Kimberly Luu

Dr. Semih Eser

EGEE101H – 001

26 April 2022

Final Essay

About 16 weeks ago, my classmates and I all came into the classroom without knowing

what would happen for the upcoming semester. As we are approaching the week of finals and

summer, we have sufficient knowledge under our belts to understand energy and the

environment and its effects on the planet. We were able to have thought-provoking and

meaningful discussions, while still respecting each other’s values and views, and this would help

to enhance our understanding of the world around us. In my initial essay, I mentioned how

Professor Eser asked me a question along the lines of, “What is the first thing that comes to mind

if someone were to come up to you and say ‘energy’?” My answer now would differ from back

then, when I spoke about the aspects of scientific and social energy. At the time, I only had bits

of knowledge from my high school physics, biology, and chemistry classes, so I was reminded

about the aspects of kinetic and potential energy, glucose and ATP, and energy from heat. But I

learned from this class that it’s much more than that.

In Energy and Environment, we learn about energy and how it connects to the

environment. There are different forms of energy, and the main ones consist of chemical,

thermal, mechanical, electrical, nuclear, and electromagnetic. The aspects of kinetic and potential

energy that I learned in high school physics are a branch of mechanical energy. The energy such

as heat that I learned in chemistry is a branch of thermal energy, although thermal and heat are
different because thermal is static whereas heat is dynamic. Aside from different types of energy

and energy itself, we learn about its application in real life and the environment through

machines and inventions such as the combustion heat engine. To understand how this mechanism

functioned, we learned about the rules and theories that energy abides by, such as the laws of

thermodynamics. Specifically, we went over the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The

1st law of thermodynamics is responsible for the conversation of energy, describing how you

need the energy to get energy. In addition, we went into the 2nd law of thermodynamics which

explains how energy is lost in the process of being used – we need to waste energy to get usable

energy.

As we start transitioning into talking about how energy is applied to the environment, we

had to discuss the abstract aspects such as efficiency and sufficiency. While sufficiency is not a

topic that we went into in class, it is an aspect that connects energy and the environment.

However, we did go into efficiency and what that means. Maximum efficiency is something that

is not easily achievable and even if we were to work at our most efficient point, we would still be

losing a little under a quarter of the efficiency during the process. This connects energy to the

environment as it shows how there are trade-offs to environmental solutions. With each

environmental solution, there would always be some sort of indirect consequence or negative

externality because we must store the pollution somewhere. While we might be able to take the

carbon out of the atmosphere, it would be stored underground or in soil and other places through

other methods.

From my goals in my initial essay, I would say that I’ve been able to achieve them.

Throughout this class, I have been wanting to further my understanding and vocabulary about the

environment and climate change and I have been able to do just that. Through guest speakers and
discussions in class, I have learned about other perspectives on climate change. For example, my

classmates and Dr. Esther Obonyo were able to teach me about COP26 and what kind of

organization they were. Overall, I was able to experience a fulfilling semester like I hoped I

would.