Week 8: Slide (24) The Second Great Transition Flashcards
What is a major environmental impact of the Second Great Transition?
The large-scale consumption of fossil fuels, leading to a significant release of carbon stored for millions of years.
Who referred to fossil fuels as “frozen sunlight,” and what does this term mean?
Alfred Crosby used the term to describe fossil fuels as ancient solar energy stored in the earth for millions of years, now released through industrial activities.
True or False: The release of sequestered carbon is a new phenomenon that started with the Industrial Revolution.
False. The release of carbon isn’t new, but the scale of release due to industrialization is unprecedented.
Fill in the blank: According to Penna, the Second Great Transition is marked by the __________ of fossil fuels on an ever-growing scale, contributing to major environmental changes.
Consumption
What is one way to understand the impact of fossil fuel consumption during the Industrial Revolution?
It represents the rapid release of 100 million years’ worth of stored energy, fundamentally altering atmospheric carbon levels and impacting the environment.
Environmentally, this means a release of carbon that’s been sequestered for 200 million-plus years (Alfred Crosby, in his marvelous book on the energy history of humans, Children of the Sun, called this the release of “frozen sunlight”)
What is the Second Great Transition?
The Second Great Transition refers to the Industrial Revolution and the shift to large-scale fossil fuel consumption, which released stored carbon on an unprecedented scale, transforming economies and impacting the environment.
Fill in the blank:
The Industrial Revolution led to a massive release of carbon that had been stored in the earth for over 200 million years.
Historian Alfred Crosby referred to this release of ancient, stored energy in his marvellous book Children of the Sun as “__________.”
frozen sunlight
