Environment/Nature II

Question 1

What are the 2 different equinox points?

Answer 1

March 21 - spring equinox or vernal equinox (first day of Spring)

September 22 - autumnal equinox (first day of Fall. Harvest)

Question 2

Equinox

Answer 2

The time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth’s equator, making night and day of equal length all over the earth.

Question 3

The Fall

Answer 3

Theology: Man’s descent into a state of sinfulness through the sins of Adam and Eve.

Question 4

How are greenhouse gasses created?

Answer 4

From the burning of fossil fuels.

Question 5

What is geothermal energy?

Answer 5

A renewable energy source that uses heat and steam from underground hot springs and wells to generate electric power.

Countries like the Philippines and Indonesia use it.

Question 6

What are fuel cells?

Answer 6

Carbonate power supplies that run on ethanol or hydrogen.

Question 7

Large raptors

Answer 7

Hawks, eagles, buzzards, vultures.

Question 8

Birds and wind turbines

Answer 8

Spinning wind turbines blades kill large birds, especially raptors which prey on rats and mice that carry diseases (so the birds are vital to the Eco-system).

Question 9

Death of birds from wind turbines

Answer 9

A peer-reviewed estimate in the march 2013 wildlife society bulletin stated that the wind industry killed approx. 80,000 raptors in 2014.

Question 10

Future danger of wind turbines to birds?

Answer 10

With Obama calling for a three-fold increase in wind energy by 2030, raptor deaths could eventually exceed 200,000 annually.

Question 11

Solar energy potential?

Answer 11

73,000 Tera watts of solar energy shine down on the earth’s surface everyday.

On a sunny day the sun shines approx 1,000 watts of energy per square yard.

Solar panels can collect it and turn it into electricity.

Question 12

What are the problems with solar energy?

Answer 12

Large scale solar systems require 8 to 15 acres of space.

The materials used are the same ones used in electronics and disposal, upgrade, and repair of such a massive amount of material is hazardous and expensive.

Question 13

Tehachapi wind farm

Answer 13

Constructed by the L.A. Dept of water and power at a cost $400 million.

The wind farm is rated at 120 megawatts per hour, but an analysis by the LADWP (dept of water and power) revealed it generated only a quarter of that.

It will provide only .40% of the energy required by L.A.

Question 14

How much oil is in one barrel?

Answer 14

42 gallons

Question 15

What is the center of the world’s oil supply?

Answer 15

The Middle East.

It’s estimated the region holds more than 700 billion barrels of oil - which is 56% of all the world’s natural resources.

Question 16

Where is most US oil refined?

Answer 16

At refineries on the gulf coast (which is why oil prices rise during typhoon season).

Question 17

Which country uses the most oil in the world?

Answer 17

The US

Question 18

Where does the US get most of its oil?

Answer 18

Domestically. Also, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

Question 19

Poultry

Answer 19

Domesticated fowl, especially the kind prized for its eggs and meat:

• chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese.

Question 20

Fowl

Answer 20

Domesticated bird. One that lives in a barnyard: chicken.

Question 21

Avian flu

Answer 21

Respiratory virus that attacks poultry and can lead to human death.

First outbreaks were in Hong Kong.

Worst outbreaks were around 2005 in Asia.

Question 22

Dynamic equilibrium

Answer 22

A state of balance due to the equal action of opposing forces.

Question 23

When is dynamic equilibrium achieved?

Answer 23

When the earth achieves homeostasis.

Question 24

Biology

Answer 24

The study of life or living matter

Question 25

Homeostasis

Answer 25

• a self-regulating process where a biological system maintains stability in a state of dynamic equilibrium.
• continuos change occurs yet relatively uniform conditions prevail.

Question 26

Gaia hypothesis

Answer 26

(Named for the Greek Earth goddess)

• Model of the earth
• Earth’s living and non living parts are viewed as a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism.

Question 27

Ecosphere

Answer 27

In Gaia hypothesis, the ecosphere is the interaction between the biosphere and all the world’s elements (abiotic world - atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere).

Gaia theory says that whenever an abiotic condition gets out of control, life responds in some way that pulls the condition under control (feedback loops).

Question 28

Feedback loop

Answer 28

In Gaia hypothesis, a living system receives information about the ecosphere and reacts to it.

This reaction produces a change. (which produces another change)

Ex:
too much oxygen > more animals are created.
Which can lead to:
Not enough oxygen > the death of animals.

Question 29

How many naturally occurring chemical elements are there on earth?

Answer 29

118

Question 30

How many of the chemical elements on earth are required by living organisms?

Answer 30

40

Question 31

Chemical Elements can combine to form what?

Answer 31

Compounds.

There are an infinite amount

Question 32

Chemical element

Answer 32

Any substance that cannot be decomposed into a simpler substance by ordinary chemical processes.

They are the fundamental materials by which all matter is composed.

Question 33

What are the two world’s in Gaia hypothesis?

Answer 33

The Abiotic world (non living world)
Consists of: 
- the geosphere (rock)
- the hydrosphere (water)
- atmosphere (gas)

AND

The Biosphere (the living world)

Question 33

What does the Gaia hypothesis propose regarding the two worlds?

Answer 33

That the biosphere regulates the abiotic world.