Ch. 12 & 13: Water and Minerals & Energy Flashcards
What are wetlands and what are they used for?
Wetlands are saturated lands that are permanently submerged or permeated with water
-It’s where terrestrial and aquatic animals meet and interact (high biodiversity)
-Wetlands cover about 14% of Canada and Canada has about 25% of the world’s wetlands
-It’s rich w/ nutrients
-It’s a habitat for waterfowl (large aquatic birds like ducks, geese, etc)
-It regulates the hydrologic cycle
-It serves as a sponge that helps reduce flooding (similar to forest ecosystems in ch. 10)
Explain ground water and surface water interactions
When groundwater is pumped from the aquifer system, it reduces the amount of water that discharges into ponds, streams and coastal waters, so as a result it lowers the water levels in these water bodies.
What are the 3 factors that make groundwater contamination particularly concerning?
- It’s a vital source of drinking water for a large portion of the population, so if it’s contaminated, it could lead to a lot of health risks and issues (could also kill aquatic life)
- Groundwater moves pretty slowly through soil and rock, so if it’s contaminated, it’s going to take a really long time to clean itself and it’s expensive to professionally clean; could linger for decades
- Since groundwater is underground, it’s not easily visible, so it’s hard to detect when contamination has occurred and how far it has spread
Why are human intervened water diversions done?
-To combine water flows from several sources into one channel and encourage hydroelectric regeneration (producing electricity through the power of moving water)
- to increase water supply for a community or region
-to deflect watercourses away from protected areas
- to enhance capacity of a water body so it can used to support recreational activities like boating, and others.
-Also, in forest-related hydrology, tree canopies can be reduced or removed to increase the rate at which rainwater infiltrates and moves through the soil ( also, greater exposure of sun from reduced canopies would make snowpack melt faster)
What are the greatest risks to water quality?
- Agricultural runoff
-Industry effluent (liquid waste from factories leaking into rivers and lakes)
-Poorly treated municipal waste
Most of these cause a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus to enter water systems, leading to eutrophication (too much nutrient enrichment in water bodies)
What is supply management in terms of water security? What are the disadvantages of it?
when a water shortage is seen coming, the solution is to develop a new source of supply either from expanding a existing supply or creating a whole new one
Disadvantages:
-if ppl believe that additional supplies will always to found to meet demands, it’s not really going to motivate ppl to adopt water conservation methods
-society may invest more money than needed, especially when low-cost sources have already been developed
-new dams, pipelines, etc can have big environmental impacts
What is demand security? what are the methods it uses?
It’s an approach that seeks to influence human behavior to reduce water usage
strategies:
- Pricing - signals to users that water usage has a cost, so they can save more money by using less (ex/ volume-based pricing; as consumers use more water, they pay an increasingly higher per unit charge); but it has to be organized in a way that doesn’t negatively affect poor ppl who can’t afford it
- Rebates - offers tax refunds for purchasing water-saving devices (ex/ low-flow toilets; use about 75% less water per flush than a regular toilet)
-Restricting outside water use (watering lawns, flowerbeds) by regulation during hottest months of yr when water use is at its highest
- Educate and inform ppl of water usage so their behaviors will shift overtime
What does the soft path approach aim to achieve?
It aims to improve water use efficiency by challenging the basic patterns of consumption; demand management asks the question of “how’ to do the same with less water, while soft path raises question of “why” water is even used for a function
What are the key factors determining a water footprint (total amount of water used)? How can we reduce our water footprints?
Key factors:
1. Volume of consumption
2. Consumption patterns
3. Climate
4. Agricultural practice
Reducing water footprints:
-Improved tech that uses less water per unit of product
-use less water (reducing consumption of meat, saving water in households)
-Re-learn and alter behaviour
-Shifting production to less water demanding products
What are the 6 imperatives for a new water ethic?
-Enhance equity today and for future
-safeguard ecosystems
-Encourage efficiency and conservation
-Open and participative decision-making
-Respect system complexity and emphasize a precautionary approach
What are the different resource types?
