U3L7 Fossil Fuels and Cliamate Change Flashcards
How do most power plants produce electricity?
By burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, or oil.
What is the definition of fossil fuels?
Fuels formed from once-living organisms
About ____ percent of the energy we use in the United Stares comes from fossil fuels.
80
What are the major fossil fuels?
Hint: There are 3
- Coal
- Oil
- Natural Gas
Describe coal and how it is made.
Coal is formed from plants that died in swampy forests, and were then buried by layers of sediment. Over hundreds of millions of years, heat and pressure transformed the buried plants into coal. Because coal produces more carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants than the other major fossil fuels, there are now efforts to limits its use.
Describe how oil and natural gas form.
Oil and natural gas both form from the remains of tiny marine plants and animals. After they died, the organisms accumulated at the bottom of seas where sand and mud buried them. As the layers thickened on top of them, intense heat and pressure changed them into petroleum and natural gas. Oil and natural gas can form together or separately. Crude oil as it comes out of the ground is refined into many products, such as gasoline, heating oil, and diesel fuel.
Describe how oil shale and tar sands effect the environment.
Other fuels include oil shale and tar sands. They produce carbon dioxide when burned, just as other fossil fuels do. The advantage of these “other” fossil fuels is that some of the world’s largest deposits are in the U.S. and Canada. There are environmental challenges of using these fossil fuels. Extracting and processing oil shale and tar sands require large quantities of freshwater and energy and produce toxic substances.
What do greenhouse gases do to wavelengths?
Greenhouse gases allow short-wavelength solar energy (such as visible light and ultraviolet) to pass through the atmosphere and strike Earth’s surface. The surface then re-radiates that energy at a longer-wavelength, infrared energy or heat. The greenhouse gases absorb some of this longer-wavelength energy instead of allowing it to leak out into space.
The greenhouse gases keep the planet’s average temperature at about ______.
15.6°C (60°F)
What is the definition of greenhouse effect?
The trapping of heat by certain gases in Earth’s atmosphere
What percentage of earth’s atmosphere is made up of greenhouse gases?
Less than 1%
What are some greenhouse gases?
- Carbon Dioxide
- Water Vapor
- Methane
- Nitrous Oxide
- Ozone
True are False.
Greenhouse are not a natural part of the atmosphere.
False, they are idiot. Take carbon dioxide for an example.
What makes vapor different?
The amount of water vapor remains relatively consistent, so it doesn’t change climate.
True or False.
Water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas.
True
I mean I think so- cause like I know for a fact that it’s more abundant than carbon dioxide
Which greenhouse gas is the factor that most influences the greenhouse effect and influences climate change?
Carbon dioxide
How does deforestation contribute to global warming?
The trees in forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. loss of forests allows much of that carbon dioxide to remain in the atmosphere.
What is the definition of deforestation?
The removal of large areas of forest
Just before the start of the Industrial Revolution the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air was about ____ parts per million (ppm).
280
Today the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air was about ____ parts per million (ppm).
400
What is the trend in the carbon dioxide level graph called?
Keeling Curve
What do the yearly fluctuations of carbon dioxide levels represent?
The fluctuations are increases and decreases in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The fluctuations are basically the same year after year, suggesting that something occurs in some seasons that decreases the level of CO2, but that event does not occur in the other seasons. During spring and summer when trees are in full leaf, they absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, bringing the amount in the atmosphere down slightly. During the winter season when many trees do not have leaves and photosynthesis does not take place, the amount of CO2 spikes up slightly.
