OTEC 1ac

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OTEC 1ac

Inherency
Despite its potential, there is little investment and a lack of governmental support for
ocean thermal energy conversion in the status quo.
FRIEDMAN, Editor-in-Chief, Harvard Political Review, 2014
BECCA, march, Ocean Energy Council, “EXAMINING THE FUTURE OF OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY
CONVERSION”, http://www.oceanenergycouncil.com/examining-future-ocean-thermal-energyconversion/, accessed 7-7-14, Jacob
Although it may seem like an environmentalist’s fantasy, experts in oceanic energy contend that the technology to provide a truly infinite source of power to the United States already exists in the form of Ocean Thermal Energy

Despite enthusiastic projections and promising prototypes, however, a lack of governmental
support and the need for risky capital investment have stalled OTEC in its research and development
phase. Regardless, oceanic energy experts have high hopes. Dr. Joseph Huang, Senior Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and former leader
of a Department of Energy team on oceanic energy, told the HPR, “If we can use one percent of the energy [generated by OTEC] for electricity and
other things, the potential is so big. It is more than 100 to 1000 times more than the current
consumption of worldwide energy. The potential is huge. There is not any other renewable energy
that can compare with OTEC.” The Science of OTEC French physicist George Claude first explored the science of OTEC in the early twentieth century, and he built an experimental design in
Conversion (OTEC).

1929. Unfortunately for Claude, the high maintenance needed for an OTEC plant, especially given the frequency of storms in tropical ocean climates, caused him to abandon the project. Nevertheless, his work demonstrated that
the difference in temperature between the surface layer and the depths of the ocean was enough to generate power, using the warmer water as the heat source and the cooler water as a heat sink. OTEC takes warm water and
pressurizes it so that it becomes steam, then uses the steam to power a turbine which creates power, and completes the cycle by using the cold water to return the steam to its liquid state. Huge Capital, Huge Risks

Despite the sound science, a fully functioning OTEC prototype has yet to be developed. The high costs
of building even a model pose the main barrier. Although piecemeal experiments have proven the
effectiveness of the individual components, a large-scale plant has never been built. Luis Vega of the Pacific International
Center for High Technology Research estimated in an OTEC summary presentation that a commercial-size five-megawatt OTEC plant could cost from 80 to 100 million dollars over five years. According to Terry Penney, the

the combination of cost and risk is OTEC’s main liability. “We’ve talked
to inventors and other constituents over the years, and it’s still a matter of huge capital investment
and a huge risk, and there are many [alternate forms of energy] that are less risky that could produce power with the
same certainty,” Penney told the HPR. Moreover, OTEC is highly vulnerable to the elements in the marine environment. Big storms or a hurricane like Katrina could completely disrupt energy production by
Technology Manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory,

mangling the OTEC plants. Were a country completely dependent on oceanic energy, severe weather could be debilitating. In addition, there is a risk that the salt water surrounding an OTEC plant would cause the machinery to
“rust or corrode” or “fill up with seaweed or mud,” according to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory spokesman. Even environmentalists have impeded OTEC’s development. According to Penney, people do not want to see

Given the risks, costs, and uncertain popularity of OTEC, it seems
unlikely that federal support for OTEC is forthcoming. Jim Anderson, co-founder of Sea Solar Power Inc., a company specializing in OTEC technology, told the HPR,
“Years ago in the ’80s, there was a small [governmental] program for OTEC and it was abandoned…That
philosophy has carried forth to this day. There are a few people in the Department of Energy who
OTEC plants when they look at the ocean. When they see a disruption of the pristine marine landscape, they think pollution.

have blocked government funding for this. It’s not the Democrats, not the Republicans. It’s a
bureaucratic issue.”

OTEC is not completely off the government’s radar, however. This past year, for the first time in a decade, Congress debated reviving the oceanic energy program in the energy bill,

OTEC even enjoys some support on a state level. Hawaii ’s National Energy Laboratory, for example, conducts OTEC
research around the islands. For now, though, American interests in OTEC promise to remain largely academic. The Naval Research Academy and
although the proposal was ultimately defeated.

Oregon State University are conducting research programs off the coasts of Oahu and Oregon , respectively. Do the Benefits Outweight the Costs? Oceanic energy advocates insist that the long-term benefits of OTEC more than

changes in the economic climate over the past few decades have increased
OTEC’s viability. According to Huang, current economic conditions are more favorable to OTEC. At $65-70 per barrel, oil is roughly six times
more expensive than in the 1980s, when initial OTEC cost projections were made. Moreover, a lower interest rate makes capital investment more
attractive. OTEC plants may also generate revenue from non-energy products. Anderson described several additional revenue streams,
justify the short-term expense. Huang said that the

including natural by-products such as hydrogen, ethanol, and desalinated fresh water. OTEC can also serve as a form of aquaculture. “You are effectively fertilizing the upper photic zone…The fishing around the sea solar power

, these benefits are not limited to the United States . “Look
at Africa , look at South America , look at the Far East . It is a gigantic pot of wealth for everybody… People are crying for
power.” In fact, as the U.S. government is dragging its feet, other countries are moving forward with their
own designs and may well beat American industry to a fully-functioning plant. In India , there has been significant academic interest
plants will be among the best fishing holes in the world naturally,” Anderson said. And, he added

in OTEC, although the National Institute of Ocean Technology project has stalled due to a lack of funding. Japan , too, has run into capital cost issues, but Saga University ’s Institute of Ocean Energy has recently won prizes for
advances in refinement of the OTEC cycle. Taiwan and various European nations have also explored OTEC as part of their long-term energy strategy. Perhaps the most interest is in the Philippines , where the Philippine Department
of Energy has worked with Japanese experts to select 16 potential OTEC sites. The Future of Oceanic Energy

Were its vast potential harnessed, OTEC could change

the face of energy consumption by causing a shift away from fossil fuels. Environmentally, such a
transition would greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease the rate of global warming.
Geopolitically, having an alternative energy source could free the United States , and other countries,
from foreign oil dependency. As Huang said, “We just cannot ignore oceanic energy, especially OTEC, because the ocean is so huge and the potential is so big… No matter who assesses, if you rely
on fossil energy for the future, the future isn’t very bright…For the future, we have to look into renewable energy, look for the big resources, and the future is in the ocean.”

