M3 Flashcards
short-term changes in atmospheric variables such as the temperature, precipitation, wind, and barometric pressure in a given area over a period of hours or days
Weather
determined by the average weather conditions of the earth or of a particular area, especially temperature and precipitation, over periods of at least three decades to thousands of years.
climate
Is climate change new?
No
What’s different about this age of climate change?
It is accelerating at an alarming rate, and out of non-anthropogenic patterns
What are some measures for climate change? Name three
radioisotopes in rocks and fossils
plankton and radioisotopes in ocean sediments
materials trapped in ancient air in ice cores of glaciers
pollen from the bottom of lakes and bogs
tree rings
temperature measurements since 1861
how long does methane (CH4) stay in the air?
average 25 years
How much share of methane emissions has come from human activities in the last 275 years? What kind?
70%, livestock, gas, coal, landfill, rice production. Methane has trippled since then
How much stronger is the warming effect of CH4 than co2?
25 times
What are methane time bombs?
permafrost, tropical wetlands (if it rains more, decaying plants), maybe arctic ice
What is the role of water vapor in GHG warming?
It’s a secondary effect; it amplifies GHG as an effect of warming.
How do scientists know that increased solar output is not causing warming?
An increase in solar output would cause heating on the top of the earth, but the earth is heating up more from the bottom.
They determined that the energy output of the sun dropped slightly over the past decades
How much anthropogenic co2 emissionsdo oceans remove?
1/3rd
How else do oceans capture carbon?
By putting it into deep sea sediments, by making it carbonic acid, through photosynthesis of plants in it
What is shit about the ocean capturing carbon?
Ocean acidification, and the warmer it gets, the more co2 is released from it, more natural disasters with warming
What is the role of clouds in climate change?
We aren’t completely sure, but thin high clouds could cause more warming and low thick clouds could decrease warming; in any case there are more of them with oceanic warming
What are natural helpers against climate change?
Ice, oceans, plants, soil, aerosol
What is the boundary for average temperature?
2 degrees, some say 1.5 degrees increase since pre-industrial times
What is the boundary for amtospheric co2 levels?
450 ppm
How is ice warmed?
From the sea and the air at the same time
Sun reflects on white stuff
Albedo effect (1/3rd of solar)
What is the influence of warming on the jet stream?
arctic seawater tempreatures slow the jet stream.
What are the most important bodies of ice right now?
Greenland, south and north pole, glaciers, permafrost.
What would be the consequences for a +1 meter sea rise this century?
destruction of 1/3rd of coral reefs, wetlands, and deltas;
disruption of most coastal fisheries;
flooding, submersion and erosion of low-lying islands (pacific, carribean, us islands);
saltwater contamination of freshwater coastal aquifiers
With how much has ocean acification increased since 1800?
30%
What are consequences of oceanic acidification (H2co3)?
Destruction of coral reefs, snails, shell repair and formation, decreased populations of phytoplankton (which is fk essential)
What is the cause for extreme weather?
Water vapor will take water away from other areas and concentrate it; therefore, places that were already wet get wetter, and dry places get drier.
what are the consequences of extreme weather?
Food shortage, extra costs, extra irrigation use, dried out soils and plants, wildfires, floods, heat waves, natural disasters
What is the impact of extreme weather on agriculture?
Especially monoculture farms will struggle, as their crops are based on specific temperature and water types
Food shortage globally
What are areas especially vulnerable to climate-related agricultural degradation?
Bangladesh, Egypt, and Vietnam, and parts of the African coast, areas dependent on rivers by glaciers or ice.
What would be the consequences of cliamte change on the human health condition?
Increased diseases, lower life expectancy, malnutrition, air pollution, increased bacteria
What is the role of warming on biodiversity?
Causes imbalance/inequality; seasons are shifting, e.g. the pine beetle thriving while it was supposed to die in winter, eating all trees.
What drives the nutrient cycles?
Solar energy and gravity
Explain the hydrological water cycle.
