Tom C a s t e n Sp e ak s t o U .S. S t ud e n t s
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n Monday, March 9, Tom Casten, Chairman of Recycled Energy Development, presented this year’s Forbes Lecture to Upper School students. The Annual Forbes Lecture was endowed by Malcolm Forbes, a member of the class of 1937, in memory of his brother Bruce Forbes, Class of 1935, and has featured such luminaries in the past as then-Harvard Law Review editor Barack Obama in 1991, and more recently, Steve Forbes. Mr. Casten’s name may be familiar to many Hackley families, as he and his family have provided the vision and funding for Hackley’s Casten Travel Program, which has made possible student-teacher trips to China, the Galapagos Islands, Italy, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam and most recently Japan and Peru. This Spring a Casten trip will embark to Guatemala, with another planned in June 2009 to Malawi. The Castens have also sponsored the annual Casten Scholar visiting from Indonesia, now in its fourth year (see story on page 8 on this year’s visitor). As these programs suggest, Tom Casten and his family believe in the importance of building greater understanding of the world around us, and in reaching beyond our comfort zones to gain perspectives that help us make a difference. Those at Hackley who have participated in the Casten Travel Program will tell you — these experiences forever change the way we see the world and our place within it.
recorded history have occurred since 1979. Mr. Casten does not sidestep the need to change our lifestyles, nor the importance of developing and improving sources of renewable energy. Yet he presents “an immodest goal” to “change the way the world makes power” by focusing now on the most economically viable — and indeed, profitable — ways to reduce greenhouse admissions. If the means are profitable, there will be incentive for them to advance. His company is advancing technology that seems a sacrilege to the environmental purist because it does not prioritize “clean” energy like solar power or wind power. Instead, his technology captures the otherwise wasted energy that is a by-product of the fossil fuels we’re already using, and directs it to productive use. With a nod to Al Gore, he presents “A Convenient Truth: Recycling Waste Energy,” which can improve generation efficiency and profitably reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And, it’s something we can do effectively now. Two-thirds of fuel’s energy at a typical factory is vented to the atmosphere. Capture and redirect that energy, and you’ve accomplished a great deal, with zero additional greenhouse emissions. Mr. Casten recognizes that some of his efforts are unpopular with the pure environmentalist who see the need to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy in much more black and white terms. Yet, undaunted, he points out that while solar and wind technologies can and should improve, the reality is that they are so expensive and so much less efficient at present than other energy sources that they cannot make a meaningful economic difference at present. Meanwhile, he notes, “the wasted energy streams in nineteen industries could generate 19% of the United States’ electricity,” carbon-free, by recycling this industrial energy.
Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Mr. Casten’s business is integrally involved in the notion of saving the world — quite literally, and pragmatically, by addressing the issue of energy and climate change. His presentation to students underscored the reality that we cannot keep living the way we are living, and the responsibility for making a difference falls squarely on the shoulders of today’s students. “Don’t do what my generation has done; we’ve really messed things up.” Mr. Casten was frank and direct, presenting clear facts and a case for why his current enterprise has such potential. Like the best of Hackley’s assemblies, it not only broadened student awareness of important issues, but offered them the tools with which to understand these issues from varying perspectives.
Mr. Casten left students with these conclusions: •• Climate change will define the 21st century. We are entering the “Age of Disruption.” •• Society will need every option, but will benefit from concentrating first on the profitable options
Mr. Casten’s business tackles the problem of excessive emissions of greenhouse gases and the crisis of climate change, which he calls “the most challenging problem humanity has ever faced — worse than the bubonic plague.”
•• We must learn to make things more efficiently •• We can profitably reduce greenhouse emissions by improving generation efficiency •• We must change the way we live
He points out that 90% of the total oil consumed by the human race has been used since 1959, and 50% of the total consumption has occurred since 1986; the consumption rates of gas have increased at a very similar rate. His vivid charts present the dangerous rate of increase in consumption. He underscores that two-thirds of the world’s remaining source of hydrocarbons exist in the form of coal — and, he avers, “the idea of Clean Coal is an oxymoron.” Coal produces nearly twice the greenhouse gas (CO2) as gas, and it is the fastest growing hydrocarbon in use today. He points out that half of the total Human Greenhouse Gas Emissions produced in all of
And he asked students, “What is your role in the coming ‘Age of Disruption’?” He challenged students to consider careers in manufacturing, moving away from the “service” industries that dominate our consciousness, to be among those who help create and implement the solutions. Following the assembly, Mr. Casten visited AP Environmental Science and Economics classes, and had a lively round table discussion with students at lunch. Students and faculty response to the visit was overwhelmingly positive — our thanks to Mr. Casten!
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