PresentationbyEmilyInskeepeinskeep@kentlaw.eduFor.ppt

HARVESTING HUMANS FOR ENERGY Presentation by: Emily Inskeep einskeep@ For Energy Law – Spring 2007 Chicago-Kent College of Law INTRODUCTION Steadily increasing global energy consumption causes growing numbers of environmental problems. The United States and other countries throughout the world often cannot or are not willing to comply with the Kyoto agreements on CO2 reductions. For this reason, societal and political pressure to develop products with lower energy consumption is building. Volatility of oil prices highlights the dependence of the United States and other nation’s vulnerable economies on this precious oil. This situation is not likely to improve. One Solution to the Problem? HUMAN-POWERED ENERGY SYSTEMS Energy Self-Sufficiency Human Powered Energy is the idea of energy self-sufficiency brought down to an individual scale. However, human power could be enlarged to include a number of local renewable energy needs, such as Home power, the electricity independent home Factory power, the firm City power and possibly (hopefully) more Similar to the first wind-up phone, human powered products may appear to be “out of touch” with the times. However, remember that the internal combustion engine is over 100 years old. Therefore, the problem is not outdated technology, but just poor performance. Environmental and Societal Benefits These products do not consume energy from non-renewable sources during the “use-phase”. Human energy is non-polluting Societal Impact: human power is 100% green. More importantly, human powered products help their users to think in a different way: by encouraging your effort in ‘producing’ your own energy, the waste of energy is made apparent for once. Finally, sustainable development might mandate a shift from global to local production consumption. Usually, this is a positive thing. The PlayPump System: The Water Problem Access to clean drinking water is vital for human survival and is critical to improvi