Unit 11 Blog

Discussion Topics:

Connections Discussion:

Coral reefs are significant because they serve as habitats for many diverse species. The amount of biodiversity found in the coral reefs is astonishing! Coral reefs are often called "rainforests of the sea" because of their rich biodiversity. Due to higher sea temperatures from gobal warming, major bleaching events have occurred. These bleaching events were caused by the response of corals to the stress of warmer temperatures. The corals expel the colorful algae that live within them. Some coral are able to recover but the ones that aren't usually die. The entire ecosystem for which it forms the base, virtually disappears. Additionally, ocean acidification is a threat to coral. This occurs when oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The corals are restrained from growing due to oceans becoming more acidic. People might not want to tour these reefs if the main attraction, the coral, are dying out. Water quality is being improved by reducing water pollution from sources and improving watershed management of nearby lands are conservation efforts being made to reduce the destruction. 

The southern forests shelter many species and the diverse and beautiful ecosystem is critically endangered. Global warming and urban development have caused a loss in habitats of species and also droughts and wildfires have misplaced the homes of many of these species. The maintenance and restoration of the natural forest and wetland systems is required to keep the southern forests in tact. An alternative to this destruction would be to store ground water in aquifiers because global warming leads to more evaporation of lakes and reservoirs.

Ozone Discussion

Both the tropospheric and stratospheric ozone pose negative human health effects. For example, the tropospheric ozone irritates the respiratory system which causes throat irritation, coughing and decreased lung function. Additionally many diseases are associated with diseases of the respiratory system like asthma and bronchitis. This ozone can also irritate the eyes. The UVB from stratospheric ozone causes nonmelanoma skin cancer and plays a major role in malignant melanoma development. 

 The stratospheric ozone layer provides protection from ultraviolet solar radiation but can also pose negative human health effects due to anthropogenic contributions to ozone destruction. Chemical catalysts like chlorine enter the atmosphere in many ways. The major source of chlorine in the stratosphere is a class of anthropogenic compounds known as chlorofluorocarbons, a family of organic compounds whose properties make them ideal for use in refrigeration and air conditioning. The CFCs are extremely helpful because they are stable, inert, nontoxic, and nonflammable but these same features enable them to harm the stratosphere. 

First, UV-C radiation breaks the bonds holding together the oxygen molecule (O2), leaving two free oxygen atoms. Oxygen is then converted to ozone in the presence of ultraviolet radiation. Ozone is broken down into O2 and free oxygen atoms when it absorbs both UV-C and UV-B ultraviolet light. The free oxygen atoms and molecular oxygen may again react to produce ozone molecules; thus, ozone is continuously formed and continuously broken down in the presence of sunlight, maintaining a steady state concentration of ozone. 

During high-temperature combustion, combustion in automobile engines, combustion in fuel-burning power plants and burning of fossil fuels, nitrogen reacts with oxygen or nitric oxide reacts with oxygen and that is how photochemical smog is formed.

Positive and Negative Feedbacks
Positive Feedbacks: Global soils contain more than twice as much carbon as the amount currently in the atmosphere. Higher temperatures are expected to increase the biological activity of decomposers in these soils. This decompostion leads to the release of additional CO2 from the soil to the atmosphere. With more CO2 in the atmosphere, the temperature change will be amplified even more. This is expected in tundra biomes containing permafrost. As atmospheric concentrations of CO2 from anthropogenic source increase, the Arctic regions become substantially warmer and the frozen tundra begins to thaw.

Negative Feedbacks: Plants respond to increases in atmospheric carbon. Because carbon dioxide is required for photosynthesis, an increase in CO2 can stimulate plant growth. More plants will cause more CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere. This negative feedback causes carbon dioxide and temperature increases to be smaller than they otherwise would have been. This negative feedback appears to be one of the reasons why only about half of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere by human activites has remained in the atmosphere.

Big Picture

Human Impact: People use coal and oil every day. In order to acquire coal and oil, many corrosive gases are released into the atmosphere. For example, Sulfur dioxide comes primarily from combustion of fuels such as coal and oil. This gas serves a respiratory irritant and can also exacerbate asthma. Additionally, people use motor vehicles as the main source for transportation. This and stationary fossil fuel combustion are the primary anthropogenic sources of nitrogen oxides. Nitrogen oxides also serve as respiratory irritant and increase susceptibility to respiratory infection. Furthermore, due to vehicle exhaust and most other combustion processes carbon monoxide gas is formed. This gas bonds to hemoglobin thereby interfering with oxygen transport in the bloodstream. Moreover, it causes headaches in humans at low concentrations and can cause death with prolonged exposure at high concentrations. 

