The article for this week is actually a collection of answers from a forum in Issues in Science & Technology. Most of the answers are a response to Joseph Romm's article titled "The Hype about Hydrogen," but some do not reference Romm's article and only discuss their opinions on hydrogen as a potential fuel source. Many of the writers do have some sort of expertise in hydrogen fuel research, but there are some notable contributions from the vice president of GM, an assistant secretary of the US Department of Energy, and a researcher from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
For the most part, the authors in the forum agree that hydrogen definitely has it's problems in becoming a primary fuel source in the future, but they also agree that hydrogen will be worth it. Many of the authors bring up the cost of hydrogen as a fuel, but refute the problem of price with the fact that hydrogen is one of the cleanest fuels available and it is abundant. Larry Burns from GM argues completely against Romm saying that hydrogen is not just being hyped up, but it is becoming reality. He discusses the advances in fuel cell technology over the past few years and explains that GM is continuing to make fuel cells cheaper and consumer-friendly. David Garman sides with Burns and states that the government would not be spending over $90 million on fuel cell research if it was just a hype.
Overall, it seems from this forum that there is a group of people that greatly support the idea of hydrogen as a future fuel source. Of course, there is a bias in these opinions as all of the authors conduct or oversee research in improving hydrogen as a fuel source. However, it will give me a better idea of how the public may accept fuel cell vehicles in the future if they are educated about fuel cells. It helps me understand some of the criticism against FCVs (Romm's article) and how it might be countered. The forum has a lot of great information and statistics on what GM and the US Department of Energy have done the past few years to help forward this technology as well.
APA Citation:
Burns, L., Moore, J. F., Andrews, C. J., Freeman, S. D., & Mark, J. (2004). Forum. Issues in Science & Technology, 20(4), 12-17. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from https://hal.weber.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=13872522&site=ehost-live
MLA Citation:
Burns, Larry, et al. "Forum." Issues in Science & Technology 20.4 (2004): 12-17. 20 March 2015. <https://hal.weber.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=13872522&site=ehost-live>.
I really enjoyed this and how it shows the opinions of others. I also like how you stated that they do have a basis opinion.. I think so many times we get caught up in who is right or who is wrong but we don't search their background to see if they are basis. We need to know if they are able to state the truth.
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