I was fortunate this past week to attend the speech that President Barack Obama gave here at Penn State University. Thank you so much to the Presidential Leadership Academy for providing me with this opportunity.
The topic of the speech was innovations in energy. As many of my peers have stated in their blogs this week, President Obama announced the Better Buildings Initiative that would support companies by providing them with the money upfront to build energy efficient buildings. This is to help reduce the 40% of energy that buildings use to function. There will be a clean energy campus at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where these innovations can be developed to help find ways were buildings can be even more efficient and maybe even self-sufficient.
The ideas of the speech were wonderful, and I think I'm still experiencing the shock of actually being there in the presence of the President of the United States. But looking back on this speech and rereading the transcripts, I wonder if this was the right audience to be giving this speech. Personally, as a college student living in the dorms, I have no idea how much energy I use. I try to be conscience of what I leave turned on and make sure to unplug items that are not being used. But I honestly have no idea how much energy I'm using. And for students whose rent covers the cost of utilities, do they truly appreciate how much energy they use on a daily basis?
I wonder if instead of creating more and more innovations, we go back a little, revert to the days when we didn't have as many tech toys or electronics in our life. I remember when my 7th grade history teacher taught us that all we do all day is push buttons. No, not the emotional buttons, but physical buttons. Buttons to turn on the lights and start the car, cook breakfast and watch the news, listen to music and do homework on the computer. Our life revolves around technology and moving forward. But our planet is not ready to handle the innovations we keep making in other fields. Just like with the innovations we've made with food (genetically modified foods, meat factories, corn fed chickens and cows)--we seem to be doing more harm than good (the food we eat is less nutritional because we are mass producing are food instead of growing our food). There is a huge kick for organic food--but isn't organic food just food without all the innovations we've added over the years? What if there was a movement for organic energy--reverting back to the days when our lives did not depend on technology so much. I know it seems like a long shot, as I am one of those people who lives with my phone in my hand, but I wonder what would happen if we turned our machines off for a day. How much energy would we save then?
The topic of the speech was innovations in energy. As many of my peers have stated in their blogs this week, President Obama announced the Better Buildings Initiative that would support companies by providing them with the money upfront to build energy efficient buildings. This is to help reduce the 40% of energy that buildings use to function. There will be a clean energy campus at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where these innovations can be developed to help find ways were buildings can be even more efficient and maybe even self-sufficient.
The ideas of the speech were wonderful, and I think I'm still experiencing the shock of actually being there in the presence of the President of the United States. But looking back on this speech and rereading the transcripts, I wonder if this was the right audience to be giving this speech. Personally, as a college student living in the dorms, I have no idea how much energy I use. I try to be conscience of what I leave turned on and make sure to unplug items that are not being used. But I honestly have no idea how much energy I'm using. And for students whose rent covers the cost of utilities, do they truly appreciate how much energy they use on a daily basis?
I wonder if instead of creating more and more innovations, we go back a little, revert to the days when we didn't have as many tech toys or electronics in our life. I remember when my 7th grade history teacher taught us that all we do all day is push buttons. No, not the emotional buttons, but physical buttons. Buttons to turn on the lights and start the car, cook breakfast and watch the news, listen to music and do homework on the computer. Our life revolves around technology and moving forward. But our planet is not ready to handle the innovations we keep making in other fields. Just like with the innovations we've made with food (genetically modified foods, meat factories, corn fed chickens and cows)--we seem to be doing more harm than good (the food we eat is less nutritional because we are mass producing are food instead of growing our food). There is a huge kick for organic food--but isn't organic food just food without all the innovations we've added over the years? What if there was a movement for organic energy--reverting back to the days when our lives did not depend on technology so much. I know it seems like a long shot, as I am one of those people who lives with my phone in my hand, but I wonder what would happen if we turned our machines off for a day. How much energy would we save then?
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