First, water evaporates (warm), then it condenses (low pressure) and rains down somewhere (precipitation), where it is stored in aquifiers, plants, animals, soil, air, and eventually goes down to be ground water or is stored as ice or sea water, we drain wetlands, clear vegetation, withdraw lots of water
What are human fuckeries with the water cycle?
We cause increased runoff because we take soil and plants away, we overpump aquifiers, and pollute the water with toxins
What is the role of gravity in water cycle?
When vapor rises into the atmosphere, when gravity brings down droplets.
If water did not have a high boiling point, the oceans would have evaporated a long time ago
cool!
Agents that remove co2 out of the atmosphere
terrestial producers
release the carbon stored in the bodies of dead organisms on land back into the air as CO2 (can remain in the atmosphere for 100 years or more).
terrestial decomposers
Remove CO2 from the water.
aquatic producers
release carbon that can be stored as insoluble carbonates in bottom oceanic sediment for very long periods of time.
aquatic decomposers
what are the largest stores of carbon in?
marine sedimentation
How is fossil fuel made?
stacked dead organismic matter over millions ofyears
two processes that circle the carbon cycle
aerobic transpiration, photsynthesis
What are the two ways that carbon gets absorbed?
Photosynthesis, and diffusion (into the ocean).
What is nitrogen naturally essential for?
For proteins, vitamings, and nucleic acids for plants and animals,
Nitrogen fixation through bacteria
certain nitogen-fixing bacteria in water or soil turn nitrogen into ammonia -> eventually absorbed by plants and put into the ground -> plant eating animals absorb this OR oceanic sedimentation
Or electrical storms -> ammonia in soil
How is nitrogen decomposed?
When animals and plants die, we release nitrogen again
What do denitrifying bacteria do?
They turn the nitrogen into a gas again
How do humans fuck up the nitrogen cycle?
We add lots of nitrogen to water and the atmosphere through runoff and absorption from agricultural fertilizers (more than doubled)
We add nitrogen through burning fuels
Where does phosphorus naturally circulate?
phosphate salt rocks in mountains and ocean sediments, the crust, water and living organisms (not the atmosphere)
How is phosphorus distributed and what for?
By runoff from water/rivers going over the phosphate salt rocks, it can be lost for a long time if hidden in ocean sediments after. The function is for nucleic acids and teeth and bones
How do humans fuck the phosphorus cycle up?
We mine phosphore salts in order to make plants grow more, which then goes into waters again and causes deoxygenation, overcompetition, and just takes away a limited supply of terrestrial phosphor
How is sulfur naturally cycled and created?
it comes from active volcanoes, and is then absorbed by plants and water, which use it for proteins
it can also bond with some other minerals, and make sulfur-containing rocks, which eventually form into oceanic sediment plates as well
DMS, a gas made by oceanic algae, can bond with sulfur, making acid droplets containing sulfur in the atmosphere
How do humans fuck the sulfur cycle up?
we burn sulfur containing coal and oil to produce electric power
sulfur-containing oil is used for petroleum or cooking oil
we mine sulfur-containing minerals
THIS INCREASED ATMOSPHERIC SULFUR CAN CAUSE ACID RAIN
the time it takes to use up a certain proportion—usually 80%—of the reserves of a mineral at a given rate of use.
depletion
when it costs more to find and mine it than to use it.
economic depletion
The three options for mining minerals
A: no recylcing, no reuse, no increase in mineral reserves, rising prices, mine use throw away. (use much, throw away)
B: recycling, better mining technology, higher prices, or new discoveries will increase mineral reserves. (use a little, longer time)
C: B + reuse, reduced consumption, finding a substitute for the resource (use controlled, long long time)
Trends in mining minerals.
1 increased scarcity in e.g. china and the us, who are uncontrolledly depleting all of their (rare earth) minerals for economic profit and competition
2 increasingly tring to outsource mineral mining
3 lower grade sources, harder to reach places (e.g. deep sea mining)
4. government mining corporations using taxes to try to keep prices low
Where can you find mineral concentrations in the ocean?
manganese nodules, hydrothermal ore deposits, coastal shorelines
life cycle of a mineral
mining -> processing -> manufacturing product -> disposal/recycling
What are solutions to mineral scarcity?
