so currently one of the most important
environmental issues of our time is
related to high atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels and as these levels
continue to rise our global climate is
changing as you all know these things
are having very grave effects on our
surrounding environment so the key is is
that in the future we expect that this
is going to cause lots of death right so
in a recent United Nations report that
report then as as little as 15 years we
could experience as much as a 40% water
shortfall with continued climate change
and so now it’s time we have the
opportunity to make a change and so
today I would like to show you how we
can begin to do that by implementing a
variety of different technologies so a
lot of people ask why I decided to
become a professor and why
environmentally related issues and for
me there’s no one thing that’s happened
in my life but many that have led me on
this career path first I was born into a
family I was brought up in the foothills
of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South
Carolina and my family by American
standards really didn’t have a lot of
money so rather than traveling and
things as a child outside of school of
course I spent lots of time outdoors
hiking fishing climbing trees and
learning to play a variety of outdoor
sports and it was really during this
time that I gained a strong appreciation
for nature in my environment and this
has really been prevalent throughout my
career as a young adolescent an early
teenager I experienced some very
traumatic things in my life and I
believe that part of my survival and
getting through this process was because
I was always surrounded by really
fantastic supportive people so mentors
throughout my life telling me what I
could do what I could change who I could
become and at some point I began to
believe these people and I began to
visualize my future right and once that
happened doors began to open for me and
one of those doors was higher education
so one of the local universities
actually
gave me an athletic scholarship to study
which was great I got to paid to play
essentially so during this time I got to
study chemistry figure out how I could
apply my skillset to help the
environment but I also got to meet for
the first time a wide variety of
different types of people that were
culturally diverse and what I began to
realize is that people are limited by
many things in life as I was economic
social cultural things but as well as
environmental things things that in
developed countries we take really for
granted and so currently I have the
opportunity to lead a fantastic group of
scientists now I’m the mentor and I get
to give back what was so graciously
given to me and of course we’re working
on environmental issues because that is
dear to my heart so my group is
currently designing novel filter
materials so that we can use these to
purify air and purify water and the
reason that this work is so important is
because currently 25 percent of the
global death rate is due to
environmental pollution with continued
climate change these numbers will
continue to increase significantly so if
you were to look at a map that reflects
death rate what you’ll find is that in
underdeveloped countries and developing
places that death rate is much higher so
what we’re doing is essentially creating
a situation where access to clean air
and clean water is really becoming a
birthright to me this is a bit of a
travesty this should be a basic human
right and so we’re trying to work very
hard to help these things so if you
travel throughout Africa if you go to
places like Cambodia and Southeast Asia
well you’ll find our children drinking
water littered with harmful organics
bacteria and heavy metals if you travel
to more populated places say India and
China
what’s your you’ll find our children
wearing face masks because of the
automobile exhaust isn’t emitting so
many particulates in the air it’s
causing very bad respiratory infections
and things and so the biggest situation
that we face with environmental
pollution air pollution
how much co2 that we’re currently
emitting into our environment so
currently seventy to eighty percent of
global emissions or seventy to eighty
percent of global energy consumption
basically is produced by the combustion
of fossil based fuels so as we burn
these fuels co2 is emitted into our
atmosphere and the problem is is that
Earth’s natural cycles cannot take care
of all of the co2 that we’re emitting so
it’s growing in our atmosphere and this
is known to be a greenhouse gas so that
means that it absorbs and it reads heat
that’s reflected off of the Earth’s
crust and it serves as like a blanket so
our planet is beginning to warm
essentially as that co2 in our
atmosphere is growing so well I don’t
want to overwhelm you with a bunch of
data there are a lot of skeptics in the
world that don’t believe in climate
change right we’ve heard a lot of this
going on in the US right so the the
biggest argument is that Earth’s co2
levels have always fluctuated so what
I’m showing you are the co2 levels over