Environmental Impact: The release of excess Sulfur dioxide into the air can harm stomates and other plant tissue. The SO2 gas converts to sufluric acid in the atmosphere which is harmful to aquatic life and some vegetation. Similarly, the release of excess Nitrogen oxides convert to nitric acid in the atmosphere which is also harmful to aquatic life and some vegetation. Also, it contributes to overfertilizing of terrestrial and aquatic systems. In addition to these gases harming the environment, global warming has serious consequences for the environment and organisms. The melting of polar ice caps, glaciers, and permafrost and rising sea levels are effects that are already occurring which are damaging the environment. Other effects are predicted to occur in the future, including an increased frequency of heat waves, reduced cold spells, altered precipitation patters and storm intensity, and shifting ocean currents, but it is less clear whether they will actually occur.

Economic Impact: Due to the release of notorious gases in the atmosphere, the creation of new industrial chemicals have sparked up. Also, pollution control includes prevention, technology, and innovation. A lot of money is spent on these innovations in order to reduce the amount of pollutants being released into the air. For example, beginning in 1975, all new automobiles sold in the United States were required to include a catalytic converter. This converter reduced the nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions. In order to operate properly, the precious metals in the catalytic converter could not be exposed to lead. This, in turn, meant that gasoline could no longer contain lead. Although this was beneficial to human health, a lot of time and money was put into the improvements in the combustion of technology of power plants and factories to reduce air emissions of lead. 

Government Legislation:

Clean Air Act: require that EPA establish standards to control pollutants that are harmful to human health and welfare. 

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): the EPA periodically specifies concentration limits for each air pollutant. For each pollutant the NAAQS note a concentration that should not be exceeded over a specified time period

Unit 10 Blog

Discussion Questions

List #1: Rank the sources in order of MOST environmentally friendly to LEAST environmentally friendly based on what you have learned in class.  Next to each source, give an example of the type of pollution produced by that source.

1. Hydroelectric: Although hydropower has no air quality impacts, construction and operation of hydropower dams can significantly affect natural river systems as well as fish and wildlife populations.

2. Geothermal: There is a large amount of land required to maintain a geothermal plant 

3. Natural Gas: Significant source of emissions of methane

4. Nuclear: Produce radioactive waste

5. Solar: Some manufacturing processes are associated with greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrogen trifluroide and sulfur hexafluoride have been tracked back to the production of solar panels.
6. Wind: Emissions associated with other stages of a wind turbine’s life-cycle, including materials production,
materials transportation, on-site construction and assembly, operation and maintenance, and decommissioning and dismantlement.
7. Oil: Oil spills in the ocean. They can't dissolve in water so the oil just stays there.
8. Biomass: Burning leads to the release of carbon monoxide
9. Coal: Coal plants release Sulfur dioxide into the air which takes a major toll on public health

List #2: Rank the sources based on the MOST used to LEAST used source in the US.

1. Oil
2. Natural Gas
3. Coal
4. Nuclear
5. Biomass
6. Hydroelectric
7. Wind
8. Geothermal
9. Solar

List #3: Rank the sources based on the MOST used to LEAST used source WORLDWIDE.
1. Oil
2. Coal
3. Natural Gas
4. Biomass
5. Nuclear
6. Hydroelectric
7. Wind
8. Solar
9. Geothermal

List #4: Rank the sources based on the MOST amount of useful energy generated versus LEAST amount of useful energy generated by the source.
1. Wind
2. Hydroelectricity
3. Natural gas

4. Coal

5. Nuclear

6. Biomass

7. Oil

8. Geothermal

9. Solar

   

Biofuels are actual fuels that form well when biological matter decomposes. Biofuel exist in gas, solid, and liquid, in all of the three states of matter. Biofuels can be made immediately while Fossil Fuels can take as long as a lifetime to build. Biofuels are renewable resources while fossil fuels are not. Using biofuels is better than using fossil fuels even though they release the same pollutants because biofuel is a renewable resource. 

The use of fossil fuels is not sustainable because there is no way to limit our consumption to the rate at which they are being formed. Fossil fuel combustion leads to the release of excess amounts of CO2 and its contribution to global warming is very high. Production, transportation, and use of oil can cause water pollution. Oil spills, for example, leave waterways and their surrounding shores uninhabitable for some time. Such spills often result in the loss of plant and animal life. The burning of fossil fuels impacts the carbon cycle because carbon that is locked in these fossil fuels does not cycle through the earth. When humans burn fossil fuels, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This carbon is then free to cycle through the earth upsetting the natural balance of the carbon available.  

jj Biofuel is produced to reduce greenhouse gas emission sand to mitigate the effects of global warming produced by fossil fuels. However, some unintended impacts of biofuel production are on land, water and biodiversity. They are affected by agricultural production and if the agricultural production is intensified then the side effects are even greater. The common conception is that growing crops for biofuels will offset the greenhouse gas emissions because they directly remove carbon dioxide from the air. This removal of carbon dioxide disturbs the balance of the carbon cycle.  