1 technological optimism (using other materials)
2 nanotechnology (use nano-levels in order to innovate technology and make materials much stronger and durable, but there are lots of health hazards still)
3 graphene (very thin plastic)
4 sustainable use (recycle, reuse)
mining techniques
surface mining, smelting ores, open pit mining, strip mining
vegetation, soil, and rock overlying a mineral deposit are cleared away.
The soil and rock called overburden, are usually deposited in piles of waste material called spoils.
Used the msot out of everything
surface mining
Heating ores to release metals. Huge water pollution, air pollution, huge health issues. Should be heavily controlled or not done at all.
smelting ores
machines are used to dig very large holes and remove metal ores (copper, gold, sand, gravel, stone etc.)
open pit mining
a gigantic earthmover strips away the overburden from a flat area and put it back in the trench after extraction.
area strip mining
used mostly to mine coal and various mineral resources on hilly or mountainous terrain. Huge power shovels and bulldozers cut a series of terraces into the side of a hill. Then, earthmovers remove the overburden and put the overburden back.
contour strip mining
What are issues with renewables?
There need to be A LOT of them
They use a lot of rare earth minerals
Needs to be a nation-wide transformation
People find them ugly or annoying
How to solve the energy crisis?
Either we decrease the population, or we decrease consumption per capita
the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change.
geo-engineering
geo-engineering (1): reduce the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, allowing outgoing long-wave (thermal infra-red) heat radiation to escape more easily
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR)
geo-engineering (2) : reduce the net incoming short-wave (ultra-violet and visible) solar radiation received, by deflecting sunlight, or by increasing the reflectivity (albedo) of the atmosphere, clouds or the Earth’s surface.
Solar radiation management (SRM)
How to do CDR (3)?
Enhancing uptake and storage by terrestrial biological systems;
Enhancing uptake and storage by oceanic biological systems; or
Using engineered systems (physical, chemical, biochemical).
Is CDR and SRM long term?
CDR is long term, SRM is short term.
Important in CDR?
Using low-cost, natural solutions that do not pertube pre-existing ecosystems
Types of SRM (4)
Surface-based (land or ocean albedo modifi cation); *
Troposphere-based (cloud modifi cation methods, etc.); *
Upper atmosphere-based (tropopause and above, ie, stratosphere, mesosphere);
* Space-based.
Dangers of SRM
We would need a clear exit if it goes wrong
Does nothing against e.g. ocean acificiation
It would need to be maintained
Levels of SRM (3) (most to least effective)
stratospheric aerosol methods (micro)
cloud brightening systems (meso)
space based SRM methods (macro)
What kind of energy comes into the world?
solar energy, which is converted to heat on earth(which leaves again as infrared)
What kind of heat energy exits the world?
Infrared energy (through convetion, and the rising of hot air)
How much heat energy exits the world?
60%, the rest is absorbed by GHG and by clouds (cycles)
What happens if solar energy/infrared energy is perturbed by 1% in ratio?
heat increase of 1.8 degrees
What has disturbed the solar energy/infrared energy ratio?
Increased GHG emissions
Criteria for biogeo-engineering
reversibility, public attitudes, social acceptability, political feasibility and legality, finances, which may change over time.
Three levels of scenario building (PBL)
beliefs, culture -> rules, laws behaviour -> physical entities
Germany bringing down the price for solar energy just because of policy decisions.
Example of natural and societal structures together
How to reduce GHG according to PBL
Activities (economic structure, growth reduction), energy demand (efficiency, lifestyle change), energy supply (decarbonisation), capture (carbon capture and storage), food demand (lifestyle change), agricultural production (alternative agricultural practices)
Geo-politics is at the juncture of which three concepts?
Geo-economy, security, global trends
Is the world becoming more multipolar?
Yes!