the last 400,000 years you’ll see peaks
and troughs and peaks and troughs so
these people are right the co2 levels do
fluctuate okay at the peaks
it’s where the co2 levels are highest
and our global temperature is warm at
the trough it’s where it’s colder right
because the co2 the co2 levels are lower
and this is where we have our ice ages
what I would like to point to you is
what’s happening currently look at that
the co2 levels have skyrocketed so not
only are we at levels that we’ve never
seen before throughout our history but
we’re increasing at a rate that’s never
been seen before so this is why most
climate scientists will agree that
indeed this is man induced and I should
tell you that these increases have
occurred since the end of the Industrial
Revolution where we began really
combusting these fossil fuels for energy
use so then what’s it doing to our
planet alright our glaciers are melting
we all know about that our oceans are
rising and acidifying and it’s really
affecting very strongly surrounding
ecological systems
the key is is not just that change is
happening the key is the rate with which
the change is happening so you can
imagine that while developed countries
and invest resources in order to keep up
with this change underdeveloped
countries are not so fortunate and so
when they begin to experience long term
droughts for instance the crops that
they are so dependent on for their
livelihood basically it’s going to cause
widespread starvation so it’s important
that we begin to invest resources not
just in adapting to change but in fixing
the problem that we’ve created so there
are a variety of ways that we can do
that many people will tell you oh you
should change your lifestyle ride your
bike don’t take that trip but I’m going
to tell you it’s not in human nature to
actually change your lifestyle to
benefit people 50 60 years down the road
so what I’ve done is identified three
things that can significantly reduce our
global co2 emissions there’s more but
these three things I think can make a
very strong impact so the first if we’re
burning fossil fuels to produce energy
we simply try to minimize the energy
associated with various processes and a
lot of people don’t know this but the
chemical industry consumes about 10 to
15 percent of global energy just
separating for instance small molecules
and things and in gas phase and liquid
phase right so if we can design these
novel filter materials and we can do
these separations with less energy input
then there’s a lot of energy we can save
and hence less co2 that we emit the
second method should be pretty obvious
so carbon-based fossil fuels are
non-renewable right this means we’re
going to run out eventually anyway so
it’s very important that we begin
investing lots of resources in
converting to renewable clean energy
like wind like solar like nuclear like
hydro right so the problem is is that
energy transitions are historically slow
and as a result we know that will
continue using fossil fuels for many
years to come and so this brings us to
the third topic and that is if we’re
going to continue
burning fossil fuels we have to find a
way to capture that co2 in order to do
that we have to know where the co2 is
coming from so what we would like to do
is go to these point sources grab that
co2 before it’s ever emitted into the
atmosphere and so essentially I’ve
identified two large point sources for
you the the first of course is
associated with the automobile industry
so transportation produces about 23% of
global co2 emissions and then
large-scale power plants produce 42% so
this is these are used basically to
produce electricity that you use to heat
and cool your home so what might this
look like essentially we would like to
design special sponge materials that we
could go and put inside of that flue
right and that sponge like your sponge
in your kitchen selectively it it grabs
water as you wash dishes we would like
to design a sponge that can selectively
grab that co2 from that flue gas stream
and then we can emit the other gases
less harmful gases into the atmosphere
so in response to this many scientists
have been working feverishly around the
world on various types of porous
materials basically molecular sponges
like I showed you previously so what I
would like to introduce you to is the
world’s most porous material and this is
what my group is currently working with
they’re known as metal organic
frameworks these materials one gram
these materials have this the highest
surface area in the world so I would
like for you guys to kind of think about
this what do you think the surface area
of these materials would be equivalent
to is it maybe a European football maybe
the stage we’re standing on or maybe the
room that we’re standing in right so the
key is is that these materials have very
small pores about 50,000 times smaller
than the size of a human hair and
actually my question was a trick
question because the surface area these
materials are much bigger than this room
about 7,000 meters squared and a single
gram so this is equivalent to that of
European football field it’s pretty
