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environmental studies 115 > Midterm 1 > Flashcards

Midterm 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Human Disruption Index

A

hdi: the ratio of human-generated flow to the natural (baseline) flow
ex) for an hdi of 10=for ever 1 unit released naturally, humans release 10

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2
Q

Human Developmental Index

A

HDI is compromised of 3 major indicators of human well-being that give a rough approximation of overall wellbeing for a given country

1) longetivity (life expectancy at child birth
2) educational attainment (mean years of education/expected education)
2) standard of living (GDP/capita)

  • avg. HDI for all countries=0.74
  • allows for cross-country comparison of the development of a country
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3
Q

Internal Costs of Energy

A

These are costs that a business bases a price one; this includes costs for materials, energy, labor, plant, equipment, and overheads, what we pay on the bill! (think of economy)

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4
Q

External Costs of Energy

A

an opportunity cost imposed on a person or many people as the result of an economic or social transaction that the person is not a party to (think of environment)
ex) a neighbors loud music, noise pollution for airports, certain gov’t expenditures–>military protection of “interests” in foreign regions

direct government subsidies and indirect tac benefits

below-market pricing of use of government land for resource extraction

pollution and other environmental impacts

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5
Q

Energy’s Role in Global Problems

A

Solving the energy problem will help solve nearly every other major environmental problem (health, climate change, water, food, terrorism&war, disease)

-when there is a problem related to the environment, it is likely to involve some type of relationship with energy

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6
Q

Energy Poverty

A

the lack of access to modern energy services, i.e electricity

increase in population in developing countries is a dilemma bc higher populations means higher demand for energy-run resources
tends to correlate with low hdi

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7
Q

Kerosene lamps

A

in third world countries, those that are in energy poverty, have no electricity so they burn kerosene lamps to make light-when you burn kerosene indoors, it creates a hazard for your lungs, also has a small affect on global warming (direct radiative forcing by black carbon emissions from the black soot)

–> unite to light, solar powered light

countries affected: Africa, Asia, and S. America, middle east, China, Afganistan, Pakistan, etc
North Africa and West Asia (NAWA)

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8
Q

The Pasternak Graph

A

the graph shows that there is a level per capita energy usage (4000kwh) which allows for a higher quality of life for citizens of a country.–> means that reaching the goal of basic well being will require large increase in energy usage world wife

  • at least 5000kwh is necessary to have a 0.9hdi (this is where we (US) and norway are at, passed this energy usage there isn’t a significant change in hdi score
  • energy use correlated with hdi score

AVG. hdi score=0.74
world avg. consumption of electricity=2190 kwh/person/year

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9
Q

Annual Per Capita Electricity use

A

-how much electricity a nation consumes per yr, unique is different for each nation
(unit on Pasternak graph, 2190 kWh per person per year is the avg globally)

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10
Q

Fertility/Hans Rosling/Sachs

A
  • Rosling Concludes that Religion has very little to do with Birth Rates
  • Hans Rosling’s key factors to help reduce population growth in poor countries:
  • -children must survive
  • -many children not needed for work
  • -increased education and integration in the labor force for WOMEN
  • -access to family planning
  • Sachs: reducing fertility rates means healthier children, faster growth in living standards and reduced environmental stressors 4 steps: 1)promote child survival 2) promote girls’ education/gender equality 3) promote availability of contraception and family planning 4) raise productivity on farm bc women w income bear fewer children
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11
Q

Energy and Human Development

A

sustainable societies typically have a low ecological footprint and high human development index

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12
Q

Energiewende

A

Germany’s plan to exit from nuclear and fossil-fuel energy and transition to low carbon and environmentally sound, reliable, and affordable energy supply aka renewables
poor plan bc:
-rising electricity cost
-subsidy is costly for consumers who have to pay for a fixed price for renewables
-the solar/wind energy is unpredictable–> since no nuclear plants, rely on conventional power plants that heavily rely on gas but is more expensive so also have to rely on coal, lignite–> plan has increased gas emissions more

