Energy Flashcards
Benefits of increased energy consumption
Electricity makes life easy
Oil - transportation
Industry –> economy –> wealth –> quality of life
Problems of increased energy consumption
Too fast, use up non-renewable
Air pollution, global warming
Inter-dependence, conflict
Nuclear power safe?
Advantages of oil
Easy to transport
Motor vehicles
Coal more polluting
Raw material in chemical industry
Disadvantages of oil
Greenhouse gases –> global warming
Oil spills kills wildlife
World oil production, few countries control supply + prices
On board oil rigs, dangerous
Advantages natural gas
Less expensive, electricity, oil
Less expensive, generating plants, renewable energy sources
Same with oil
Disadvantages coal
Deep mining:
- visual pollution
- dangerous
- more expensive than open cast
Open cast mining:
- visual, noise pollution
- loss of land
Importance of fuelwood in LEDCS
70% energy supplies
Main source of energy
No money for raw materials
no technology/money to build and operate powers stations
No national grid to distribute energy
Household functions
Selling to townspeople –> income
Problems with fuelwood
Deforestation
Biodiversity loss
Soil erosion
Desertification + reduced rainfall
Children no school
Long time
Dangers
Looking for wood
Respiratory diseases
Fire
Solutions for problems with fuelwood
Plant trees
Management
pruning, thinning
trees grow faster
new fast growing species
New fuel-efficient stoves, less smoke
Explain why many countries are planning to use a greater percentage of renewable
energy in the future
exhaustion of fossil fuels fossil fuels are expensive attempts to reduce reliance on imported fuels environmentally friendly global warming Ongoing running costs
etc
Advantages of nuclear power
low production cost
no air pollution
produce large amount of energy from small amounts of uranium
Disadvantages of nuclear power
construction costs are high
cancers or mutations
Disposal/storage of waste is not easy
land cannot be used after closure for many years
Advantages of wind power
No pollution or global warming
Production cheap, fuel free
Little effect on ecosystem, rarely kill birds
Wind farms = income for farmers
Disadvantages of wind power
visual impact especially scenic areas
hotel owners may be worried about loss of tourism
Noisy when operating
birds flying into turbines
construction noise / dust / traffic
can interrupt radio / TV signals