amazing huh so if you go inside these
materials basically you’ll find that
there’s mostly open space
the walls are atoms thick and so like
you decorate your Christmas tree what we
do as a chemists as we go inside and we
hang special functional groups inside
that can grab that carbon dioxide and so
along with our group many groups around
the world there are lots of different
types of materials that can grab co2
from flue gas exhaust gas air right what
we would like to continue improving the
efficiency of these materials the
technology really is here so then a lot
of people ask well why is it not
implemented why are we still emitting so
much co2 and the key is is that carbon
capture is a really big scale problem
and it’s going to be extremely costly
and so the reason that we’re not
implementing it is because we’re not
taking responsibility for the problems
that we’ve created so before I tell you
the top co2 producers in the world I
would just like to say that this is a
global effort we all have to work
together in order to fix this problem
because we all use energy right but the
top co2 producers in the world the
United States this is just since the
1850s since the end of the Industrial
Revolution the u.s. is in number one
space spot with 27% of global emissions
Europe is in second at 25% and China is
in third at 11%
now China will of course catch up
they’re going to emit a lot of co2
because they’re developing and they’ve
got a huge population but this is how it
stands and this is why it’s so
disappointing to me when I see our US
administration decide to remove
themselves from things like the Paris
agreement because it’s too costly to
Americans well based on the information
that you have shouldn’t it be a bit
costly so the last thing that I would
like to say is that a lot of people ask
well what can I do I’m not a policy
maker I’m not a scientist and the thing
that I tell them is well you’re a tax
payer therefore you’re electing the
people that make the policy and so I
believe that education knowing what the
problems are is the most important thing
and that way we make the right choices
when we vote we get people who are
interested in developing and leading
policy and also people that are very
interested in for instance closing coal
mines and putting those people to work
in clean energy so with that I would
like to say that with continued
education we can bring what I consider
to be an epidemic of ignorance and
self-interest to an end as it is
continuing to enable climate change
thank you
[Applause]
you
environmental issues of our time is
related to high atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels and as these levels
continue to rise our global climate is
changing as you all know these things
are having very grave effects on our
surrounding environment so the key is is
that in the future we expect that this
is going to cause lots of death right so
in a recent United Nations report that
report then as as little as 15 years we
could experience as much as a 40% water
shortfall with continued climate change
and so now it’s time we have the
opportunity to make a change and so
today I would like to show you how we
can begin to do that by implementing a
variety of different technologies so a
lot of people ask why I decided to
become a professor and why
environmentally related issues and for
me there’s no one thing that’s happened
in my life but many that have led me on
this career path first I was born into a
family I was brought up in the foothills
of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South
Carolina and my family by American
standards really didn’t have a lot of
money so rather than traveling and
things as a child outside of school of
course I spent lots of time outdoors
hiking fishing climbing trees and
learning to play a variety of outdoor
sports and it was really during this
time that I gained a strong appreciation
for nature in my environment and this
has really been prevalent throughout my
career as a young adolescent an early
teenager I experienced some very
traumatic things in my life and I
believe that part of my survival and
getting through this process was because
I was always surrounded by really
fantastic supportive people so mentors
throughout my life telling me what I
could do what I could change who I could
become and at some point I began to
believe these people and I began to
visualize my future right and once that
happened doors began to open for me and
one of those doors was higher education
so one of the local universities
actually
gave me an athletic scholarship to study
which was great I got to paid to play
essentially so during this time I got to
study chemistry figure out how I could
apply my skillset to help the
environment but I also got to meet for
the first time a wide variety of
different types of people that were
culturally diverse and what I began to
realize is that people are limited by
many things in life as I was economic
social cultural things but as well as
environmental things things that in
developed countries we take really for
granted and so currently I have the