1AC Plan
The United States Federal Government should substantially increase its funding for
the development and deployment of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion systems.

Advantage 1 Water
Water shocks coming- underground reserves are depleting
Goldenberg 14(Suzanne Goldenberg is the US environment correspondent of the Guardian “Why
global water shortages pose threat of terror and war” 2/8/14
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/09/global-water-shortages-threat-terror-war
accessed 7/8/14 AZ)
There are other shock moments ahead – and not just for California – in a world where water is increasingly in
short supply because of growing demands from agriculture, an expanding population, energy
production and climate change.¶ Already a billion people, or one in seven people on the planet, lack
access to safe drinking water. Britain, of course, is currently at the other extreme. Great swaths of the country are drowning in
misery, after a series of Atlantic storms off the south-western coast. But that too is part of the picture that has been coming into sharper focus
over 12 years of the Grace satellite record. Countries at northern latitudes and in the tropics are getting wetter. But those countries

at
mid-latitude are running increasingly low on water.¶ "What we see is very much a picture of the wet
areas of the Earth getting wetter," Famiglietti said. "Those would be the high latitudes like the Arctic
and the lower latitudes like the tropics. The middle latitudes in between, those are already the arid and semi-arid
parts of the world and they are getting drier."¶ On the satellite images the biggest losses were denoted by red hotspots, he said. And
those red spots largely matched the locations of groundwater reserves.¶ "Almost all of those red hotspots correspond to major aquifers of the
world. What Grace shows us is that groundwater

depletion is happening at a very rapid rate in almost all of the
major aquifers in the arid and semi-arid parts of the world."¶ The Middle East, north Africa and south
Asia are all projected to experience water shortages over the coming years because of decades of bad
management and overuse.¶ Watering crops, slaking thirst in expanding cities, cooling power plants,
fracking oil and gas wells – all take water from the same diminishing supply. Add to that climate
change – which is projected to intensify dry spells in the coming years – and the world is going to be forced to think
a lot more about water than it ever did before.

Desalination can alleviate scarcity, but conventional energy sources are insufficient--OTEC is key to make it viable on a larger scale
Shylesh Muralidharan 12, Former manager of Global Smart Energy Services at Capgemini Consulting,
B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Pondicherry University and Master of Mgmt Studies from the
University of Mumbai, Feb 2012, “Assessment of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion,”
http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/76927/824363276.pdf?sequence=1
In 2011, the increase in population to more than 7 billion translated into double the water
consumption in the last half century and between 1970 and 1990, per capital of available water decreased by a third. An increasing
demand for water for drinking water supplies, sanitation, agriculture, energy production and
generation, mining and industry is expected to compete for a limited supply of fresh water. By 2025, more
than half the nations in the world will face freshwater stress or shortages and by 2050 as much as 75% of the world’s
population could face freshwater scarcity[6]. Regions with intensive agriculture and dense population as the Asia, Africa and
the US have high threat to water security. According to the US Natural Resources Defense Council[33], more than one-third of all counties in
the lower 48 states of the US will likely be facing very serious water shortages by 2050.¶ Though water is a renewable resource, only

2.5%
of earth’s water is potable, and almost two-thirds of that is locked up in glaciers and permanent snow
cover. The Earth has a limited supply of fresh water in the form of aquifers, surface waters and the atmosphere. Oceans
are an abundant supply of water but the amount of energy needed to convert seawater to water for
human use is expensive today, explaining why only a very small fraction of the world’s water supply
derives from desalination27.¶ 5.1.Introduction to seawater desalination¶ The most popular desalination technologies used on
seawater an industrial scale are:¶ Multi-stage flash (MSF)¶ Multiple Effect distillation (MED)¶ Mechanical Vapor Compression (MVC)¶ Reverse

Osmosis (RO)¶ Of all the above technologies, MSF was the most prevalent method used for desalination but in recent years RO has been
catching up because of its ability to scale-up modularly for large capacities. Studies have estimated the typical capacities and corresponding
costs for the various technologies [34].¶ Though the installation of MSF reduced in the previous decades and RO has begun to compete in
seawater desalination markets, MSF still is preferred over RO due to reliability of the plants, ease of operation and very low degradation of
performance over a long duration of the life of the facility[35]. As the MSF technology for desalination is very expensive compared to other
technologies, it primarily

has been popular in regions such as the middle-east where the cost of energy for the process
is really low. The limited diffusion of MSF in the recent years has been due to challenges in installing a source of
electricity supply at the site of freshwater production, including the logistics of managing two separate
plants and the environmentally impact of fossil fuels used in these plants [36].¶ To reduce the carbon impact of the process,
there has been an interest in recent years, either to reduce energy requirements for desalination or to
replace conventional energy sources with renewable ones [37]. Though these methods have been
recommended for remote, arid and island settings, the high-cost of installing conventional renewables
usually leads to unfavorable economics of the technology.¶ OTEC can step in as the technology which
can provide integrated clean and sustainable solutions with large-scale desalination options with
electricity generation catering to small- and medium-sized communities which are both energy- and waterconstrained.