Stock:
- Consumed by use: oil, gas, coal
- Theoretically recoverable: All elemental materials
- Recyclable: Metallic minerals
Flow:
- Critical zone: Fish, forests, animals, soil, water in aquifers
-Non-critical zone: Wind, water, solar energy, tides, waves, air
What are the different types of mining?
Subsurface mining - extracting minerals and resources from below Earth’s surface; causes less environmental damage to the surface, allows access to deep resources, but can also cause groundwater contamination and ruin water table structures, and cause acid mine drainage
Strip mining - type of surface mining where layers of soil are stripped away to expose and extract a mineral deposit, usually coal or tar sands that lie close to surface; its cost effective, safe for workers, but it destroys areas of land and removes vegetation, habitats, can also lead to water pollution through runoff that include heavy metal toxins, also ruins landscape
Open pit mining - similar to strip mining but this one results in a large pit that gets deeper as mining progresses
Placer mining - extracts valuable minerals from alluvial deposits (loose sediments in riverbeds, sandbars, or streambeds), using water to separate heavier minerals from from lighter ones
What’s the difference between conventional and unconventional fossil fuels?
Conventional: Usually accessed earlier, more easily extracted, higher energy return on energy invested (EROI)
Unconventional: takes specialized and expensive extraction, greater environmental impact, lower energy return on energy invested
What’s the focus for managing renewable vs. non-renewable resources?
Renewable: aim to manage them to be sustainable and resilient, and avoid environmental impacts like tragedy of the commons, etc, converse, recycle
Non renewable:
1. conserve minerals and fossil fuels assets to extend longevity of resources and provide substitutes for use in long run
2. Minimize environmental impacts at all stages in the life cycle of use
3. Create improved socioeconomic relationships with stakeholders
4. Managing recyclable, non-renewable resources as renewable or flow resource
Explain the resource coal
It’s Canada’s 3rd largest exporter of metallurgical coal (used for cooking and steel-making) and other types of coal; also
contains:
-Sulphur, mercury, and arsenic, which is released when burned
-Sulphates contributing to smog and acid rain
-mercury bioaccumulates
-GHG emissions
Explain oil sands
- Removing oil from oil sands is referred to as crude bitumen (thick and heavy oil)
-Due to all the specialized and costly refinement of oil sands to make it usable , it’s an unconventional resource; it has low EROI (low energy returned vs. energy invested)
What are the arguments in favor of nuclear power use and what are the ones against it?
Arguments in favor: has low operating costs, and short-term environmental impacts less than fossil fuels; none of the emissions lead/contribute to smog, acid rain, or global warming
Arguments against: results in radioactive waste that is hard to dispose of easily
What are the advantages of wind power as a renewable energy source? Disadvantages?
Advantages:
-It doesn’t need fuel, so it doesn’t release GHG emissions, radioactive waste, etc.
-Relatively quiet and not really a danger to birds and other wildlife
-doesn’t take up too much land space (only 2%)
-Landowners can get profit from it, making it another source of income
Disadvantages:
-wind isn’t constant, so sometimes no power will be generated
-Turbines may distract from landscape beauty
-Might be unsafe (if turbine blades fall off, or in winter, ice from blades could swing and hit something/someone)
-Avian animals could come into collison w/ it
What are the advantages of solar power as a renewable energy source? Disadvantages?
Advantages:
- panels generate no harmful emissions (GHGs, etc)
-available almost anywhere sunlight is present
-cost-effective
-It’s silent, so suitable for urban and residential areas
Disadvantages:
-Not constant (like on rainy or cloudy days), so won’t generate energy all the time; also unpredictable so less reliable than other energy sources
-needs inverters to convert direct energy into alternative energy (storage batteries needed)
-needs relatively large areas
What is bioenergy?
It’s another renewable energy source that is produced from biomass through conversion of the carbohydrates to energy
- From agriculture: ex/ wheat, barley peanuts, cotton
- From plants & animals: ex/ algae
- From forestry: ex/ roundwood (from standing trees); sawmill residue or pulping black liquor (residue from trees); solid wood waste
What are the 5 pathways needed to achieve a desirable energy transition?
- Wasting less energy
-Switching to clean power
-Using more renewable fuels
-producing cleaner oil and gas
-Clarifying role of indigenous ppl