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13
Q

Motivations for Sustainable Energy

A
  • From the reading, Motivations for Sustainable Energy
    1. Fossil Fuels are a finite resource
    2. Interested in security of energy supply–> if fossil fuels are available in different areas, then maybe we shouldn’t depend on them if that would make our economy vulnerable to foreigners
    3. Fossil fuels are a huge contributor to climate change–>co2 from fossil fuels enhance the greenhouse effect, its the altruistic thing to do for future generations
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14
Q

Net Energy Considerations

A
  • these considerations are vital when thinking about the lifecycle of energy projects, esp fossil and nuclear
  • renewables have fewer concerns since the fuel is either sunlight or wind or geotherms, but energy is still used to to make solar panels and wind turbines

-It take’s energy to get energy
-energy used to support the following must be considered:
Extraction
processing
construction
speed of implementation (dynamics)
restoration
decommissioning
waste disposal

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15
Q

Rate Limited/Volume Limited

A
  • Rate limited: above ground resources that are infinite and clean, NO ENERGY needed to make sun shine
    ex) sun, wind, water, biomass, waves
  • Volume limited: resources are finite and dirty, ENERGY is needed to recover energy and make it useful
    ex) coal, oil, gas, uranium`
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16
Q

Coal types

A
  • anthracite (high heat, low sulfur. but basically all used up)
  • bituminous (high heat, high sulfur. over 50% of us coal reserves) east
  • subbituminous (medium heat, low sulfur. about 40% of reserves) west
  • lignite (low heat, low sulfur. 8% of reserves. high water content can freeze in winter)
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17
Q

Coal by Wire

A

-importing energy from coal burned somewhere else
-california–> coal makes up less than 1% of electricity in Ca but 6% of the total electricity mix when you consider energy generate in ca
while we don’t have a lot of coal pollution in ca, our energy demand impacts in far away communities

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18
Q

Fracking/Ch4/Methane

A
  • Ch4=methane
  • Major component of natural gas is methane. Grabs a lot of heat as there isn’t much in the atmosphere and contributes much more to warming (GWP=30)
  • leakage from fracking–> you’re leaking natural gas it lets a lot of methane into the atmosphere
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19
Q

Tar Sands (“Oil Sands”)

A

Tar sands (also referred to as oil sands) are a combination of clay, sand, water, and bitumen, a heavy black viscous oil. Tar sands can be mined and processed to extract the oil-rich bitumen, which is then refined into oil.

methods: strip mining or In-situ

countries with the biggest oil reserves
Canada (Alberta) and Saudi Arabia

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20
Q

Bitumen

A
  • Tar sands can be mined and processed to extract the oil-rich bitumen, which is then refined into oil.
  • You have to add shit to the bitumen (benzene and a bunch of other chemicals to make it liquidy like oil. Very volatile. When pipelines break and its exposed to air the benzene will go up in the air and the bitumen settles at the bottom of waterways)
  • leftover sulfur is piled up and when it rains this can leach into waterways
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21
Q

In situ extraction

A
  • “in place”
  • 80% of tar sands will need to be extracted in this way (20% surface mining)
  • Inject steam into the ground and then you can pump it up. This requires a lot of energy (energy used to process oil sands results in large releases of carbon dioxide, much higher than more conventional extraction and processing methods)
  • one benefit is that you don’t need to tear up the land that much as you would during surface mining (but requires more energy–>larger carbon footprint)
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22
Q

Clathrate (methane hydrates)

A

methane hydrate trapped in crystalline ice

  • More than 50% of all the carbon distributed across the globe is in the form of gas hydrates
  • as global temp rises, the permafrost trapping this will melt and release even more carbon into the atmosphere
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23
Q

Mckelvey Box

A

-a simple device for visualizing levels of uncertainty and risk associated with mineral resources
-volume limited vs rate limited
-used to determining cost/risk:
extraction is no worth it if you have to pay $150 per barrel when the market price is $50

