Your audience knows things. They might have heard that fossil fuels are running out. They might also have heard major oil companies telling us that fossil fuel reserves will not run out. Some will know that the California Air Resources Board has suggested air quality standards they believe we need to target. Your audience may know that the EPA proposed rules in 2014 to limit greenhouse gasses, but that our government proposed rapidly rolling back environmental rules in 2017. Your audience might know that there are many types of air pollutants, or they may simply think of pollution as a homogenous and general thing. Your Symposium attendees may have heard that fracking is opening new opportunities for low cost energy or they may believe that fracking is an environmental disaster and can even cause or exacerbate earthquakes. Some of your audience may believe that clean coal really is clean, and some may think it isn’t, and still others may just be confused about how exactly clean coal is a change from traditional coal extraction. Your attendees might know that air pollution is not only a crisis in places like China and India, but has become dangerous in large parts of the U.S.A. They probably have heard that carbon emissions contribute to global warming and that particulate matter impacts air quality, but they may not be aware that nitrogen and other factors also have an effect. In short, you can assume that your audience has heard a lot of things, but that most likely your audience does not have all of the facts separated from the rumors and does not know the details of the circumstances that surround both the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and the impact that our ever expanding use of fossil fuels is having.

Your esteemed group is charged with presenting a 20-minute Symposium on Fossil Fuels and Air Pollution that delves into current state and future projections of our use of Fossil Fuels and the issues that surround that use and those projections. 

Your goals are:

1. To make sure your audience fully understands the current state of the use of fossil fuels in the world and in the USA. How much of each of the three main fossil fuels are being used, what are they being used for, and what impact is that having?

2. What are current projections for the continued use of fossil fuels, how are those projections changing, and what impact might that have? Will near term technological innovations in fuel use make a difference?

3. As it relates to air pollution specifically, what are the major types of air pollution, their sources and their impacts? How do these relate to our use of fossil fuels?

4. What major political initiatives are now or might soon impact these situations? How?

5. To give your audience a “wrap up” discussion that draws some conclusions about what we should and shouldn’t expect as it relates to the use of fossil fuels and the impact of that use in the future. 

Finally, you should be aware that the other Symposium is addressing the Future of Energy and that an entirely separate Forum will be focusing on the details of Climate Change. The Future of Energy Symposium will delve into the issues and opportunities surrounding four main technologies that provide alternatives to fossil fuels, as well as a few more speculative or specialized technologies.

• The four main technologies that Symposium will address are: Wind Power, Solar Power, Nuclear Power (Fission) and Hydroelectric Power.

• The more speculative technologies they may touch on include Tidal Power and Geothermal Power.

You may need to make comparisons to these technologies in your Symposium, but you do not need to try to be the primary source of information on those issues. Similarly, you will likely need to mention the importance of our use of energy from fossil fuels in contributing to Climate Change, but you do not need to try to be a primary source of information on Climate Change itself.

Your Symposium should answer the following questions for fossil fuels as a whole, as well as for each of oil, natural gas and coal individually:

• How much of world’s and USA’s energy is currently coming from this source?

• What are the main uses of this type of energy? Consider things like transportation, electrical power generation, industrial use, and other uses.

• Which countries around the world stand out as the primary users of these energy sources? What countries, if any, have meaningfully different profiles from the rest of the world around how they use these energy sources (e.g. does France use fossil fuels differently because it has so much nuclear power? How about Spain with it’s prevalent use of Wind energy?)?

• How do the main technologies for this energy alternative work? How is the fuel or energy source converted to usable energy power? What limitations does this impose on their use (e.g. why would it be prohibitively difficult to use natural gas for traditional transportation)?

• What byproducts or waste is produced? How do these byproducts differ by technology (e.g. do coal and natural gas produce the same environmental impacts when they are burned)?

• What are the main risks and environmental issues with this technology?  Consider not only the process of using the technology itself to generate usable energy, but, where appropriate, also any implications of the processes required to procure (drill, mine, etc…) and transport fuel (truck, pipe, ship, …). Are there other issues with transporting and disposing of waste?

• What are the main advantages of this technology?  Are there any other disadvantages not already covered?

• Are there any technology changes currently happening or on the near term horizon that will change any of the key issues you’ve highlighted? For example, will electric or hybrid vehicles make a difference? Are there new mining or drilling techniques that might matter? Are pipelines getting any safer?

As it relates to Air Pollution, your Symposium can overview any relevant major issues, but should focus primarily on the issues that relate to fossil fuel use. Key questions include:

• What is air pollution? What are the main types of air pollution? For example, carbon, nitrogen, ozone, and particulate matter are different. What are these? Are their others?

• What sources contribute to each of these types of air pollution? How much comes from fossil fuels vs. other sources? What types and specific uses of fossil fuels are contributing and how much?

• What impact does each type of air pollution have? Do some of them impact the breathability of air for humans and animals more than others? How about climate change? UV protection? Other things?

• What impacts are government actions and international agreements having on the types of air pollution you’ve identified? For example, do clean air laws in California make a difference? Do they exist elsewhere? What about things like the Paris Accord? What parts of air pollution might they impact (or not)? What is carbon trading? Does it help?

Since your Symposium is strictly limited to twenty minutes, which includes your question and answer session, you will need to focus on the questions that are most important and to organize your symposium to efficiently provide information. Once you have researched all of these questions, you should be able to discern which issues deserve the most emphasis in your team’s presentations.

Option 1: By Fuel Source

• Dr. O. Verve Yu, Symposium host and a renown expert on the big picture related to fossil fuel and air pollution related issues.

• Prof. S. Tripp Mine, a leading expert on Coal mining, use and impacts, from Mountain Top University

• Dr. X. Plo Shun, a specialist in Natural Gas extraction, transportation and use from the U.S. Department of Energy

• Crew Doil, CEO of a major consulting firm that specializes in issues related to the extraction, transportation, refining, and uses of Oil.

• Prof. F. Ace Masck, Head of Air Pollution Assessment at BalancedAnalysis Inc., a large consulting firm that prides itself on its ability analyze issues based on facts in an unbiased way.

• Dr. Qi Points, Symposium Coordinator and Chairperson, well positioned to offer key conclusions.

Option 2: By Process Stage

• Dr. Frey M. Werk, Symposium host and a renown expert on the big picture related to fossil fuel and air pollution related issues.

• Prof. X. Trac Shun, a leading expert on drilling, mining, fracking and other methods used to get fossil fuels from the earth as well as on shipping, pipelines, trucking and other methods used to transport fossil fuels, from Deep Sea University

• Dr. Hevi Krude, a specialist in refining, use, and safety of fossil fuels, including the technologies used to convert them to usable energy, from the U.S. Department of Energy

• Imp Ackt, CEO of FreshAir Inc., a non-profit environmental firm that specializes in issues related to byproducts and wastes produced by the use of fossil fuels, including the processes surrounding their disposal, storage, transportation or release into the environment.

• Prof. C. Ohtoo, Head of Air Pollution Assessment at BalancedAnalysis Inc., a large consulting firm that prides itself on its ability analyze issues based on facts in an unbiased way.

• Summer Eyes, Symposium Coordinator and Chairperson, well positioned to offer key conclusions.