Summary on the Roundtable Discussions

On the 9th of March 2009, a roundtable discussion session comprising of four main topics were discussed. The topics discussed were biofuel, green chemistry, RFID chip implants in human beings and lastly the carbon capture and storage technology.

The first topic that was discussed was about biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuels. The affirmative mentioned that by using biofuel, the amount of greenhouse gas emission by factories and vehicles can be significantly reduced. Another point discussed was on how the usage of biofuels can slow down the depletion of fossil fuels. On the other hand, the negative rebutted these statements by bringing forth their opposing views. One of them was that the use of biofuel can affect the availability of food resources, as biofuel is processed from crops such as corn. The next point mentioned was that the need for a large area to grow crops to produce biofuel will induce mass deforestation. Lastly, the negative believed that a more sensible use of these crops could be to solve global poverty issues.

For the discussion on green chemistry, the main ideas that were discussed were on how this technology can be used to convert waste material into useful items. The affirmative touched on the ability of the technology to convert spent plastic bottles into carbon microspheres which are claimed to be harder than natural diamonds. However, the negative opposed by pointing out the high cost of facilitating the research of green chemistry. They also stated why Singapore should not adopt this technology at this point of time, reasons being that Singapore is affected by the global economic downturn.

The last discussion was on the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The affirmative outlined the positive impacts of this technology which were the reduction of carbon emission from large factories. The negative, however, opposed by pointing out the high cost but low efficiency of this technology. Another point discussed was concerning the long-term feasibility of this technology, which was illustrated by questioning the affirmative on where and how the carbon dioxide is going to be stored, if this technology is implemented on a large scale.

In conclusion, both the affirmative and negative brought forth very substantial points that supported their argument well. Although this is the probably the first roundtable discussion, it was a successful one which coherently highlighted the points of each discussion.