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24
Q

Reserves/Resources

A

reserve vs resource

reserves: discovered, commercially-viable deposits/economic to recover
resource: maybe not discovered, maybe not worth it economically

25
Q

Flaring

A

burning off natural gas

  • Drilling leases are typically short, and building the infrastructure to handle the gas for sale would substantially raise costs, so drillers have found it to be more profitable to just grab the oil and burn the gas.
  • Every barrel of oil they pull out of the ground of public land they have to pay an excise tax. But when they flare it or vent it off they don’t necessarily have to report it/ they avoid paying $54-$64 million in royalty payments owed to taxpayers that go to fund federal, state, and local needs
  • big issue in Nigeria (has cost the country $14.298 billion between April 2008 and October 2016)
26
Q

Horizontal Drilling

A

Horizontal drilling is a drilling process in which the well is turned horizontally at depth. It is normally used to extract energy from a source that itself runs horizontally, such as a layer of shale rock

27
Q

Energy Definitions and Types

A

“energy is eternal delight” -william blake

  • energy is the ability to do work, where work = force x distance (physicist)
  • Energy is an abstract concept that we know mathematically is always conserved when its various forms are taken into account. The amount of energy does not change in the manifold changes which nature undergoes: The First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, energy can be converted into different forms

Active Energy (actively being released)
work (work=force x distance)
radiant (light from the sun)
heat (Thermal)
electical
kinetic
Inactive Energy (potential energy)
chemical
mass
nucler
gravitational
elastic
28
Q

Power vs. Energy

A

Energy is an absolute amount (kwh or joule, the amount of work you employ to lift an apple)
Power is the RATE (Watt=joule/sec) at which you expend (or convert/aquire) energy

Power=energy/time

29
Q

Primary Energy

A

total energy content of original resource; an energy form found in nature that has not been subjected to any conversion or transformation process
it is energy contained in raw fuels, and other forms of energy received as input to a sytem (online) mail resources are fossil fuels renewables

30
Q

Hybrid Energy Unit

A

unit that expressed both power and time (kwh)
energy=power x time
1kwh=3600000 J

31
Q

Perpetual Motion Machines

A
  • perpetual motion machines purport to break the first law of thermodynamics
  • a perpetual motion machine is supposed to get more energy out of a system than the energy that is currently in the system
  • such machines are impossible, but their allure has been consistently felt throughout history
  • historical examples: rollicking railroad, villard’s wheel
32
Q

Energy Prefixes

A 
kilo=10^3
mega=10^6
giga=10^9
tera=10^12
peta=10^15
exa=10^18
zetta=10^21
yotta=10^24
33
Q

The First Law of Thermodynamics

A

energy (measured in J) can never be created or destroyed, it can only be converted from one form to another

  1. consumption really means ‘conversion’
  2. no perpetual motion machines
34
Q

Peak load/Base Load

A
  • base load is the minimum level of electricity demand required over a period of 24 hours. it is needed to provided power to components that keep running at all times
  • peak load is the time of high demans (when people are just getting home from work and turning on all their electricity like tv’s, cooking, etc, while also their work offices are still powering)

NEED FOR ENERGY STORAGE (bc electric utility load curve will change in the guture to prefer renewables)
because solar and wind come in less reliable ways, it may be useful to know the general consistency of grid demand and store renewable energy for when we need it most

35
Q

Peak load/Base Load

A
  • base load is the minimum level of electricity demand required over a period of 24 hours. it is needed to provided power to components that keep running at all times
  • peak load is the time of high demans (when people are just getting home from work and turning on all their electricity like tv’s, cooking, etc, while also their work offices are still powering)

