EES 002 Exam 3 Potential Questions

1) For the last 400,000 years, Carbon Dioxide concentration of the atmosphere has

oscillated between fixed limits until the industrial revolution

8) If carbon dioxide emissions rate is reduced and stabilized at 1990 rate then the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will

Increase

9) Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere:

reaches its peak in the spring

10) The major gases in the atmosphere, from highest concentration to lowest, are:

Nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide

11) Which of the following is NOT true about the IPCC?
a)it assesses information on the scientific, technical, and socioeconomic affects of climate change

b) it is open to all members of the united nations and world health organization

c) it conducts research and experiments

d) it makes assessments based on peer received and published scientific/technical literature

C) it conducts research and experiments

14) What is the main anthropogenic greenhouse gas?

CO2--result of ALL burning

15) What country currently emits the largest amount of carbon dioxide?

China

16) The earth emits primarily

infrared radiation

17) Which decade in the 20th century saw the greatest costs from extreme weather events

1990s

18) Global temperature in the last century has

gone up .5 degrees Celsius

19) The elimination of CFC's was called for by the

Montreal Protocol

20) An increase in atmospheric CO2 leads to an increase in photosynthesis, which leads to a increase in carbon sequestration by vegetation. This is an example of:

negative feedback

21) What would you expect to find at 30˚ latitude?

Deserts

22) Where may the temperature cool down if global warming leads to a reduction of the intensity of the ocean circulation system?

Northern Europe

23) Why does atmospheric circulation have several cells (Hadley Cells) rather than just rising at the equator and sinking at the poles?

the coriolis effect

24) The Kyoto Protocol:

requires all nations to reduce carbon emissions 5.2% below 1990 levels

27) Which is NOT a part of the atmosphere?

lithosphere

28) What is NOT involved in the greenhouse effect?

absorption of ultraviolet radiation by ozone

25) Which state has the most radon?

PA

29) Which has the shortest wavelength (highest frequency)

Gamma rays

30) Which are components of air pollution?

All of the above: Particulates, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds

26) What is the EPA maximum acceptable radon level

4 picocuries per liter

31) When would you most expect photochemical smog formation?

Summer

32) What do sulfur and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere lead to?

Acid rain

33) Where have people died as a result of deadly air pollution caused by untreated or regulated industrial emissions?

All of the above: PA and India

35) What is the most practical way to mitigate a radon problem in a house?

Install blower fan to remove air from the ground under and around the house and vent to the atmosphere

36) The stratospheric ozone (O3) has which affect on the environment?

It protects the lower atmosphere from receiving harmful doses of UV radiation

37) Since 1974, the emission of propellants (e.g. CFCs) causing ozone destruction has:

Decreased

38) Ozone in the ______ is helpful, while ozone in the _____ is harmful to human health

Stratosphere, troposphere

39) Which type of ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by ozone?

UVB

40) What do CFCs do to ozone?

Act as a catalyst to destroy ozone

42) How are people most different from plants and animals in terms of environmental impacts?

Knowledge of predicted consequences alters human actions

43) The odorless, invisible, and tasteless gas that occurs naturally in the U-238 radioactive decay series but accumulates in houses (especially basements) and is harmful to human health is:

Radon

44) IPCC stands for

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

45) The Kyoto Protocol is currently in legal effect. What of the following is a reason why the United States did not agree to it?

Concern that the US economy would be slowed

46) Which energy source has increased by the greatest percentage in the last 40 years in the U.S.?

Nuclear

47) Which uses electricity at the highest rate during operation?

Electric Clothes Dryer

48) Energy is

all the above

49) Electric, gravitational, and nuclear are three ways that _____ energy can be stored

potential

50) Which supplies the most energy for the U.S.?

Oil

51) At present, most global energy comes from...

Fossil fuels

52) Work is

mad

53) To what type of energy has the most research and development funding been dedicated since the 1950s?

Nuclear

54) It is most efficient to use:

low quality energy to do work

55) The critical issue in global energy is:

meeting the global energy demand while minimizing environmental impacts

56) What is the most abundant fossil fuel in the U.S.?

Coal

57) Which of the following yields the most energy per CO2 molecule given off?

Methane (natural gas)

58) What part of the world has the most coal resources?

Europe and Eurasia

59) Oil spills, like algal blooms, have what effect on a body of water?

Leads to less dissolved oxygen

60) Which of the following would burn cleanest (releasing the least CO2 per energy produced)?

Methane (natural gas)

61) What year range is oil production expected to peak?

2020-2050

62) At what point would you expect oil prices to rise sharply?

