Term
| What is the energy predicament? (2 facts ppl want to ignore.) |
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Definition
| the world is running out of fossil fuels and burning fossil fuels causes global warming |
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Term
| What are the three traditional energy resources? Are they renewable or non-renewable? |
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Definition
| fossil fuels, nuclear fuels, and hydropower; non-renewable |
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Term
| What are the two types of fossil fuels? |
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Definition
| coal and hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas) |
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Term
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Definition
| the nuclear fission of uranium to produce energy |
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Term
| Describe the process of the formation of oil: |
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Definition
a. Accumulation of remains of marine microorganisms in oxygen-free sediment: the oil source rock.
b. Maturation of the organic matter to hydrocarbons (needs right temperature and millions of years of time).
c. Migration of the oil to a permeable rock (the oil reservoir) and entrapment in a geological structure (the oil trap). |
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Term
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Definition
| the exact right temperature where microorganisms can form into oil. |
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Term
| What are the characteristics of of viscous, low-quality crude oil? |
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Definition
| Low temperature, low time |
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Term
| What must happen with oil before it can be pumped out? |
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Definition
| the oil must go from the shale into limestone which has high permeability |
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Term
| Where does the best quality oil in the world come from? |
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Definition
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Term
| The rate at which oil can be extracted is controlled by what factor? |
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Definition
| the permeability of the reservoir rock;If you think of any oil field, the rate at which you pump oil is controlled by the characteristics of the reservoir. It is not determined by how many wells, or how deep you put them. |
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Term
| At the very least it takes ____ million years for oil to form. |
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Definition
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Term
| The world may run out of oil by ____, but huge supply problems will occur much sooner. |
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Definition
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Term
| Why will huge supply problems occur sooner than the oil actually runs out? |
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Definition
| Hubbert’s peak of oil production;The bomb will explode around 2015.
[image] |
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Term
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Definition
| Coal is formed from the remains of plants rather than marine organisms (cellulose rather than fatty acids). |
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Term
| What is significant about coal in the US? |
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Definition
| The main use for coal in the U.S. is electricity.Domestic coal reserves could last 300 years if coal consumption continues at the present rate, but if coal were asked to supply the entire energy demand of the U.S., it would only take 50 years tp use it all up. |
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Term
| Is it technologically feasible to produce liquid automotive fuels from coal? |
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Definition
| yes, it was done in Nazi Germany, but cars do not go as fast and it causes more pollution than gasoline |
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Term
| Why is synthetic gasoline not considered as a possibility by policy-makers? |
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Definition
| Synthetic gasoline would cost many times more than what we are used to pay for that commodity. |
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Term
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Definition
| Non-traditional fossil fuels;Oil that has lost most of its volatile components.It cannot be pumped, it must be mined. It produces far less gasoline than regular oil. We will pay more for gasoline. Most tar sands in the world are in Canada. |
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Term
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Definition
| Non-traditional fossil fuels; Oil source rocks from which oil has not migrated.It cannot be pumped, it must be mined.It will produce far less gasoline than regular oil.We will pay more for gasoline. |
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Term
| What is the fossil fuel conundrum? |
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Definition
| Fossil fuels will run out, no matter what. Even if we can make them last 100-200 years longer (by paying a lot more for gasoline produced by non-conventional methods) we will still have global warming. |
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Term
| Together with overpopulation, what is the most serious and urgent threat to the survival of our civilization? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the evidence for accelerated global warming? |
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Definition
A)0.6ºC average increase during the twentieth century.
B)0.3ºC increase since 1970
C)5.5ºC increase in high-latitude continents, from 1965 to 2000.
D)Compare: 3-5ºC increase since ice-age climax.
E) 1998 and 2005 were the two warmest years on record.
F)Accelerated glacial retreat worldwide: Grinnell Glacier (Montana) 1930’s-1990’s (Tropical glaciers are the “coal-mine canaries” of Global warming.)
G) Vanishing Artic ice pack. |
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Term
| What is the correlation between global warming and CO2? |
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Definition
| The Greenhouse Effect.
