteful.

Another topic discussed was nuclear energy. An important point was made in the panel about how nuclear energy should be looked at as a system. It is not just a matter of harvest nuclear energy; instead, it also involves harvesting the materials, disposal of the harmful waste and more. Thus, certain countries are actually more capable implement nuclear energy as a valid and important source of energy, e.g., France and China. China in particular have been developing fourth generation nuclear reactors that would use nuclear waste as a way to harvest nuclear energy. Unfortunately, accidents like the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster hinder such progress. The United States probably won’t be implementing nuclear power into their infrastructure due to public opinion and it would be up to the current generation to change that opinion to continually develop and change nuclear power into a valid source of alternative energy; fracking and coal can sustain us only for so long. The eyes will be countries like France and China and see if their increasing reliance on nuclear power will prove to be safe and fruitful.

It is easy to be isolated in a bubble when going through your daily lives but we must be cognizant of the fact that our actions often have an adverse effect on the environment. It is imperative that we take action in some form, whether it be minor or major, to preserve our environment.