Is the state’s role increasing or decreasing?
Increasing!
Are state businesses becoming more and moer powerful?
Yes!
Resource nationalism
Nationalism as a result of economic independency and resource scarcity (subsidies, trade agreements)
What is the only sector in which the EU has autnomy fully?
agriculture
The ability of a state to pursue its national interests and adopt its preferred foreign policy without depending heavily on other countries.
strategic autonomy
The process of recovering and recycling a city’s material.
urban mining
Why is it difficult to recycle rare earth materials?
Because they are very intertwined with each other and melded and difficult to extract. There are only very minimum amounts of rare earth materials in our tech or building apparatus for example.
Are we dependent on china for rare earth minerals and our material wealth? Why?
Yes, because china has leverage over the value chain
How many interstate conflicts have been over resources in the last 60 years?
40%
Diversifying where and what to buy in the global market
Diversification of supply
What could help the geo-political scene?
standard setting (certifications)
R&D
circular economy strategies
resource diplomacy
what are parts of resource nationalism?
vertical integration, stockpiling, exporting restritions, licensing
Spheres of the earth
geosphere biosphere hydrosphere atmosphere
includes the mixture of gases that surrounds the planet
atmoshere
thincludes all living things including plants animals and other organisms
biosphere
includes the crust, mantle and inner and outer core
the geosphere
planets water (in all forms)
the hydrosphere
Air mass is controlled by…
the coriolis effect (turning world)
density of air (H/L)
wind happens in the…
troposphere
wind is important for…
transferring resources, regulating climate and temperature, ocean currents, drought and wetness
type depends on what factors (4)?
Climate
(Temperature, rainfall, moisture)
Parent material or rock
(Weathered underlying material)
Topography
(Erosion and deposition)
Biota
(Mix and breakdown of the soil)
Time
(It takes hundreds of years to develop 1 cm of soil (faster in tropical, slower in cold and dry regions))
an organism that eats other plants or animals for energy and nutrients.
heterotroph
organisms that produce new biomass from inorganic resources (carbon dioxide and mineral nutrients), using either light energy (photoautotrophs) or energy from reduced molecules in the environment (chemoautotrophs).
autotrophs
Uses light to make energy, relies on inorganic resources
photo-autotroph
uses molecules to make energy, relies on inorganic resources
chemo-autotroph
uses light to make energy, relies on organic resources
photo-heterotroph
uses molecules to make energy, relies on organic resources
chemo-heterotroph (humans)
Where is most carbon stored in the earth crust?
Deep sea sediment
is most carbon stored in the whole earth system?
The lower mantle
is most carbon stored in the whole earth system?
The lower mantle
What terrestrial biome is teh most carbons tored?
tropical, subtropical forest -> boreal forest -> grasslands
Where is msot carbon stored terrestrially, geographically?
south asia, south-america
Where arethe biggest oil reserves geographically?
saudi-arabia, venezuela, middle-east generally
Who owns most oil?
Chinese companies, western companies, saudi-arabian company
Complexity
A higher form of chaos (what climate change is all about)
Examples of tipping points
jet stream, arctic ice, amazon rainforest, monsoons, coral reefs, permafrost
describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth’s movements on its climate over thousands of years.
milankovitch cycles
Earth encounters more variation in the energy that it receives from the sunwhen earths orbit is elongated
eccenricity
the tilt of the earth varies between 22.5and 24.5 , the greater the tilt, the more solar energy the poles receive
tilt
A gradual wobble that defines the relationship between tilt and eccentricity
precession
Are we currently in one of the msot stable temperature moments of the world?
Yes!
Where does energy come from from the inner mantle?
through the divides between tectonic plates
blackbody energy
all objects emitting electo-magnetic radiation
Is infrared and solar energy electro-magnetic radiation?
YEs!
How will seasons affect carbon cycles?
in warm times, plants and soil will breathe out more carbon to keep cool
gases that are present in small amounts within an environment such as a planet’s atmosphere.
trace gases
Which hemisphere is suffering from ice decrease more?
