Febrina leads our investigation:
How can eco-thinking principles be integrated into the development and implementation of renewable energy technologies to enhance sustainability and minimize ecological impact?
Thoughts by Andrius
I am thinking that the notion of energy as a commodity is very recent in human history. I think of our world just a few hundred years ago when we all lived without electricity, without oil and gas and coal. Some questions arise:
A) What were the effects, both positive and negative, of humans on nature and climate? Human civilizations have, in some cases, created deserts and wastelands from poor agricultural practices. In other cases, humans have enriched the local environment so that, as climate has changed over thousands of years, species from colder and warmer zones have comingled, for example, here in Lithuania, because farmers break up the environment into small fields, small forests, with more edge zones. I also wonder what the effect of burning wood was on the climate, for example, in England and Europe. I wonder about the extinctions that humans have caused around the world in earlier times, or how they have become the top predator. It is good to have a "baseline" understanding of the traditional role of humans in natural ecosystems.
B) How did energy become a commodity or utility? What is the logic behind this industry?
C) What has been the effect on the environment? How are those effects, positive or negative, related to the underlying logic or energy use?
D) What does "renewable energy" mean in this context? What are the tradeoffs, the positive and negative aspects, of various forms of energy?
E) How are individuals and institutions involved in related decision making?
F) What could influence those individuals or institutions?
G) What is the overall moral theory of the ecological realities and the related decision making?
H) In particular, what is the role of God and of human beings?
Febrina, these are the kinds of questions that come to my mind. I wonder what questions you are investigating or want to investigate?