OTEC can alleviate water scarcity globally
Muralidharan 12(Shylesh Muralidharan B. Tech. Mechanical Engineering, Pondicherry University,
Master of Management Studies at University of Mumbai. Written for the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology “Assessment of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion” pg.78
http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/76927/824363276.pdf?sequence=1 accessed 7/8/14
AZ)
The discussion of water scarcity indices is useful when identifying new markets for OTEC plants.
Several countries in the original list of ninety-eight countries[19] which are within the OTEC resource belt are
developing nations where setting up a capital-intensive base load electricity generation option might
be a difficult economic imperative. But these countries can consider capital investment if they are able to extract more value from
the OTEC investment in¶ addition to generation of electricity. Hence the water scarcity indices might help narrow down a
list of countries which are in the OTEC zone and have a problem of water scarcity in addition to
constraints in electricity generation.¶ When the global plots of water stress and the OTEC-friendly
resource regions are mapped over one another, the following regions can be short-listed as potential
locations for co-production of¶ electricity and fresh water: * East coast of Mexico adjoining the Gulf of
Mexico including some of the islands to the east of Mexico, the southwest coastal regions of Mexico along the Gulf of California.¶ "
Coastal regions in the Caribbean Sea along the countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama,
Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.¶ 74¶ " In the north Atlantic Ocean, the northern coast of Brazil and the northwestern
African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia¶ " Regions along the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the
southern peninsula of India, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand East coast of Africa in the states of Somalia, Tanzania and Mozambique and
the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.¶ Several of these locations in the "overlapping" list are
Developing/Small Island Nations across the world. For several island nations across the world, water
resources are quite restricted. This limits the economic development of the local communities.
Tropical islands that qualify with requisite OTEC temperature differential and depth criteria are excellent markets for OTEC
plants as this solution will meet their need for both base-load electric power and freshwater,. There are
several other islands which satisfy these criteria and are good candidates for co-locating the generation of both these essential utilities. This
technology has the potential to provide a solution for communities with increased potable water
requirements where desalination of existing aquifers cannot meet demand and the unviable
economics prevent import of large quantities from the nearest mainland.

Advantage 2 Food
OTEC alleviates food insecurity---several internal links
Binger 04(Dr. Al Binger is a Visiting Professor, Saga University Institute of Ocean Energy, Saga, Japan.
He is Director of the University of the West Indies Centre for Environment and Development, Kingston,
Jamaica. “Potential and Future Prospects for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) In Small Islands
Developing States (SIDS)” pg. 7-8 2004
http://www.sidsnet.org/docshare/energy/20040428105917_OTEC_UN.pdf accessed 7/8/14 AZ)
In the majority of SIDS, particularly the smaller islands, the limited availability of land with ¶ fertile soil
and limited water availability severely constrains food production. All SIDS depend on imports ¶ of food to meet both
domestic and tourism needs. Food security for SIDS is therefore an issue of having ¶ the foreign exchange
availability to import the grains, milk and protein sources that they are either unable ¶ to produce or cannot produce in adequate
quantities for their demand. With growing population and ¶ increasing tourism, the majority of SIDS will have no option but to increase
importation of essential ¶ foods.¶ OTEC

has the potential to contribute to food security in SIDS in many ways. First,
direct ¶ contribution is the utilization of large volumes of nutrient rich cold water, which would be
discharged ¶ from an operating facility at about 10 degrees Celsius, for Mari-culture production. This application is¶
demonstrated in Hawaii, US. Feasibility studies conducted by the University of the West Indies Centre for ¶
Environment and Development (UWICED), based on the Hawaiian experience, showed that the gross ¶
return per unit of land used for Mari-culture8¶ would be more than ten times greater than which
accrued from growing bananas for export, and more than thirty times sugar earning. The employment
generated¶ was 300% greater than for bananas and more than 600% for sugar. Therefore, the first
potential ¶ contribution by OTEC to food security would be a combination of enhanced domestic
protein production ¶ and foreign exchange earnings.¶ The second potential contribution would be
through increased availability of fresh water as a coproduct from the OTEC plant, which would be
available to support hydroponics farming. The third ¶ potential contribution would be using some of the
cold seawater discharge to regulate greenhouse¶ temperature and thereby maximize yield. The fourth
potential would be based on the use of the water ¶ discharged from the plant to regulate the
temperature of reefs to maximize photosynthetic activity and ¶ increase natural marine production in
the coastal areas and beyond. The final potential contribution would ¶ come from the significant
reduction in the vulnerability of SIDS to the escalating and volatile prices for ¶ petroleum, thereby
significantly increasing the availability of foreign exchange available to import food ¶ supplies.

Global food crisis is inevitable and triggers massive international instability---US
output is key.
John Vidal 12 is the Guardian's environment editor. He joined the paper in 1995 after working for
Agence France Presse, North Wales Newspapers and the Cumberland News. He is the author of McLibel:
Burger Culture on Trial (1998) and has contributed chapters to books on topics such as the Gulf war,
new Europe and development, “UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013,” The Observer,
Saturday 13 October 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/oct/14/un-globalfood-crisis-warning, Accessed Date: 3-6-13 y2k
World grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather in the U nited S tates or other food-exporting
countries could trigger

a major hunger crisis

next year, the

U nited N ations has warned. Failing harvests in

the US, Ukraine and other countries this year have eroded reserves to their lowest level since 1974. The US, which has

experienced record heatwaves and droughts in 2012, now holds in reserve a historically low 6.5% of the maize that it expects to
consume in the next year, says the UN. "We've not been producing as much as we are consuming .