NEED FOR ENERGY STORAGE (bc electric utility load curve will change in the guture to prefer renewables)
because solar and wind come in less reliable ways, it may be useful to know the general consistency of grid demand and store renewable energy for when we need it most
Grid operation already has stability issues, so storage simply helps with existing instability as well as helping to manage the more intermittent supply of renewables such as solar and wind (tesla powerwall and liquid metal battery also ARES and hydro)

36
Q

Duck curve/Dip curve

A

California Electricity demand-removing wind and solar energy from the net system demand, shows that during the day wind and solar energy play an essential role in providing energy during the day (dip)
The peak times, means that without solar and wind energy, we have to turn on nuclear plants to supply the energy needed for the demand in energy during prime time
With more solar energy panels, means that there will be a bigger dip→ bigger dip means that we need to come up with ways to supply the energy that is needed
→ possible solution: to store energy

37
Q

Pump-hydro storage

A
  • electricity is converted to gravitational potential energy when demand is low–> excess grid energy available–> energy is cheap
  • gravitational potential energy is converted back to electricity when demand is high and energy can be added to the grid at a profit
    ex) helm’s project
38
Q

ARES energys storage

A

Advanced Rail Energy Storage

  • Scalable storage solution using gravity (mgh)
  • approximately 80% “roundrip” efficiency
  • during decreased demand (when energy is cheap bc there is excess), trains are moved upward consuming power
  • during increased demand, trains move downhill generating power for progit
39
Q

Solar constant

A

S=1370 w/m2
the average amount of solar radiation received by the earth’s atmosphere

at earth’s distance from the sun, the power per unit area is about 1370 w/m2. this is then multiplied by the cross sectional area

40
Q

earth’s energy balance + formula

A

SC+ Mmisc=SC+ 4C(gamma)(T^4)
input=output

solar constant x cross sectional area + Mmisc (power of tides, human activity, and geothermal)= reflected sunlight (albedo)+ reradiated heat

first law of thermodynamics without greenhouse effect

41
Q

cross sectional area

A

the amount of light intercepted from the sun to the earth

42
Q

albedo

A

-how much something reflect lights
earth’s albedo is 30%
goes back out to space because white reflects light
-white roofs will increase earth’s albedo (decrease need for air conditioning–> less energy)

43
Q

mt. pinatubo

A

The eruption of pinatubo kicked up a lot of soot and sulfur into the atmosphere. scientists used this event as test opportunity for early climate models

pinatubo injected so2 in the stratosphere, where it reacted with water to form a hazy layer of aerosol particles composed primarily of sulfuric acid droplets–> the aerosol polluatants will remain in the stratosphere for mnay years–> cooled the earth
aerosol scatters and absorbs
debris from mt. pinatubo blocked the sun and chilled the world, thanks to the amplifying effects of water vapor

44
Q

white roofs

A

white roof reflect more sunlight, thus decreasing the use of air conditioners and also reduce co2 emissions

45
Q

radiative forcing (rf) + its units

A

Rf= a change in the earth’s energy balance as a result of a given gas’s or particulate’s interaction with visible or infrared radiation

  • measured in units of watts per square meter
  • overall forcing for each ghg has increased especially from co2, ch4, and black carbon
46
Q

global warming potential (GWP)

A

The GWP of a greenhouse gas is a measure of the total radiative forcing a greenhouse gas contributes over a given time period (usually 100 years) compared to CO2 on a kg per kg basis.
For instance, fossil Methane (CH4) has a GWP (IPCC 2013) of ~30. That is, 1 kg release of methane has the same heating effect as about 30 kg of CO2.
Also, N2O (Nitrous Oxide) has a GWP of around 300. That is, 1 kg release of N2O has the same heating effect as 300 kg of CO2.

