1) Reliance on Fossil Fuels

Question 1

What is a fossil fuel?

Answer 1

fuel consisting of the remains of organisms preserved in earths crust with high carbon and hydrogen content

Question 2

fossil fuels time frame

Answer 2

fossil fuels cannot be replenished in a human lifetime and can take hundreds of millions of years to fully replenish

Question 3

Definition of renewable energy

Answer 3

a form of energy derived from natural sources that do not use up natural resources to harm the environment

Question 4

renewables time frame

Answer 4

renewables is a source that will never run out or can be replenished in a human lifetime

Question 5

types of fossil fuels

Answer 5

coal, crude oil, natural gas

Question 6

types of renewables

Answer 6

wind, solar, biomass and tidal

Question 7

the formation of coal

Answer 7

coal is formed from the dead remains of plants that fall and accumulate on the ground over time. The ever increasing weight compresses the remains into peat, this takes millions of years. Then the peat gets further compressed and the temperature increases forming different grades of coal

Question 8

formation of crude oil

Answer 8

crude oil and natural gas are formed from the dead remains of sea organisms, they die and settle on top along with other rocks and sediments, increase in pressure increases the temperature which forms crude oil

Question 9

formation of natural gas

Answer 9

In underground crude oil wells, natural gas forms at the top which humans drill down to on land and in the sea in order to extract

Question 10

what is used in the production of plastics, pharmaceutics, transportation and fibres. use examples

Answer 10

crude oil, food packaging/ single use plastic grocery bags, aspirin/ penicillin, petrol/ diesel, nylon/ acrylic

Question 11

what have countries done to combat the use of fossil fuels, what country has not?

Answer 11

the vast majority of nations have took action by signing the Paris Agreement 2015, except for the USA who pulled out in 2017 under Trump, which is of concern as they account for 20% of the whole worlds usage of crude oils. (7 more than 2nd, China 13%)

Question 12

why is global action required againsed the use of fossil fuels

Answer 12

this is because every nation is using fossil fuels excessively.

Question 13

Why do we need to conserve fossil fuels?

Answer 13

it takes millions of years to form fossil fuels, and our usage has rapidly increased since the Industrial Revolution, and we cannot keep up with our usage and our resources will very soon run out. Especially with countries population increases like India and China.

Question 14

The estimated lifespan of coal, crude oil and natural gas

Answer 14

coal: 114 years
Crude oil: 50 years
natural gas: 53 years

Question 15

location and accessibility of our reserves

Answer 15

in years to come we will most likely advance and be able to discover more fossil fuels although some of the fossil fuel reserves discovered already and more in the future may be physically unviable to use, like oil found deep in the north sea

Question 16

Economics

Answer 16

The higher the demand for crude oil, the more crude oil we use. Although, typically the higher the price, the lower the demand; this is the reason for the very high prices on fuel. The higher the price, the less we buy and the more fossil fuels we can conserve.

Question 17

what is the name of the global scientific panel responsible for publishing data that proves that climate change is human led

Answer 17

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Question 18

what pieces of evidence back this up

Answer 18

more volatile weather patterns observed such as flood, storm, forest fires and droughts,
sea temperatures rising,
sea levels rising,
fewer colder days and nights
more warm days and nights and heatwaves,
increased hurricane activity,
Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere rising dramatically,
polar ice caps melting,
ecological changes like the damage to the coral reef on the shores of Australia.

Question 19

Another word for human induced.

Answer 19

Anthropogenic

Question 20

What is carbon trading

Answer 20

a method that aims to reduce the carbon emissions of a nation, nations are handed out permits for the usage of carbon emissions for certain sectors. One emission is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide. The incentive to use as low as possible is that if a country does not use all of their designated permits, they can be sold to other nations who will have to pay a fine for their over usage of permits.

Question 21

Disadvantages of carbon trading:

Answer 21

complexity of the market, difficult to govern and possible for fraud to take place

Question 22

Disadvantages of carbon trading

Answer 22

Economy, some say that the price of additional permits is too low and so some small businesses could just purchase additional permits without thought of the enviroment.

Question 23

Disadvantages of carbon trading:

Answer 23

Difficulty surrounding measuring the emissions that are used, this means that the emissions used by one business would usually be carried out within the business and so it could be subject to false information to pay a lower price.

Question 24

Advantages of carbon trading:

Answer 24

Environment, the scheme should see a reduction in the usage of carbon dioxide

Question 25

Advantages of carbon trading:

Answer 25

Control, it gives governments more control over the usage of carbon dioxide and allows them to keep numbers down.

Question 26

Advantages of carbon trading:

Answer 26

Financial incentive, businesses may be incentivised to keep the suage of the permits low in order to sell them to generate revenue.

Question 27

What agreement sets national carbon target levels, what year did it take place and what year did it come into effect?

Answer 27

Kyoto protocol, 1995, 2005

Question 28

What is the name of the European Union’s Carbon Trading Scheme

Answer 28

Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)