opportunity to lead a fantastic group of
scientists now I’m the mentor and I get
to give back what was so graciously
given to me and of course we’re working
on environmental issues because that is
dear to my heart so my group is
currently designing novel filter
materials so that we can use these to
purify air and purify water and the
reason that this work is so important is
because currently 25 percent of the
global death rate is due to
environmental pollution with continued
climate change these numbers will
continue to increase significantly so if
you were to look at a map that reflects
death rate what you’ll find is that in
underdeveloped countries and developing
places that death rate is much higher so
what we’re doing is essentially creating
a situation where access to clean air
and clean water is really becoming a
birthright to me this is a bit of a
travesty this should be a basic human
right and so we’re trying to work very
hard to help these things so if you
travel throughout Africa if you go to
places like Cambodia and Southeast Asia
well you’ll find our children drinking
water littered with harmful organics
bacteria and heavy metals if you travel
to more populated places say India and
China
what’s your you’ll find our children
wearing face masks because of the
automobile exhaust isn’t emitting so
many particulates in the air it’s
causing very bad respiratory infections
and things and so the biggest situation
that we face with environmental
pollution air pollution
how much co2 that we’re currently
emitting into our environment so
currently seventy to eighty percent of
global emissions or seventy to eighty
percent of global energy consumption
basically is produced by the combustion
of fossil based fuels so as we burn
these fuels co2 is emitted into our
atmosphere and the problem is is that
Earth’s natural cycles cannot take care
of all of the co2 that we’re emitting so
it’s growing in our atmosphere and this
is known to be a greenhouse gas so that
means that it absorbs and it reads heat
that’s reflected off of the Earth’s
crust and it serves as like a blanket so
our planet is beginning to warm
essentially as that co2 in our
atmosphere is growing so well I don’t
want to overwhelm you with a bunch of
data there are a lot of skeptics in the
world that don’t believe in climate
change right we’ve heard a lot of this
going on in the US right so the the
biggest argument is that Earth’s co2
levels have always fluctuated so what
I’m showing you are the co2 levels over
the last 400,000 years you’ll see peaks
and troughs and peaks and troughs so
these people are right the co2 levels do
fluctuate okay at the peaks
it’s where the co2 levels are highest
and our global temperature is warm at
the trough it’s where it’s colder right
because the co2 the co2 levels are lower
and this is where we have our ice ages
what I would like to point to you is
what’s happening currently look at that
the co2 levels have skyrocketed so not
only are we at levels that we’ve never
seen before throughout our history but
we’re increasing at a rate that’s never
been seen before so this is why most
climate scientists will agree that
indeed this is man induced and I should
tell you that these increases have
occurred since the end of the Industrial
Revolution where we began really
combusting these fossil fuels for energy
use so then what’s it doing to our
planet alright our glaciers are melting
we all know about that our oceans are
rising and acidifying and it’s really
affecting very strongly surrounding
ecological systems
the key is is not just that change is
happening the key is the rate with which
the change is happening so you can
imagine that while developed countries
and invest resources in order to keep up
with this change underdeveloped
countries are not so fortunate and so
when they begin to experience long term
droughts for instance the crops that
they are so dependent on for their
livelihood basically it’s going to cause
widespread starvation so it’s important
that we begin to invest resources not
just in adapting to change but in fixing
the problem that we’ve created so there
are a variety of ways that we can do
that many people will tell you oh you
should change your lifestyle ride your
bike don’t take that trip but I’m going
to tell you it’s not in human nature to
actually change your lifestyle to
benefit people 50 60 years down the road
so what I’ve done is identified three
things that can significantly reduce our
global co2 emissions there’s more but
these three things I think can make a
very strong impact so the first if we’re
burning fossil fuels to produce energy
we simply try to minimize the energy
associated with various processes and a
lot of people don’t know this but the
chemical industry consumes about 10 to
15 percent of global energy just
separating for instance small molecules
and things and in gas phase and liquid
phase right so if we can design these
novel filter materials and we can do
these separations with less energy input
then there’s a lot of energy we can save
and hence less co2 that we emit the
second method should be pretty obvious
