Energy: Chapters 9, 10, and 11
Chapter 9: A Brief History of Culture & Energy Consumption
Cultural evolution
Homo sapiens have existed only about 120,000 (?) years (Earth is 4.5 billion years old)
Up until about 10,000 years before present, all humans were hunter-gathers (foragers)
Hunter - gather societies
Some still exist today:
Agricultural societies
Industrial Revolution
Coal results from the burial of decayed plant matter
Advanced industrial societies (1900s)
Oil & Natural Gas
From the remains of microscopic organisms (mostly zooplankton)
Few decades of reserves
Natural Gas
Electricity
Transportation Energy Use
The automobile:
Public Transportation:
Alternative Fuels
Sample questions:
Why is public transportation overall more energy efficient than the automobile?
Why was most natural gas "flared" at the well in the U.S. before World War II?
What ecological disaster in England helped start the Industrial Revolution?
What is the difference between how coal and oil/natural gas are formed in the earth?
Why are they called "fossil fuels"?
What happened to the carrying capacity for humans after each of the "cultural revolutions" discussed?
What are "foragers", and why do they make the smallest environmental impact?
What is the potential for hydrogen as a fuel?
Chapter 10: Energy Sources, Renewable and Nonrenewable
Resources
Energy (or any kind) of resource is either: Renewable or Non-renewable
Renewable energy resources:
Potentially renewable:
Nonrenewable:
Reserves of a resource
Fossil Fuels
Over 90% of world’s commercial energy
Oil: 40+ year supply at current rates of use
Natural Gas: 60+ year supply at current rates of use
Coal:
As heat and pressure increases, get this formation sequence: peat => lignite => bituminous (soft coal) => anthracite (hard coal)
About 300 years at current rates of use
Coal Use Issues
Soft coal vs. Hard coal:
Oil Use Issues
Better than coal in the following ways:
Disadvantages over coal:
Oil Products
Natural Gas Use Issues
Advantages:
Disadvantages
Renewable energy sources currently being used
Hydroelectric:
Tidal:
Geothermal:
Wind:
Solar:
3 ways to use solar energy
Biomass:
Fuelwood and LDCs
Fuelwood is the primary source of energy for 50% of the world’s population, primarily for cooking…
Fuelwood and MDCs
Solid Waste
Why burn trash for an energy source?
Why not?
Energy Conservation
Conservation is not a way of generating energy,
but reduces need for additional energy...
It’s where we (you and me) can help the environment now!
Technology of conservation
LDCs: "In Africa, ... using fuel-efficient stoves instead of open fires
could reduce these energy requirements by 50%." p. 174
MDCs:
Conservation education
Sample questions:
What are the advantages of natural gas over coal?
What is the "energy crisis" in LDCs?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using municipal solid waste as an energy source?
Which of the fuels --- petroleum or coal -- has the largest reserves?
Are there any disadvantages to hydroelectric power? Explain.
What advantages does "soft" coal have over "hard" coal, and vice versa?
Chapter 11: Nuclear Energy, Benefits and Risks
Fact: 7% of energy consumed worldwide comes from nuclear power
The Nature of Nuclear Energy
Two types:
Fusion:
Fission:
Nuclear Reactors and Power Generation
Several types, most use Uranium-235 (some Pu-239) as fuel
Nuclear Waste Disposal
"NIMBY" problems
Nuclear Power Concerns
Nuclear Power Benefits (?)
Comment: Part of the lack of success of nucs in the U.S. is the propaganda against it,
especially after Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl (both of which were caused by human incompetence, not nuclear technology)
Sample questions:
What are the advantages of nuclear energy?
Why is nuclear fission a non-renewable energy resource?
Why do anti-nuclear activists usually not mention France?
What is nuclear waste?
What are some problems associated with the disposal of nuclear waste? What is NIMBY?
What does it mean to decommission a nuclear power plant?
Explain how electricity is produced by a nuclear power plant.