The northern hemisphere (because it has less convection, and there is more surface area which warms more)
Advocacy for human population planning according to this principal.
neo-malthusian theory
Why will metal ore prices not go up, even in the face of increased scarcity?
Technological development in mining and refining
Scale-up of mining
Decreasing transport prices because of bulk transport
Globalisation
Environmental costs being externalised (not within the production process)
Why do we have a rapid increase in necessity for base materials
Increasing urbanisation (especially in’ emerging economies)
Why do we have a rapid increase in necessity for everyday products (and the minerals required for it)?
population increase, increasing complexity of products, increased lviing standards
Why do we need more materials for the energy transition?
Because electrified tech (like electric cars) erquire a lot more (rare earth) minerals
How much would mineral demand rise if we were to meet the electrification goals for 2050?
four times
difference between scarcity and depletion
Scarcity is related to the relative size of material flows, while depletion is related to the stocks (Flow and stock)
Weaponised resources/power politics over finances and stocks and owning.
Raw material from politically, economically, societally unstable places.
Natural disasters as an impact from fucked resource mining.
Demand shocks through new technology, crises etc.
+
Unequal mega-colonial power/’agreement’ binds and global inequality due to a fucked system.
Characteristics of teh material use/mineral fight
globalisation is a one-off gain
no further decrease costs bulk transport
limits to the cale up of mining projects
effiiency refining is closing on physical limitations
resilient and sustainable supply chain is a must
projections into the future of geo-politics
What is EU resource strategy?
To decouple economic growth with environmental degradataion and make everything better at once
How does the Eu want to achieve decoupling?
“ecological efficiency”; increased resouce productivity (tech, yield) and reducing the footprint per unit
What has the most climate impact (resource)?
Oil for heating and transport
What has the most land use impact (resource?)
animal products (1) and crops (2)
Can recycling and reuse decrease the demand for primary and secondary products?
Yes!
mega
1 000 000
giga
1 000 000 000
tera
1 000 000 000 000
peta
1 000 000 000 000 000
exa
1 000 000 000 000 000 000
zetta
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
power formula
power = energy/time
what levels of energy are there?
primary, secondary, useful
What losses are there on primary energy level?
power station waste heat (35%)
What losses are there on seconadary energy level?
Apliance losses; waste heat of motors or light bulbs
What losses are there on useful energy level?
lighting of empty rooms, poorly insualted buildings
Formula for heat
electricity + heat + cooling
energy efficiency (value)
the amount of energy that is converted/used at the given energy level
stocks of energy that have built up for very long times and are now possible to exploit (fossil fuels etc.)
energy stocks
natural cycles of energy that are capturable as well, in a sustainable manner.
energy flows
energy carrier
associated with the energy conversion of one to another
Where does most per capita consumption of energy go to?
heating and cooling, cars and jet flights
Would an energy crisis also entail a security crisis?
Yes!
What are solutions according to paul behrens
relying on energy flows rather than energy stocks, making concrete energy plans and electrifying everything
Wood residues
Harvesting/primary residues (agricultural/forestry residues)
Processing/secondary residues (wood chips, sawmill waste)
End of life/tertiary residues (waste wood, second-hand)
food/feed crops
Energy crops
Aquatic biomass
Animal feces
Used cooking oil
Waste water
Organic municipal waste
biomass
Concerns with biomass
requires agricultural land expansion
initiatlly causes higher co2 emissions
Challenges with solar and wind energy
Differs greatly per time of day/month/year
power storage options
not very suitable for producing heat
when a network increases in size, every member of the network benefits, even though they have not paid for this benefit.
positive externality
Are there incentives coming from the market to produce low-carbon tech?
Very little
Can smart energy networks be established through market dynamics alone?
No, the state would need to help, and policy interventions
What is seeds being patented by corporations an example of
WTO ‘free trade’
what is corporations suing the state and winning from democratic governments for more ‘ free trade’ an example of?
TCoprporate/industrial power in food production