When we reach the peak in production rate and the rate of production begins to decline

63) Oil production, refining, and transportation have been associated with all of the following environmental problems except:

Acid mine drainage

64) In some ways, natural gas is considered a better fossil fuel than oil. This is primarily because:

Burning natural gas is cleaner than burning oil

65) Which is the "best" coal to burn?

Anthracite

66) In what U.S. state has the "best" coal been found?

PA

67) Two U.S. states have serious acid mine drainage problems. One of them is W. Virginia. The other is

PA

68) Residents of what country pay the least gasoline tax?

U.S.

69) We will stop burning fossil fuels when we

all the above: decide oil is too valuable to burn, decide environmental impact is severe, run out, invent a cheaper energy source

70) What part of the world houses the most oil reserves?

The Middle East

71) Natural gas is

Methane

72) Use of overhangs that block sunlight in summer but allow the sunlight in winter to warm up the building is an example of:

passive solar energy

73) What is the difference between a renewable and an inexhaustible resource?

Renewable is made at same rate it's consumed while inexhaustible is used without depleting the source in anyway

74) Green Buildings

use passive solar energy

75) Which type of energy has the greatest environmental consequences?

Biomass burning

76) By which of the following processes are atomic nuclei broken apart to release energy?

Fission

77) Why are photovoltaics cells not put to greater use today?

They are inefficient and expensive

78) Which of the following energy sources is NOT essentially inexhaustible?

Oil

79) What factor is NOT included in assessing green building design?

Aesthetic design

80) Cogeneration is the use of:

waste heat to improve overall efficiency

81) Where are methane hydrates (a white, ice like compound) found:

beneath the sea floor

82) What is NOT involved in a photovoltaic cell?

High-energy neutrons

83) One of the principal advantages of photovoltaic cells is that they:

they can be used for power in remote locations

84) Which is a renewable source of energy?

Biomass burning

85) How much wind is needed to make wind power efficient?

5 m/s

86) Which of the following would NOT be considered a component of green architecture?

Maximizing distance from the nearest city to avoid smog

87) Silicon wafers are doped with impurities that have more or less available electrons in their valence levels. The electrons find new "adopted" homes and thus create an electric field. Electromagnetic energy strikes these and knocks them out, so they travel down the electric field (through a wire) and make usable electricity. In what device would you expect to see this process?

Photovoltaic cell

88) A hydrogen fuel cell is most like a

battery

89) An inexhaustible energy source is:

wind

90) What makes fusion more effective than fission as a potential nuclear power source?

you gain more binding energy per nucleon when putting together small nuclei than splitting big ones

91) If Nuclear fusion is so powerful and clean, why do we not have any fusion reactors generating the world's energy needs?

We do not have the technology yet to control the fusion reaction and extract usable energy

92) Nuclear fusion promises to be a virtually limitless supply of energy. However at present, it is not used to produce any electricity at all, because:

current technology is insufficient

HW 5: 1. What is "biomagnification" of toxins and why does it happen?

The higher up the food chain you go, the more concentrated toxins become in animals. This is because when animals are eaten by other animals, toxins are not expelled or metabolized and remain in the predator so mostly all toxins are transferred to the predator.

HW 5: 2. How do the following fossil fuel resources form?
a) Coal
b) Oil

Oil comes from decomposition of organic material (mostly marine phytoplankton) in an anoxic environment. Coal is formed from the compressed and baked remains of land plants when they are quickly buried and don't oxidize.

HW 5: 3. How does a photovoltaic cell work?

In a photovoltaic cell exists a silicon lattice with an n-type silicon and a p-type silicon. There are extra electrons on the n-side that move to p-side making an electric field. When the sun shines onto the cell, photons knock electrons out of their "adopted" homes on the p-side. Now free, electrons move down the electric field, making a current.

HW 5: 4. Name one negative environmental impact of each of the sustainable energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, tidal, biomass)

Wind: Birds fly into the turning blades Solar: toxic materials in photovoltaic cells Geothermal: ground source pipes could leak fluids Hydro: ecosystem disruption, fish spawning Tidal: estuary ecosystems are disrupted Biomass: Deforestation, ethical issues

HW 6: 1. How does the Earth's greenhouse effect work?

Solar radiation (visible wavelength) is absorbed by ground surface, which warms up and reradiates infrared radiation (long wavelength). But certain materials (greenhouse gases) are opaque to infrared, so atmosphere warms up more and more.