That is why

stocks are being run down. Supplies are now very tight across the world and reserves are at a very low
level, leaving no room for unexpected events next year ," said Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist with the UN
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). With food consumption exceeding the amount grown for six of the past 11 years, countries
have run down reserves from an average of 107 days of consumption 10 years ago to under 74 days recently. Prices of main food

crops such as wheat and maize are now close to those that sparked riots in 25 countries in 2008. FAO figures released
this week suggest that 870 million people are malnourished and the food crisis is growing in the Middle East and
Africa. Wheat production this year is expected to be 5.2% below 2011, with yields of most other crops, except rice, also falling, says
the UN. The figures come as one of the world's leading environmentalists issued a warning that the global food supply system
could collapse at any point, leaving hundreds of millions more people hungry , sparking widespread

riots and bringing down governments . In a shocking new assessment of the prospects of meeting food needs, Lester
Brown, president of the Earth policy research centre in Washington, says that the climate is no longer
reliable and the demands for food are growing so fast that a breakdown is inevitable , unless urgent action is
taken. " Food shortages undermined earlier civilisations . We are on the same path. Each country is now fending
for itself.

The world is living one year to the next ," he writes in a new book. According to Brown, we are seeing

the start of a food supply breakdown with a dash by speculators to "grab" millions of square miles of cheap farmland, the
doubling of international food prices in a decade, and the dramatic rundown of countries' food reserves. This year, for the sixth
time in 11 years , the world will consume more food than it produces , largely because of extreme weather in
the US and other major food-exporting countries. Oxfam last week said that the price of key staples, including wheat and rice, may
double in the next 20 years, threatening disastrous consequences for poor people who spend a large proportion of their income on
food. In 2012, according to the FAO, food prices are already at close to record levels, having risen 1.4% in September following an
increase of 6% in July. "We are entering a new era of rising food prices and spreading hunger.

are tightening everywhere

Food supplies

and land is becoming the most sought-after commodity as the world shifts

from an age of food abundance to one of scarcity," says Brown. "The geopolitics of food is fast
overshadowing the geopolitics of oil." His warnings come as the UN and world governments reported that extreme heat
and drought in the US and other major food-exporting countries had hit harvests badly and sent prices spiralling. "The situation we are
in is not temporary. These things will happen all the time. Climate is in a state of flux and there is no normal any more. "We are
beginning a new chapter. We will see food unrest in many more places. "Armed aggression is no longer the principal threat to our
future. The overriding threats to this century are climate change, population growth, spreading water shortages and rising food
prices," Brown says.

Food crisis is inevitable---US is key
Lester R. Brown 12 is a United States environmental analyst, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and
founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, “The world is closer to a food crisis than most people
realize,” 24 July 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/24/world-food-crisis-closer,
Accessed Date: 3-15-13 y2k
In the early spring this year, US farmers were on their way to planting some 96m acres in corn, the most in 75
years . A warm early spring got the crop off to a great start. Analysts were predicting the largest corn harvest on
record. The U nited S tates is the leading producer and exporter of corn, the world's feedgrain . At home,
corn accounts for four-fifths of the US grain harvest. Internationally, the US corn crop exceeds China's rice

and wheat harvests combined . Among the big three grains – corn, wheat, and rice – corn is now the leader, with
production well above that of wheat and nearly double that of rice. The corn plant is as

sensitive

as it is productive. Thirsty

and fast-growing, it is vulnerable to both extreme heat and drought . At elevated temperatures, the corn plant,
which is normally so productive, goes into thermal shock. As spring turned into summer, the thermometer began to rise across the
corn belt. In St Louis, Missouri, in the southern corn belt, the temperature in late June and early July climbed to 100F or higher 10 days
in a row. For the past several weeks, the corn belt has been blanketed with dehydrating heat. Weekly drought maps published by the
University of Nebraska show the drought-stricken area spreading across more and more of the country until, by mid-July, it engulfed
virtually the entire corn belt. Soil moisture readings in the corn belt are now among the lowest ever recorded. While temperature,
rainfall, and drought serve as indirect indicators of crop growing conditions, each week the US Department of Agriculture releases a
report on the actual state of the corn crop. This year the early reports were promising. On 21 May, 77% of the US corn crop was rated
as good to excellent. The following week the share of the crop in this category dropped to 72%. Over the next eight weeks, it dropped
to 26%, one of the lowest ratings on record. The other 74% is rated very poor to fair. And the crop is still deteriorating. Over a span of
weeks, we have seen how the more extreme weather events that come with climate change can affect food

security. Since the beginning of June, corn prices have increased by nearly one half, reaching an all-time high on 19 July. Although
the world was hoping for a good US harvest to replenish dangerously low grain stocks, this is no longer on

the cards.

World carryover stocks of grain will fall further at the end of this crop year, making the food situation even more

precarious. Food prices, already

elevated , will follow the price of corn upward, quite possibly to record highs .

Not only is the current food situation deteriorating, but so is the global food system itself. We saw early signs
of the unraveling in 2008 following an abrupt doubling of world grain prices. As world food prices climbed, exporting
countries began restricting grain exports to keep their domestic food prices down . In response, governments of
importing countries panicked. Some of them turned to buying or leasing land in other countries on which to produce food for
themselves.

