Meet another of Dogwood Alliance’s amazing summer interns, Jingjing Zhu…
My undergraduate major was environmental science. As I learned more and more knowledge on scientific and engineering issues I realized that policy and management are also important and I like to see what else we can do to solve the environmental problems in China. Almost all the developed countries have ever experienced similar pollutions I think they must be experienced to deal with these situations or avoid them. That’s why I came to America. Currently I concentrate in energy and environment. Energy is the fuel for the whole society and many environmental problems and conflicts closely relate to energy issues. It is a comprehensive field. I would like to focus on commercializing renewable energy and clean technologies for traditional energy. Energy efficiency is also very interesting to me. Time magazine said America can decrease its oil import to a large extent if it can improve its energy efficiency. My personal experience in America confirmed that there are many chances for improving energy efficiency.
My very recent interest is on carbon capture and storage (CCS) and wind power. CCS is a controversial topic because it brings some hopes and risks. I was working on a forest carbon offsets project the past semester. It’s kind of complex to me and I don’t know much about the exact theory on how forest offsets the artificial carbon emissions. But this project makes me interested in forest topics. Therefore I am so glad that I got the internship in Dogwood Alliance. I am happy to work with people who are experienced with the forest issues and dedicate themselves to protect the forest resources. I like people here. They are so nice and always willing to help. I like the relaxing environment here. This allows me to make my own schedule and finish the program in my usual pace. I also like the three big dogs. They are quiet and cute. The amazing thing is all of them can understand “sit” and “shake your hand”. The next step may be to train them to dance.
My main task in Dogwood Alliance is to work on a biomass white paper. I will try to make a comprehensive analysis about the biomass energy that relate to forest resources. I will include the benefit and cost of bio-energy in three main aspects: economy, society and environment. There are tons of papers and reports that support the bio-energy or fight against it. I would try my best to be objective. Nowadays renewable energy, climate change and environmentally sound are all fashions. But there are some activities that we think they are environmentally friendly or can mitigate the climate change when in fact they don’t work out that way. There are also some tricks that we must pay attention to. I am not an extreme environmentalist. But I do believe we should be careful what step to take in a specific period and how to take the step.
