Sustainability and Course Outline Flashcards
CH₄ has 25x the warming effect of CO₂
Why is CO₂ more cause for concern?
CH₄ has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere
12yrs vs the 300yrs for CO₂
But warming is causing Clathrates (frozen methane) to be released from oceans
What was the first main definition for sustainability created by the Brundland Commission in 1987
“…meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
What are the 3 pillars of Sustainability
point is to address all of them ‘triple bottom line’
1) Environment - maintaining the Earth’s life support system
2) Social - maintaining community (civic) capacity that fosters effective participation and equitable treatment of all stakeholder
3) Economic - maintaining an economic system that provides a non-declining standard of living for this future generation
What are the UN Sustainable Development Goals
- The sustainable development goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity
- They are built from the 2000 Millennium development goals
Explain through the example of the Haber process, how one chemical activity can have impacts on multiple SDGs
The Haber process is used to make nitrogen fertilisers
These fertilisers are used in farming to grow food, hence it would impact the ‘zero-hunger’ STG
But overproduction of these nitrogen fertilisers could link to ‘responsible consumption and production’ STG
Nitrogen can also be used in explosives which can link to the ‘peace, justice and strong institutions’ STG
There are others STG that link too
One way to describe our current economy is…
The ‘Take-Make-Dispose’ Economy
Basically describing the current industrial model as a ‘linear’ system
In order to be sustainable we need to move away from the linear process and recycle things
What did the pandemic reveal about the drugs market in the UK
For the production of generic drugs they are produced abroad because it is financially cheaper
But with the increased demand due to covid, it revealed how fragile the UK supply chains are, are some stocks ran out
Suggesting there is a real need for new, cleaner processes for making these drugs so their manfacture can be re-shored to the UK
Biology is a lot better at having a ‘Circular Economy’ than we are
Explain this through the Carbon Cycle
CO₂ is sequestered by plants during photosynthesis
Then used to make organic matter in the plant
This organic matter can then go onto decay and be released as CO₂/fossilsed or be eaten by other organisms
CO₂ can then be emitted agin through respiration and burning of fossil fuels
Goes round in a circle - we need to get our industrial processes to do this to reduce impacts of climate change
What is the idea of ‘Chemical Leasing’
The idea is about selling the outcome of chemicals (e.g. what its function is) as a product
The payment is no longer related to the chemical itself, but to the benfits of the chemical
The service provider now wants to use as little to save money, using the minimum amount of chemicals and minimising waste
Explain in terms of the use of argochemicals how Chemical Leasing would work
Pesticides and Fertilisers are usually sprayed across an entire field
However if you spray each plant, only the plant which needs the pesticide will get it
The result is a 60% descreased agrochemical cost reduction through less pesticides sprayed and increased workplace saftey
According to Peter Licence, What is sustainability in terms of Chemistry?
“… deploying atoms and energy in the more responsible way to deliver a safe environment and an acceptable quality of lifefor all, both now and in the foreseeable future…..”
According to Paul Anastas, What is Green Chemistry?
“Green Chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and/or generation of hazardous substrance to health or the environment”
What is the keep issue when judging a chemical process?
There are many different aspects to a chemical process and how you judge the process depends to which aspect you wish to highlight
There are all sorts of way you can judge the sustainability of a chemical process (Green Metrics)