Welcome to the new geopolitics of food scarcity . As food supplies tighten, we are moving into

a new food era , one in which it is every country for itself. The world is in serious trouble on the food front. But
there is little evidence that political leaders have yet grasped the magnitude of what is happening. The

progress in reducing hunger in recent decades has been reversed . Unless we move quickly to adopt
new population, energy , and water policies , the goal of eradicating hunger will remain just that. Time is

running out. The world may be much closer to an unmanageable food shortage – replete with soaring
food prices, spreading food unrest, and ultimately political instability– than most people realise.

Impacts For Both Advantages

Poverty
Poverty leads to disease, increased crime, illiteracy, and continued social exclusion
which causes political instability and humans rights abuses
Poverties 13 ( A organization publicizing social scientific research & providing quality information on
economic development, public policy, human rights and discrimination, May, “Causes & Effects of
Poverty On Society, Children & Violence” http://www.poverties.org/effects-of-poverty.html
The effects of poverty are most often interrelated so that one problem hardly ever occurs alone. For
instance, bad sanitation makes it easier to spread around old and new diseases, and hunger and lack of
water make people more vulnerable to them. Impoverished communities often suffer from
discrimination and end up caught in cycles of poverty. Let's find out just what this means concretely. Crime varies over
time and space; it’s high in specific areas and low in others, usually with huge differences in wealth. This has always led experts to study why
and what happens in those places where there is a concentration of crime. It’s

unquestionable that crime ranks high among
the effects of poverty, and those impoverished neighborhoods or entire cities show the same
problems with uneducated adults and kids that nurture more unemployment and crime, and then
leading to chronic, long-lasting poverty. Different types of poverty for different crimes But to solve these issues, it’s
fundamental to have a more detailed and in-depth vision of the poverty cycle here, and what the precise effects of poverty on crime are in
different communities and environments. For example it’s been proved that unemployment

is a bigger factor for specific
types of crime than income inequality is. Low incomes on the other side tend to spur property-related crimes (burglary and all that) but
reduce violence. Overall studies have shown very different effects of poverty, for different types of poverty: from income inequalities, to social
exclusion and unemployment. - Consequences of poverty on people The

vicious cycles of poverty mentioned before mean
that lifelong handicaps and troubles that are passed on from one generation to another. To name just a few
of these hereditary plagues: no school or education, child labor to help the parents, lack of basic hygiene,
transmission of diseases. Unemployment and very low incomes create an environment where kids
can't simply go to school. As for those who can actually go to school, they simply don't see how hard work can improve their life as
they see their parents fail at the task every day. Other plagues associated with poverty: Alcohol & substance abuse, from kids in African slums
to adults in the US, this is a very common self-destructing habit often taken as a way to cope with huge amounts of stress and... well, despair;

Crippling accidents due to unsafe working environments (machinery in factories or agriculture) as well as other work
hazards such as lead poisoning, pesticide poisoning, bites from wild animals due to lack of proper protection; Poor housing & living conditions, a
classic cause of diseases; Water

and food-related diseases, simply because the poor can't always afford "safe" foods. Effects of
is a major cause of social tensions and threatens to divide a
nation because of the issue of inequalities, in particular income inequality. This happens when wealth in a country
poverty on society as a whole In the end, poverty

is poorly distributed among its citizens. In other words, when a tiny minority has all the money. The feature of a rich or developed country for
example is the presence of a middle class, but recently we've seen even Western countries gradually losing their middle class, hence the
increasing number of riots and clashes. In

a society, poverty is a very dangerous factor that can destabilize and
entire country. The Arab Spring is another good example, in all of the countries concerned, the revolts
started because of the lack of jobs and high poverty levels. This has led to most governments being
overthrownl). Powerless victims Ever since the 1960s, the share of children affected by poverty has only got bigger
and bigger. Children are those who have the least choice and ability to change what happens to them. There isn’t much they can do to help
their families, nor should they have to. Until they can stand firmly on their two legs, usually by the age of 6, then they can be enrolled willy-nilly
in child labor. Nearly

all possible effects of poverty have an impact on children’ lives. Poor infrastructures,
unemployment, lack of basic services and income reflect on their lack of education, malnutrition,
violence at home and outside, child labor, diseases of all kinds, transmitted by the family or through
the environment. Children antisocial behavior One of the effects of poverty on children’s development is to lead
them to build an antisocial behavior that acts as a psychological protection against their hostile
environment. Discrimination and social exclusion often push them to more aggressiveness and less
self-control and nuance in reaction to stressful events. Having often been taken advantage of in their early childhood, they rarely
come to a constructive way to deal with conflicts. As they grow up, these behaviors are more and more entrenched in their
personalities and often considered unrecoverable. This highlights the importance of taking action as early as possible to improve children’s

living conditions. Policymakers should understand that not just income but a child’s social environment at large (parenting, school violence,
housing, but also sanitation, uncontaminated food and water) play a big role in creating new effects of poverty. Women and poverty If in
absolute terms (i.e. concerning most basic needs) less women live in poverty than fifty years ago, in fact there