Environmentally, the groundwater was contaminated. Initial contamination of the groundwater may have been introduced by method of disposal used for the Red Forest. Much of the Red Forest was bulldozed and buried in trenches. Because of the trees decaying, the radiation was leached into groundwater contaminating and upsetting the animals living in that area.
Economically, all activities had to be stopped until the area was restored. 
This accident caused many people to get sick because of the radiation caused by the plant. Approximately 203 people were hospitalized and a few people around the area fell ill.  
On March, 11, 2011, three of Fukushima Daiichi reactors cooled which caused a nuclear accident in Japan. All three cores largely melted in the first three days. Many people were affected by this accident and are currently facing the consequences of this accident. Some people were hospitalized while others had to evacuate their homes. 
Nuclear waste is stored in either a wet or dry environment. The wet storage currently stores the nuclear fuel in specially designed pools at individual reactor sites around the country. This is beneficial because it shields the waste from radiation for anyone near the pool. There is a plant in California called the Diablo Canyon plant which uses the wet storage method. 


This biome is classified as the Tundra, and it's susceptible to damage and considered fragile because there are only about 45 species in this biome. These species are both found in water and on land. These mammals are allowed to flourish without human impact.
Environmental and economic impacts of drilling include exploitation of the area. This exploitation intrudes on the habitats of the limited mammals living in the biome. Additionally, an oil spill could occur. This oil spill could also alter many habitats and lead to various economic costs. It would require a lot of money to restore the land. 
Economically, there is enough land to provide for the mining of oil. The more oil that is produced the less it will cost. Since it is one of the largest sources of energy, the economy will benefit. 
Environmentally, the limited and unique species living in this Tundra would get hurt by the drilling of oil. Their habitats would get disturbed causing them to leave the area.

Two suggestions for how we can reduce overall consumption of the oil needed for transportation is to use alternative fuels. More vehicles need to be capable of running on alternative fuels. In order to do this, we need to open fuel standards so we can level the playing field for alternative fuels. Additionally, we need to coordinate standards on the provision of public goods, namely infrastructure, in order to enable more alternative fuel vehicles to enter the market. Moreover, just by supporting the deployment of a nation-wide charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and acting upon it we can make a difference.

We can consume electricity by unplugging things that are not in use. For example, unplugging chargers and using power strips to turn off televisions can not only save electricity but also reduce your utility bill! Also, by enabling the "sleep mode" on your computer allows it to use less power when it is inactive. 

Human Impact: People can play a big role in the conservation of energy. For example, turning down the thermostat and driving fewer miles are examples of steps individuals can take to conserve energy. Additionally, buying appliances that use less energy and switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs are examples of steps individuals can take to increase energy efficiency. Reducing the demand for energy can be an equally effective or more effective means of achieving energy sustainability than developing additional sources of energy

Environmental Impact: Coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear fuels are used as common energy sources. Although they are essential for human survival, these energy sources pose many environmental threats. Coal combustion is a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Because the combustion disperses throughout the atmosphere, climate is affected. Additionally, petroleum is used for transportation. This fuel is used more than any other fuel in the United States and therefore produces the most amount of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, oil spills are a major hazard to organisms and habitat. Moreover, natural gas is a relatively clean fossil fuel but the accidents and radioactive waste that occur due to natural gas serve as major environment hazards. 

Economic Impact: The cost of renewable energy has been falling. Since the prices have been dropping dramatically, more people have been willing and able to buy these energy sources. State and federal subsidies and tax incentives also help to lower the price of a technology. Tax credits and rebates have been instrumental in reducing the cost of solar and wind energy systems for consumers. Furthermore, in 2008, the energy conservation increased when oil prices rose rapidly to almost $150 per barrel and and gasoline in the most of the United States cost more than $4.00 per gallon. People used public transportation more than often, drove more fuel-efficient vehicles, and carpooled more than they did before the price spike. 

Government Legislation:
The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP): analyzes energy management legal authorities, develops guidance documents and publishes notices and rules
The Federal Power Act: put electricity sale/transportation regulation under Federal Power Commission
The Public Utility Holding Company Act: regulates size of electric utilities, limiting each to a specific geographic area
The Natural Gas Act: regulates gas pipelines under Federal Power Commission 
The Department Of Energy Organization Act: created federal Department of Energy