HW 6: 2. Describe the mechanisms that drive climate change at time scales of
a. thousands to hundreds of thousands of years

b. decades to centuries

a. There are three Milankovitch cycles. The first is eccentricity dating back to 100,000 years which is the "roundness" of the orbit around the sun. The tilt of the earth's rotational axis also changes, defining the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn as well as the Arctic and Antarctic circles is the second cycle which increases and decreases every 41,000 years. Lastly, the interaction between the eccentricity and the tilt (precession) pertaining to whether the Earth is nearer the sun during the northern hemisphere's summer or winter. b. The mechanisms that drive climate change at timescales of decades to centuries include solar cycles with the presence of sunspots which produce bursts of energy that temporarily provide greater insolation to the Earth. Also the presence of ENSO is another mechanism that alters global atmospheric circulation patterns marking changes in regional climates

HW 6: 3. a. Explain the natural stratospheric ozone cycle.

b. Explain how CFC's (chlorine) affect the ozone cycle and UVB.

In the stratosphere there is just enough air to begin to interact with incoming solar radiation and this is where ozone is formed. UVC from the sun dissociates O2 freeing O to combine with another O2 molecule to make O3 (ozone). The third O is weakly bound to the O2 so lower energy UVB can break the bond, freeing the third O to combine with another O to make O2. UVC makes ozone and UVB destroys it so that it can't reach the surface of the planet. When CFCs are emitted by industrial processes, UVB and UVC dissociates the CFCs in the stratosphere, liberating Cl to react with ozone, stripping the third O to leave O2. This makes CLO. When encountering another single O atom, the CL loses its O making O2 again and the CL is free to destroy another ozone molecule

HW 6: How does the typical cause of air pollution in summer differ from that of winter pollution?

In the summer, pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and other particles are burned. Sunlight can then break down some of the compounds formed in the atmosphere to release oxygen atoms which then combine with O2 molecules to form ozone. In the winter, pollution could be caused by natural pollutants like pollen and dustmites or by human-made pollutants including asbestos, metals, ozone or pesticides.

HW 6: You meet a climate contrarian who insists that we don't have to worry about CO2 emissions because the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is so small that water is the main greenhouse gas, and that anthropogenic CO2 emissions (and other greenhouse gas emissions) therefore are not significant drivers of global warming. How would you respond?

I would say the climate contrarian is wrong. CO2 is a trace gas that warms the atmosphere, thus enabling it to hold more water vapor, the dominant greenhouse gas. So CO2 acts as a trigger to load more water vapor, which warms more, thus holding more water, warming more. In addition, warm water cannot hold in solution as much CO2 as cold water can, warming atmosphere warms the ocean, which then could begin to exsolve some of its CO2 into the atmosphere.

How is Marcellus Shale exploited and what are some environmental concerns?

fracturing the rock with high-pressure water mixed with lubricating fluids and sands breaking up the shale so that gas can seep through the broken rock and into the well. Surface disruptions to productive ecosystems, natural gas entering aquifers and domestic water supplies

Describe the mechanisms of heat transfer

heat conduction: transfers heat by direct contact of surfaces from higher temperature substance to lower temperature substance Convection: Moves hotter fluids upward in gravity fields (heat rises, cold sinks)
Radiation: hot matter emits electromagnetic radiation, cooling the matter and transferring energy to whatever other matter absorbs it

How is ozone created?

High-temperature combustion of fuels causes nitrogen to combine with oxygen leading to the formation of NO2. If left unperturbed, the NO2 in the atmosphere will dissolve with water and eventually make acid rain. However, sunlight can break down NO2 and release individual oxygen atoms which can then combine with O2 molecules to form ozone

Describe the layers of the atmosphere

Troposphere: where we live, where mass is concentrated and where weather occurs Stratosphere: contains the ozone layer that absorbs UVB

Describe the ice-albedo effect

The strong feedback between snow/ice cover and solar heating. The sun reflects away from high-albedo snow and ice thus not heating it so snow makes it colder keeping things cold. If there's a reduction in snow/ice cover, this heats the low-albedo land surface or ocean water, thus heating more, reducing the snow/ice cover and heating more. Positive feedback creates an instability that can lead to rapid loss or gain of ice. Currently we are losing Arctic ice very quickly

Describe the positive feedback with Arctic ice (ice-albedo effect)

Arctic ice has declined triggerring a positive feedback from ice albedo and exposed ocean water. The more that ice melts, the more solar energy is absorbed, melting more ice, exposing and warming more water

Ocean acidification

The reduction of pH of ocean water by solution of excess atmospheric CO2. With a cold ocean and sudden high atmospheric CO2, more CO2 can be dissolved in the ocean than ever before leading to marine ecosystem problems.

1) Which presently poses a higher health risk?

Exposure to sunlight