has been an
increasing share of women in poverty in the global worldwide. This trend is also known as the feminization of poverty.
This is yet another of the clear-cut effects of poverty. The trend toward more single-parent families has only made things
worse and women have become more and more vulnerable to their environment. They find themselves forced to feed the poverty cycle by
living in poverty with their children. Feminization of poverty Almost everywhere in the world, women are segregated, have very limited access
to education (for political, religious or social reasons) and are sometimes forbidden to work or restricted to tedious ones. There are obvious
(political & social) interests in keeping women in this state, and it’s always recommended when fighting against poverty to start with
empowering women in every possible way to solve a great deal of problems. Being the cornerstone of the family, women can have a great
impact not only on the household income, but also on the education of children (including sanitation), and avoiding early child deaths due to
bad habits, sanitation or improper food or water. Backward industry and lifestyle issues There is no proof that poverty, especially in cities, has
an impact on the environment. On the other hand, backward (or not so developed) technologies

and an industry’s energy
efficiency (how much energy it needs to produce an amount of goods) will greatly affect the environment. On the whole, the
middle- and upper-classes lifestyles are also greatly responsible for the depletion of natural resources and the production of (toxic) waste. Or at
least lifestyles based on over-consumption are the true responsible, which is often disregarded in public debates (as humans it is kind of hard to
resist to so much temptation). No consequences of poverty on the environment? If there is any common association of poverty with bad
environment, it's probably because of those pictures of children running around in waste dumps. In fact there is no link between any effects of
poverty and the environment, quite the opposite. Those toxic places prove very harmful to the poor, who actually tend to reuse, recycle or
resell whatever they can find in there, thus getting us rid of that dangerous garbage. Good governance and good management of resources
remains the best way to tackle both problems of environment and poverty. It’s in fact quite ironic that thanks to poverty and the very low levels
of consumption it implies, the extent of the damage done to the environment and the depletion of natural resources have been relatively
limited. It’s only with the rise of China, India and other BRICs that rich countries have started worrying about limited resources for everyone and
problems of over-consumption and energy efficiency. Much shorter lives A universal and simple measure of poverty consists in looking at
different populations’ health and life expectancy. It’s no surprise that anywhere on earth, poorer communities fare worse than richer ones.

But people's health is affected not only by material poverty but also by social exclusion, yet another
of the neglected effects of poverty. No matter if poverty affects someone's mental or physical health, the end result is the same:
on average the poor live shorter lives than the rich. This is all the more true of ethnic minorities in whichever
country, where they’re often the first groups to suffer from discrimination and unfair treatments. This
implies that the impact of poverty is not exclusively physical but also very much psychological: it
affects in many ways mental health and human behavior. Every form of poorness, every form of social
exclusion – be it material or racial – has its impact on people’s health. After all, philosophers and sociologists often
agree that man is but a social animal. So, living without a society or a group you belong to can have a huge impact on your mental health
(though we wouldn't know for hermits). This has massive consequences

for policymakers concerned not just about

poverty but also about reinforcing social cohesion.

Poverty especially effects children’s development leading to further cycles of poverty
and violence
Princeton Brookings 97 (A collaboration of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. The best social science research about
children and youth into information that is useful to policymakers, practitioners, grant-makers,
advocates, the media, and students of public policy, Children and Poverty Volume 7 Number 2
Summer/Fall 1997,
http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=53&articl
eid=284&sectionid=1868)
It is not difficult to document that poor children suffer a disproportionate share of deprivation,
hardship, and bad outcomes. (See Table 1 in the article by Brooks-Gunn and Duncan in this journal
issue.) As Sophie Tucker once observed, “I have been poor and I have been rich. Rich is better.”13 Not
only do poor children have access to fewer material goods than rich or middle-class children, but also
they are more likely to experience poor health and to die during childhood. In school, they score lower
on standardized tests and are more likely to be retained in grade and to drop out. Poor teens are
more likely to have out-of-wedlock births and to experience violent crime. Finally, persistently poor

children are more likely to end up as poor adults. Public concern for poor children has focused both on
their material well-being and on the relationship between poverty and important child outcomes that
the public values such as success in school. However, accurately measuring the effects of poverty on
many important child outcomes is a challenge. Despite the evidence that poor children experience
undesirable outcomes across a wide variety of indicators, many studies lack the precision needed to
disentangle the effects on children of the array of factors other than low income associated with
poverty. For example, as has been discussed, poor families are more likely to be headed by a parent who
is young, single, has low educational attainment, is unemployed, and has low earnings potential. These
parental attributes, separately or in combination, may account for some of the observed negative
consequences of poverty for children. In addition, at any point in time, the population of poor families is
a mix of families who are temporarily poor and families who have experienced chronic hardship.
Although the majority of poor families are only temporarily poor, the experiences of the persistently
poor fit better the stereotype of an “underclass” trapped in concentrated poverty neighborhoods,
beset by high crime rates, poor schools, substance abuse, and other social pathologies. Failure to take
account of the differences in the duration of poverty children experience may lead to either an underor overestimate of the effects of poverty on children. Understanding the relationships among income,
other parental characteristics, community factors, and environmental hazards and child outcomes is key
to designing effective policies to ameliorate the problems of poor children. Programs that alter family
income may not have intended benefits for children if the importance of family income has been
misconstrued. Children need some minimum level of resources to survive, grow, and develop
normally, but many Americans appear to discount the importance to child outcomes of abovesubsistence levels of income.14 The recent welfare reform debate, for example, echoed some of these
sentiments in the comment cited above by Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Lew to the
effect that poor children would be better off if their parents worked rather than depending on public
assistance, even if the withdrawal of welfare support led to a reduction in their material well-being.
These sentiments also find some support in a recently published book, What Money Can't Buy: Family
Income and Children's Life Chances, in which sociologist Susan Mayer concludes that increasing family
income above the minimum required to meet children's basic material needs is not likely to correct the
problems associated with child poverty and significantly improve a child's chances for success.15 In this
journal issue, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Greg Duncan reach somewhat different conclusions based on a
review of recent research on the effects of family income on a number of child outcomes. They review
studies based on large longitudinal surveys that attempt to measure the effects of income on children
independent of the effects of other conditions that might be related to growing up in a poor household.
In general, Brooks-Gunn and Duncan find that family income can substantially affect child and
adolescent outcomes but that the negative effects of poverty are more pronounced for some
outcomes than for others and vary depending on the depth and duration of a child's exposure to
poverty. Income seems to be strongly related to children's physical health, cognitive ability, and
school achievement in the early grades even after controlling for a number of other parental
characteristics, and these effects of income are most pronounced for children who experience persistent
and extreme poverty. Brooks-Gunn and Duncan also suggest that the timing of poverty is important: low
income during the preschool and early school years is more predictive of low rates of high school
completion than low income during later childhood and adolescence. Brooks-Gunn and Duncan also
report that much of the beneficial effect of family income on cognitive outcomes in young children is
mediated by improvements in the home environment associated with higher income. Neighborhood
characteristics and environmental hazards (such as lead exposure) are other pathways through which
income may influence child outcomes. Identification of these pathways suggests alternative strategies
to address some of the negative outcomes associated with child poverty. In thinking about policies to
address the problems of child poverty, it is useful to keep the areas of agreement in recent research in

