Read Chapter 7: "Energy and Global Environmental Issues"
Choose two of the following questions:
1. Laws of Physics and Entropy:
a. What is entropy? b. What is the general direction of energy? c. Can energy be “used up?”
2. Give an example of each of these forms of energy:
a. Electromagnetic: b. Nuclear c. Chemical d. Mechanical e. Thermal
3. Sources of energy:
a. What drives the global geological cycle? b. Where does the majority of energy for life on earth come from?
4. The water molecule: What makes it such an important molecule for energy transformation on earth?
5. What are the two primary pathways for the storage of sunlight energy on earth?
6. What is respiration? How is it similar to combustion?
7. How does the food web contribute to entropy?
8. Energy use by people:
a. What are fossil fuels? (i.e. what is the source of energy in fossil fuels?)
b. At the current rate of consumption of fossil fuels, roughly how long can we maintain our contemporary lifestyles?
9. What are some advantages and disadvantages for each of the following energy sources?
a. Fossil fuels? b. How does nuclear power? c. Geothermal? d. Wood as energy source? e. Solar? f. Wind? g. Hydroelectric? h. Wave and tidal energy harvesting? i. Ethanol?
10. Climate change:
a. What are three greenhouse gasses, and how are they produced? Which has the greatest longevity in the atmosphere?
b. How does this specifically affect CA?
c. What does an early spring mean for plant and pollinator phenology?
d. What does sea level rise mean to coastal wetlands and the Central Valley?
e. Why are the poor disproportionately affected by climate change?
f. How will the Sierra snowpack impact our ability to mitigate and adapt to change?
11. Ozone depletion and production:
a. Where do we want to find ozone? What agreement slowed the worldwide production of ozone depleting chemicals? b. How do we produce ground level ozone, and what are the impacts?
12. What causes “dead zones?” How can they be prevented or reversed?
13. Why are California farms smaller than the average US farm? What is one of the leading threats to farms in CA?
14. What threats to farms pose to salmon? How so?
15. Air pollution:
a. What are the pollutants of most concern in California, and what are their sources? b. Why are we seeing higher levels of ozone pollution as our climate warms?
16. Solid Waste:
a. What are problems associated with landfills? b. How can we mitigate some of these problems? c. What is the most effective way to reduce our waste?
17. As populations increase and change in California, how does this change our conservation concerns and potential for action?
Write your answers in your lecture notebook or on a flash card, and bring them to the next class.