And apparently a part-time student counselor. *Sigh* So, I have officially received acceptance to the University of Reading for my PhD proposal and I have accepted the offer. I am now dealing with the bureaucracy of paperwork for yet another long-term visa.
However, I have been getting messages from other students (BA and MSc's) about UoR policies and asking advice for other schools...um, I'm not a counselor, why are you asking me?
So, here's a few notes, should anyone care...
Typically a school will send you a total cost of admission offer which is the cost without scholarships, loans, or similar addition sources. If you qualify for a scholarship, that offer normally comes in a separate letter because the agency giving the scholarship isn't necessarily the school. Once you accept, then they normally discuss funding options.
Uni. of Reading sent this type of letter first, then once you accept they send a total cost of attendance for year one, which shows additional fees, housing costs, visa information, etc. Once you got that, you can apply for loans and scholarships and after those are accepted, then a new form letter showing additional costs is sent out.
I'll keep a running tab on notes, but seriously, I don't work for the school I will not contact another school on your behalf or even this school. Why would someone even ask that? Wow.
University of Reading:
Enrollment: Thursday 19 - Monday 23 September 2019
Welcome Week: Monday 23 - Friday 27 September 2019
Term starts: Monday 30 September 2019
1) I had to go through a series of websites to find out how they were going to deal with the emissions. The answer I found was not satisfactory. According to the UN, "The plant adopts modern back-end flue gas treatment technology to drastically reduce the release of heavy metals and dioxins produced from the burning" (https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/ethiopias-waste-energy-plant-first-africa). From there I had to figure out what exactly 'back-end flue gas treatment' meant. Basically they apply a series of filters, scrubbers, and attractors to collect different chemicals including nitrogen oxides and sulfur (https://www.britannica.com/technology/flue-gas-treatment), which is good, but the website goes on to say, "technologies to remove mercury and carbon dioxide from flue gases have lagged, but there is growing interest in these areas". So, still no answer on the CO2 aspect.
Now, we have another problem in where that CO2 will be 'stored'. Is it getting shipped out into the atmosphere or into the ground? If into the ground, we have to be careful about access to water sources because we don't want another Lake Nyos in Cameroon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/21/newsid_3380000/3380803.stm) and while Nyos wasn't supposedly a man-made situation, the potential is there.
3) Who is funding this? Well the UN site says this at the very end of the article: "The project is the result of a partnership between the Government of Ethiopia and a consortium of international companies: Cambridge Industries Limited (Singapore), China National Electric Engineering and Ramboll, a Danish engineering firm. The consortium was established to design, construct and in some cases own waste-to-energy facilities customized for Sub-Saharan Africa. Reppie is the first of what the consortium hopes will be a series of such facilities in major cities across the region". So, China, Denmark, and Singapore are building and potentially owning these facilities that will reduce hard waste, but will contribute to pumping out massive CO2 and other GHG chemicals into the atmosphere. China is already jumping in to try and establish rights within Africa and now we have this (https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-africa):
"Through significant investment in a continent known for political and security risks, China has boosted African oil and mining sectors in exchange for advantageous trade deals. Chinese companies are also diversifying their business pursuits in Africa, in infrastructure, manufacturing, telecommunications, and agricultural sectors. However, China’s activity in Africa has faced criticism from Western and African civil society over its controversial business practices, as well as its failure to promote good governance and human rights."
My question is why? Why are we ignoring a huge amount of people, land, and potentialities and allowing/encouraging Chinese involvement?
Also, this is my field: agriculture, rural development, wastewater treatment, and sustainability. I am also a researcher, as in, I am very good at researching. Checking this video took me to half a dozen different sources and the innate knowledge the last two-years of formalized education in these fields to put together. How is the general public, who is neither knowledgeable, nor interested enough to check, supposed to find these things out? Media Literacy is an art and a science and anymore, I find very few people have the skills or interest to spend an extra hour doing this for every post and news article.