perspective. Almost no one believes that money and/or the material resources money can provide do
not matter to children. Food, shelter, health care, and other necessities are crucial for children's wellbeing, and extra income can make life more enjoyable. The important question about which there is
debate is whether the things that extra money, above a subsistence level of income, would buy make a
big difference in child outcomes. The answer to this question is a qualified “yes.” The qualification
reflects the facts that income seems to have a larger, more consistent independent effect on some
outcomes (such as school achievement in the early grades) than others (such as teenage childbearing)
and that the timing and persistence of poverty are important factors in the size of its impact. These
issues are explored further in the ensuing discussion of policies for poor children, which includes
recommendations for specific interventions.

Poverty hurts decision making skills and cognitive ability preventing upward mobility
Dennis 13 (Bradly, Health and science contributor at the Washington post, 8/29, “Poverty strains
cognitive abilities, opening door for bad decision-making, new study finds”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/poverty-strains-cognitive-abilities-openingdoor-for-bad-decision-making-new-study-finds/2013/08/29/89990288-102b-11e3-8cddbcdc09410972_story.html)
Poverty consumes so much mental energy that people struggling to make ends meet often have little
brainpower left for anything else, leaving them more susceptible to bad decisions that can perpetuate
their situation, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. “Past research has often
blamed *poverty+ on the personal failings of the poor. They don’t work hard enough; they’re not focused
enough,” said University of British Columbia professor Jiaying Zhao, who co-authored the study as a
Princeton University graduate student. o“What we’re arguing is it’s not about the individual. It’s about
the situation.” As part of the study, researchers conducted experiments on two groups of subjects: lowand middle-income shoppers in a mall in New Jersey, and sugar cane farmers in rural India. In the mall
experiment, shoppers underwent a battery of tests to measure IQ and impulse control. However, half
the participants were first given a “teaser” question — what they would do if their car had broken down
and needed $1,500 worth of repairs — designed to put a pressing financial concerns at the forefront of
their thoughts. In India, researchers tested the cognitive capacity and decision-making of farmers before
the sugar cane harvest, when they were most strapped for money, and afterwards, when they had
fewer financial woes. The results showed that people wrestling with the mental strain of poverty
suffered a drop of as much as 13 points in their IQ — roughly the same found in people subjected to a
night with no sleep. “Poverty is the equivalent of pulling an all-nighter,” said Harvard economist Sandhil
Mullainathan, another of the study’s authors. “Picture yourself after an all-nighter. Being poor is like
that every day.” Mullainathan said previous research often has assumed that poor people are poor
because they are somehow less capable than others, whether inherently or because of past trauma or
other environmental factors in their lives. But, he said, what the latest study suggests is that the strain
of poverty can tax the cognitive abilities of anyone experiencing it — and that those abilities return
when the burden of poverty disappears. “While the poor may be experiencing a scarcity of money, at
some level what they may really be experiencing is a scarcity of bandwidth, of cognitive capacity,” he
said. “It’s the situation that’s creating the stress.” Zhao and Mullainathan said that their findings, if
accurate, could have profound implications for public policy. For starters, policymakers “should beware
of imposing cognitive taxes on the poor just as they avoid monetary taxes on the poor,” the paper
states. Filling out long forms, deciphering complicated rules or undergoing lengthy interviews can
consume scarce cognitive resources. “You are captured by these monetary issues — how to pay rent,
how to pay bills,” Zhao said. “As a result, you’re less attentive to other problems. You neglect other
things in life that deserve your attention.

***Poverty Bad – Child Labor***
Poverty induces child labor
Edmonds and Pavcnik, 5, Assistant Professor @Dartmouth College, 05 (Eric V Edmonds, Assistant Professor, Economics
Department, Arts & Sciences, Dartmouth College, MA, PhD, BA, Nina Pavcnik, Associate Professor, Economics Department, Arts & Sciences,
PhD, BA, Winter 2005, “Child Labor in the Global Economy” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 19, Iss. 1, pg 199, Proquest)
Evidence on three facets of poverty is particularly compelling. First, child labor seems to decline dramatically with
improvements in household living standards. Some of the evidence from household responses to trade liberalization is
particularly interesting here. Despite rising employment opportunities for children, we observe declines in
child labor as family incomes rise with trade. Second, child labor seems to be highly responsive to

unexpected changes in the family's economic environment. Difficulty in transferring income over time
(through saving or borrowing) is a common correlate of poverty, and research from several countries
suggests that credit constraints and financial market imperfections increase the number of children
who have to work. Third, poor local institutions such as ineffective or expensive schools associated with poverty may leave
children with few sensible options other than work. We describe the evidence on how these three facets of poverty affect child labor in
this section.

