I've noticed lately a lot of connections between everything that I'm learning. Topics from my chemical engineering class slip into conversation during anthropology, political science issues are examined in economics and so on and so forth.
In all of these links and crossovers, one term keeps coming up again and again: energy.
Energy issues permeate geopolitics, the state of the economy, development, science, business and any other subject you can think of. In each field, energy gets different treatment. To politicians, energy is the key to development, jobs, power — but it is also a security risk. To scientists, it is a contributor to global climate destabilization. To engineers, it is something to be made safer, cleaner and more efficient. To businessmen and financiers, it is an investment. To soldiers, it is the decisive factor in victory or defeat. To humanitarians, it is a way to better the quality of life by purifying water, lighting homes and powering hospitals.
But despite the fact that the term means a huge variety of things to different people, I believe there are several things that make it universally connected.
First, the sources of energy that we currently depend upon most are running out. We are learning that the cheap, abundant fossil fuels that the developed world used to slingshot its way to industrial modernity are both finite and quickly depleting. Moreover, if we keep using this stuff at historically high rates, it's going to cause the earth serious health problems of an unprecedented, unmanageable magnitude. It is becoming readily apparent that our behavior with fossil fuels is contributing to the increasing frequency of extreme weather, rising sea levels and species extinction.
Furthermore, though fossil fuels are the backbone of any developed economy, not every country has stores sufficient to sustain its needs. Thus, much tension and strife has been created over the control of these precious resources, and throughout history, nations have proven that they will resort to almost anything to keep the petroleum and natural gas flowing. This alone should be reason enough to tackle our addiction to the fossil fuel "drug." It will take all kinds of people to handle this multifarious issue with any kind of success. Minds in engineering, policy, economics, science and many other fields will all be required to collaborate to fundamentally change the way that we think about and use energy.
Despite this great need for all kinds of thinking and work, I feel that many students I have talked to feel that the field of energy is confusing, since it is changing so quickly and there is little precedent set on what to learn and how to prepare for a career in the energy industry. For that reason, on March 28, the Tufts Energy Forum, with the help of the Institute for Global Leadership and the Tufts Climate Solutions Coalition, will be hosting a conference entitled "Global Green Infrastructure: Powering the 21st Century" to facilitate discussion and learning about one large topic in energy: the energy infrastructure of the United States and the developing world. Included in the panels will be speakers from all fields, including finance, policy, engineering and academia.
In the middle of the day there will also be a small networking lunch so that Tufts students can meet representatives from local companies involved in the energy industry, and get a sense of what kind of opportunities are available for them after college. I hope that Tufts students will choose to attend a part or all of this conference on Saturday to find out if there are any for them. If you wish to attend the conference, please register at www.tuftsenergyconference.org
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Ekaterina Titova is a sophomore majoring in quantitative economics. She is the social chair of the Tufts Energy Forum.