[image] |
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Term
| Describe the correlation between global temperatures and CO2. |
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Definition
| for this you really just have to read through and understand the notes, but the next few cards have a few diagrams that might be helpful: |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
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Term
| What are the expected consequences of global warming? |
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Definition
1) Dramatic rise in worldwide temperatures by 2080.
2)By 2100 global sea level would rise at most one meter (prediction made in 2001);Accelerated warming since then suggest 6 meters by 2100.
3)If all of the Ice in the world melts, sea level would be 80.44 meters. It would probably happen in about 300 years. |
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Term
| What would 1 meter in sea level rise do? |
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Definition
| Wipe out Miami and the Florida Keys. |
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Term
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Definition
| no P.C., Fort Lauderdale, Miami, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, etc. |
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Term
| If all of the Ice in the world melts??? |
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Definition
| GA Coast would be in Macon, no Florida; Mississippi Valley goes all the way to St.Louis; most of South Carolina gone; Holland is gone; Baltic States gone; most of Britain gone |
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Term
| What are the future costs of global warming? |
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Definition
| Flooded cities and farmland;Millions of displaced people;Non-renewable resources locked in sunken cities(Steel in skyscrapers or bridges, copper from water pipes and power lines);Disappearance of island and coastal nations;Drought and exhaustion of ground water in the Great Plains;Agricultural production zones shift northwards;No fertile soils (bare rock from glaciers of the Pleistocene): massive starvations |
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Term
| How are we paying for global warming right now? |
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Definition
| Increasing hurricane strength: As ocean temperature rises, hurricane power also increases.It is the part of the cycle where we expect stronger storms, however, as the temperature of water goes up, the strength and the number of storms also goes up. |
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Term
| The current use pattern of the world is unsustainable in terms of: |
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Definition
| diminishing supply and catastrophic climate change |
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Term
| What are some readily available technologies that can buy humanity precious time for large-scale electricity generation? |
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Definition
| nuclear energy and hydroelectric energy |
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Term
| How much of America's energy is currently generated by nuclear power? |
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Definition
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Term
| Name the only two real nuclear accidents to have occured. |
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Definition
| Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island |
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Term
| Which country relies almost solely on nuclear energy, and by how much? How many nuclear accidents have been reported in this country? |
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Definition
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Term
| Describe briefly how energy is obtained from nuclear fission. |
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Definition
| tart with a highly radioactive atom (Uranium) the splitting produces neutrons and energy. The energy goes in a chain-reaction.Once the nuclear fuel is decayed and cannot produce more heat by undergoing more reactions, you have highly radioactive material. The waste is radioactive for about 10,000-50,000 years. |
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Term
| Is there the possibility of a giant mushroom-cloud atomic explosion with nuclear power plants? |
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Definition
| NO! In Chernobyl, there was a steam explosion that blew off the roof of the reactor room, and no containment dome had been built, so the radiation went out into the atmosphere. |
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Term
| How much waste is created by a nuclear power plant? |
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Definition
| About 100 kg of stuff a year per plant. |
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Term
| What are breather reactors, and what is the problem with using them for nuclear power? |
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Definition
| Breather reactors produce plutonium and produce no waste: the problem is that plutonium is weapons-grade material. |
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Term
| What do we do with high-level waste? |
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Definition
| Dig up a cave and put it in containers of stainless-steel then into big concrete casings. Put these like 400 feet in the ground and wait 20,000 years. |
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Term
| What is the problem with using hydroelectric energy? |
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Definition
| Dams have a finite useful life because of silting-up of reservoirs. Dams destroy ecosystems and modify the local climate. Building dams often requires displacing thousands of people from their land and homes. Building dams in places of unique natural beauty (e.g., the Grand Canyon) is an unacceptable crime against nature. |
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Term
| What are some readily available technologies that can buy humanity precious time for supplementary electricity generation? |
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Definition
| wind power, geothermal energy, and biomass |
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