Child labor is dehumanization
Holland, 9, part of the International Rescue Committee, 09 (Emily Holland, part of the International Rescue Committee, 3/5/2009, Fighting
Child Labor and Trafficking in Liberia, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/05/fighting-child-labor-traf_n_172305.html>)
Poverty is a major (but not the only) reason child labor and trafficking is rampant in Liberia. Traditional beliefs about child
labor also play a role. In rural villages, working hard, and becoming strong are seen as positive goals for young boys and girls. Part of
the IRC's strategy is to convince parents to keep and send their children to school--but that requires a shift in attitude: that children
have rights, that trafficking and child labor are dehumanizing , and that the money a child makes is not
worth the toll on his or her body, mind and spirit.

Dehumanization is the greatest evil, worse than all other impacts.
Berube ‘97 (David M. Berube, June to July 1997, Professor, PCOST Coordinator Ph.D, “Nanotechnological Prolongevity: The Down
Side,” Nanotechnology Magazine, http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/faculty/berube/Nanotechnological%20Prolongevity.pdf)
This means-ends dispute is at the core of Montagu and Matson's treatise on the dehumanization of humanity . They warn: "its
destructive toll is already greater than that of any war, plague, famine, or natural calamity on record -and its potential danger to the quality of life and the fabric of civilized society is beyond calculation. For that reason this sickness of the
soul might well be called the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse.... Behind the genocide of the holocaust lay a
dehumanized thought; beneath the menticide of deviants and dissidents... in the cuckoo's next of America, lies a dehumanized
image of man... (Montagu & Matson, 1983, p. xi-xii). While it may never be possible to quantify the impact
dehumanizing ethics may have had on humanity, it is safe to conclude the foundations of humanness offer great
opportunities which would be foregone. When we calculate the actual losses and the virtual benefits, we

approach a nearly inestimable value greater than any tools which we can currently use to measure it.
Dehumanization is nuclear war, environmental apocalypse, and international genocide . When people
become things, they become dispensable. When people are dispensable, any and every atrocity can be justified. Once justified, they
seem to be inevitable for every epoch has evil and dehumanization is evil's most powerful weapon

Solvency
OTEC can produce 800,000 gallons of freshwater per MW of installed gross electric
power capacity
OTE ’14 (Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation, Last Updated 2014, “Future Initiatives”, Date Accessed:
7/8/14. http://www.otecorporation.com/future_strategic_initiatives.html //gg)
The associated production of large quantities of fresh water is one of the great attendant benefits of
both Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plants and Seawater Air Conditioning (SWAC) facilities.
An OTEC plant can produce up to 800,000 gallons per day of fresh water per Megawatt (MW) of
installed gross electric power capacity. Thus, a 5MW OTEC facility could potentially produce as much
as 4 million gallons of fresh drinking water each day. Fresh water production in conjunction with OTEC
and SWAC systems is also environmentally superior to traditional water production methods utilizing
local surface water sources to feed the desalination units. This environmental advantage arises from
the more efficient multi-use of the source water, as well as the extreme dilution of brine (water
containing large amounts of salt), thus rendering such brine discharge concentrations nearly
undetectable and harmless to the environment. With the world’s demand for fresh water growing
rapidly, the economic opportunities and humanitarian benefits of this technology are substantial. Ocean
Thermal Energy Corporation stands ready to meet that growing demand.

OTEC solves food scarcity—three warrants—it facilitates aquaculture, boosts fish
stocks, and creates coldwater agriculture
Finney, 8 (Karen Anne Finney, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada, Finney. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion.
Guelph Engineering Journal, (1), 17 - 23. ISSN: 1916-1107. ©2008, “Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion”
http://www.soe.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/gej/articles/GEJ_001-017-023_Finney_Ocean_Thermal_Energy.pdf, jj)

C. Aquaculture and Mariculture
Another possibility for taking advantage of OTEC plants is the use of the water pipes to harvest marine
plants and animals for the purpose of food. This proposition is still under investigation however it is
proposed that seawater life including salmon, abalone, American lobster, flat fish, sea urchin and
edible seaweeds could be harvested for ingestion using the cold water pipes that would be readily
available from the OTEC power plants (Takahashi and Trenka, 1996). Mariculture is another possibility
that is currently being researched that would take advantage of the cold deep ocean water being
transferred to the oceans surface. This water contains phytoplankton and other biological nutrients
that serve as a catalyst for fish and other aquatic populations (Takahashi and Trenka, 1996). This water
could serve to increase native fish populations through the recycling of trace nutrients that would not
be otherwise available.
D. Coldwater Agriculture
Because the coastal areas suitable for OTEC are in tropic regions there is a potential to increase the
overall food diversity within an area using the cold water originating from the deep ocean. It has been
proposed that burying a network of coldwater pipes underground the temperature of the ground
would be ideal for spring type crops like strawberries and other plants restricted to cooler climates
(Takahashi and Trenka, 1996). This would not only supply the costal populations with an increased

variety of food but reduce the cost of transport of cooler climate foods that would otherwise have to
be shipped.

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