so carbon-based fossil fuels are
non-renewable right this means we’re
going to run out eventually anyway so
it’s very important that we begin
investing lots of resources in
converting to renewable clean energy
like wind like solar like nuclear like
hydro right so the problem is is that
energy transitions are historically slow
and as a result we know that will
continue using fossil fuels for many
years to come and so this brings us to
the third topic and that is if we’re
going to continue
burning fossil fuels we have to find a
way to capture that co2 in order to do
that we have to know where the co2 is
coming from so what we would like to do
is go to these point sources grab that
co2 before it’s ever emitted into the
atmosphere and so essentially I’ve
identified two large point sources for
you the the first of course is
associated with the automobile industry
so transportation produces about 23% of
global co2 emissions and then
large-scale power plants produce 42% so
this is these are used basically to
produce electricity that you use to heat
and cool your home so what might this
look like essentially we would like to
design special sponge materials that we
could go and put inside of that flue
right and that sponge like your sponge
in your kitchen selectively it it grabs
water as you wash dishes we would like
to design a sponge that can selectively
grab that co2 from that flue gas stream
and then we can emit the other gases
less harmful gases into the atmosphere
so in response to this many scientists
have been working feverishly around the
world on various types of porous
materials basically molecular sponges
like I showed you previously so what I
would like to introduce you to is the
world’s most porous material and this is
what my group is currently working with
they’re known as metal organic
frameworks these materials one gram
these materials have this the highest
surface area in the world so I would
like for you guys to kind of think about
this what do you think the surface area
of these materials would be equivalent
to is it maybe a European football maybe
the stage we’re standing on or maybe the
room that we’re standing in right so the
key is is that these materials have very
small pores about 50,000 times smaller
than the size of a human hair and
actually my question was a trick
question because the surface area these
materials are much bigger than this room
about 7,000 meters squared and a single
gram so this is equivalent to that of
European football field it’s pretty
amazing huh so if you go inside these
materials basically you’ll find that
there’s mostly open space
the walls are atoms thick and so like
you decorate your Christmas tree what we
do as a chemists as we go inside and we
hang special functional groups inside
that can grab that carbon dioxide and so
along with our group many groups around
the world there are lots of different
types of materials that can grab co2
from flue gas exhaust gas air right what
we would like to continue improving the
efficiency of these materials the
technology really is here so then a lot
of people ask well why is it not
implemented why are we still emitting so
much co2 and the key is is that carbon
capture is a really big scale problem
and it’s going to be extremely costly
and so the reason that we’re not
implementing it is because we’re not
taking responsibility for the problems
that we’ve created so before I tell you
the top co2 producers in the world I
would just like to say that this is a
global effort we all have to work
together in order to fix this problem
because we all use energy right but the
top co2 producers in the world the
United States this is just since the
1850s since the end of the Industrial
Revolution the u.s. is in number one
space spot with 27% of global emissions
Europe is in second at 25% and China is
in third at 11%
now China will of course catch up
they’re going to emit a lot of co2
because they’re developing and they’ve
got a huge population but this is how it
stands and this is why it’s so
disappointing to me when I see our US
administration decide to remove
themselves from things like the Paris
agreement because it’s too costly to
Americans well based on the information
that you have shouldn’t it be a bit
costly so the last thing that I would
like to say is that a lot of people ask
well what can I do I’m not a policy
maker I’m not a scientist and the thing
that I tell them is well you’re a tax
payer therefore you’re electing the
people that make the policy and so I
believe that education knowing what the
problems are is the most important thing
and that way we make the right choices
when we vote we get people who are
interested in developing and leading
policy and also people that are very
interested in for instance closing coal
mines and putting those people to work
in clean energy so with that I would
like to say that with continued
education we can bring what I consider
to be an epidemic of ignorance and
self-interest to an end as it is
continuing to enable climate change
thank you
[Applause]
you
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