Carbon

Question 1

Tar sands

Answer 1

• Mixture of clay, sand, water, and bitumen which forms a very viscous oil
• has to be pumped and mixed with steam to be extracted

Question 2

Deep water oil

Answer 2

Oil found very deep under oceans

Question 3

Oil shale

Answer 3

Fossil fuels that haven’t been under enough pressure to form oil

Question 4

Shale gas

Answer 4

Natural gas trapped inside impermeable shale rocks

Question 5

Positives of deep water oil

Answer 5

• Robots can now stop oil spills in 45 seconds
• creates jobs in places like Brazil

Question 6

Negatives of Deep water oil

Answer 6

• Difficult to extract
• High costs

Question 7

Positives of tar sands

Answer 7

• Can be economically worth it when the price of standard oil is high

Question 8

Negatives of tar sands

Answer 8

• The extraction is very bad for the environment ( 3x worse than normal oil)
• Disrupts landscape as you need to quarry for it instead of drill down
• destroys ecosystems by contaminating water supplies

Question 9

Positives of oil shale

Answer 9

• New technology means it can be extracted a lot more efficiently

Question 10

Negatives of oil shale

Answer 10

• High level of energy used in extraction
• uses a lot of water to extract

Question 11

Positives of shale gas

Answer 11

• Lower carbon footprint when transporting compared to other fuels
• Flexible uses

Question 12

Negatives of shale gas

Answer 12

• Fracking is used to extract it which can cause tremors and contaminate water supplies

Question 13

Location example of deep water oil

Answer 13

Brazil

Question 14

Location example of tar sands

Answer 14

Canada, Venezuela

Question 15

Location example of oil shale

Answer 15

Colorado, Utah, Wyoming

Question 16

Radical technology: carbon capture

Answer 16

Capturing carbon and storing it deep under ground

Question 17

Positives of carbon capture

Answer 17

• reverses the problem instead of just reducing it
• The carbon captured can be sold which keeps things sustainable

Question 18

Negatives of carbon capture

Answer 18

• Very complex technology
• Not many capture stations

Question 19

Radical technology: Hydrogen fuel cells

Answer 19

Fuel cells that intake hydrogen and release water as a waste product instead of carbon

Question 20

Positives of hydrogen fuel cells

Answer 20

No bad emissions

Question 21

Negatives of hydrogen fuel cells

Answer 21

• can combust which is very dangerous

Question 22

Radical technology: electric vehicles

Answer 22

• Using electricity to fuel cars over fossil fuels
• Only really effective if electricity is original gained sustainably

Question 23

Positives of electric cars

Answer 23

No bad emissions

Question 24

Negatives of electric cars

Answer 24

• lower battery capacity
• fewer charging stations
• quiet engine noise, can cause traffic accidents

Question 25

Radical technology: Nuclear fusion

Answer 25

-Forming multiple atomic nuclei together to release energy
- very advanced science that isn’t quite accessible yet

Question 26

Positives of nuclear fusion

Answer 26

No emissions

Question 27

Negatives of Nuclear fusion

Answer 27

Radiation contamination or nuclear disaster
- not a feasible process of current

Question 28

Biological pump

Answer 28

1- Carbon dioxide transfers to Phytoplankton through photosynthesis
2- This then transfers through the food web
3- Some of this will fall into the deep ocean and some goes to the surface transfer back into the atmosphere

Question 29

Physical Pump

Answer 29

• Carbon moves around the ocean due to downwelling and upwelling
• colder, denser water will sink, and warmer water rises
• Salt levels is what affects density which makes this process called thermohaline circulation
• Once the water upwells, some of the carbon dissolved into the water releases back into the atmosphere

Question 30

Carbonate pump

Answer 30

• Dead organisms sink to the floor of the oceans. Crustaceans and skeletons of fish are very rich in calcium carbonate

Question 31

How has human activity affected ocean acidification?

Answer 31

-Ph of the ocean has decreased due to an uptake of C02 from the atmosphere
-This is dangerous as species can now longer grow or survive in too acidic conditions

Question 32

Amazon droughts

Answer 32

Droughts in the Amazon have cause it to: 1. Decline as a carbon store
2. Sequester less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thereby exacerbating the greenhouse effect