47
Q

carbon cycle

A

the series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, involving the incorporation of co2 into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere thru respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels

48
Q

climate change

A

the increase in global temperatures after the industrial revolution bc of the increased release of carbon dioxide and other GHG’s

49
Q

temperature anomaly

A

the degrees above or below a given reference point (usually the avg. from 1951-1980)
-note that most heat gain is observed in the upper hemisphere, particularly the polar region

50
Q

indicators of heat gain in the earth system

A
  • Heat gain in the earth system,
    1) increasing global temperatures
    2) loss of ice in the earth system
    3) sea level rise due to:
    Thermal Expansion
    Land Ice Melting – Mountain and Polar Glaciers
    Mechanical Separation – Ice Cliff Failure
51
Q

co2 ppm

A

400 ppm

52
Q

greenhouse effect

A

On average, the earth’s surface receives more heat from the atmosphere & clouds than it does directly from the sun. This warming of the earth’s surface from the atmosphere & clouds is the greenhouse effect! The thermal infrared EMR from the atmosphere & clouds is by far a greater source of energy for the Earth’s surface than is the solar energy at shorter wavelengths, i.e. sunshine

53
Q

greenhouse gases

A
  • co2 is the largest anthropogenic contributor to greenhouse effect
  • ozone
  • n20
  • methane
  • aerosols
  • CFCS
  1. CO2 and other trace greenhouse gases are rapidly increasing in the atmosphere as a direct result of human activity.
  2. These gases absorb the earth’s waste heat in the form of infra-red radiation and trap additional heat in the lower atmosphere*. This imposes a small change on the Earth’s energy balance (a forcing).
  3. Conservation of energy (the first law) requires that climate must respond in some way to this change in energy.
54
Q

greenland ice sheet

A

-losing ice. much less ice than before
this can result in a feedback–>ice has high albedo, while ocean water had a low albedo. when ice melts, albedo in the region goes down, meaning less incoming radiation is reflected, and more is absorbed. this means additional heat gain, and is an important contributor to heat gain in the region

55
Q

forcing/feedback

A
  • positive feedback loop: enhance changes (increasing co2–> increased global temp–>increase evaporation–>increases water vapor–>warms atmosphere and contributes to global warming)
  • negative feedback loop: dampens/ buffers changes (increasing co2–>increased gloal temp–> increases evaporation–> increased low clouds–>cools atmosphere and decreases global warming)

climate modeling is super complicated due to feedbacks, and supercomputers are needed just to do moderate climate modelings

56
Q

RCP 8.5/ RCP 2.6

A

RCP 8.5:is a greenhouse gas emissions scenario such that by the year 2100, the additional radiative forcing on the Earth will by 8.5 W/m2

RCP 2.6: RCP2.6 is a scenario that has 2.6 W/m2 in the year 2100 (with a peak radiative forcing of 3.1 W/m2 in 2050)
The goal of RCP2.6 is to stay under the 2°C threshold, the goal established by the Paris Agreement

57
Q

geoengineering

A
  • the intentional large-scale manipulation of the environment
  • examples: sulfur or other particles in the atmosphere, CO2 capture, mirrors in space, electrochemical weathering
  • moral hazard (aka when you know something is in place to protect you, you become less careful): The perception that geoengineering can save us in a worst-case scenario may disincentivize policies that will stave off the worst-case scenario
58
Q

paris agreement

A
  1. Signatories recognize that 2°C is the upper limit of (reasonably) safe temperature increase, and that decreasing emissions is vital to staying under the limit
  2. Each country voluntarily establishes a “nationally determined contribution” (NDC) of a reduction of carbon emissions below the country’s 1990 levels of CO2equivalent
  3. Countries will meet in 5 years to revisit and reevaluate their plans
  4. Other rules/goals about transparency in reporting of emissions, establishing a fund for poor countries, etc.
    Concerns:
    -No accountability measures
    -UK Appears to be planning for more fossil fuel use
    -NDC’s are unable to meet the necessary 2°C limit
    -No potential for liability by wealthy countries for contributing the most to climate change
59
Q

climate justice

A
  • a term used for framing global warming as an ethical and political issue, rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature
  • Climate justice advocates call for accountable, authentic, and effective public and community participation

environmental studies 115 (1 decks)

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