ESS chap 7. Climate change and energy production

Energy security

Ability to secure affordable, reliable, and sufficient energy supply for the needs of a particular country

why it is important → national security

Case study - energy security issues in Ukraine, the US, Denmark

Strategies to ensure energy security

• diversify the sources of energy (decrease vulnerability)

• do not only rely on importation of energy

Consequences of fossil fuel combustion

• air pollution

• acid deposition

• photochemical smog

What are fossil fuels? (what, formation, advantages, inconvenients)

Main types:

• coal

• oil

• natural gas

formed by dead plants and animals under pressure over millions of years

Advantages: high-energy content, infrastructures already in place, relatively cheap, currently abundant

Inconvenients: non-renewable, destruction of species habitat (decrease biodiversity), emits greenhouse gases (air pollution)

Coal

Where

• found in China, the US, Russia, India

Issues

• can cause lung or respiratory health problems

Natural gas

What

• mostly methane but also ethane, butane, propane, pentane

Where

• found in Russia, Iran, Qatar, and Turkmenistan (natural reserves)

• the top producers are the US, Russia, and Iran

hard to detect because it is odorless, colorless, and tasteless (adding hydrogen sulfide to notice it)

fracking

Nuclear power

Where

• North America, Europe, and Asia (nuclear power plants)

75% of electricity in France and 20% of electricity in the US from nuclear power

for waste: underground repositories (dispersal of radioactive materials and contamination of groundwater)

Advantages: minimal carbon dioxide emission, potential advancements in technology

Disadvantages: high levels of radioactive waste, risk of catastrophic nuclear accidents, high costs associated with the building and decommissioning power plants

Climate/weather

Climate is the ‘average’ weather over the long term (e.g. years) often at a regional level, whereas weather refers to the conditions over a short time scale (e.g. day to day) at a local level

Factors affecting climate

outside the earth

• solar radiation

• tilting and orbit of the earth

within the earth

• atmospheric and ocean circulation systems

• greenhouse gases

• volcanic activity

• feedback cycles

Significance of the Earth’s axial orbit

Impacts solar radiation and creates seasons

Northern hemisphere tilted toward the sun

• Summer in the Northern Hemisphere (more sunlight)

• Winter in the Southern Hemisphere (tilted away from the Sun)

Southern hemisphere tilted toward the sun

• Summer in the Southern Hemisphere (more sunlight)

• Winter in the Northern Hemisphere (dark in the North Pole until Spring)

The Tri-Cellular Model of Air circulation

El Nino

Positive/Negative feedback loop of climate change

Positive: global warming → melting of ice → decrease in the albedo effect → increases temperatures (less reflection)

Negative: global warming → increased creation of clouds → increase in the albedo effect → decreases temperatures

Opposed perspectives on climate change

Climate-skeptic

• the US government under Donald Trump (withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, rolled back environmental regulations, and encourages fracking, coal, oil, and gas industries)

Pro-Climate

• the EU (global effort, committed to the Paris Agreement, investments in renewable energies)

• Greta Thunberg (environmental activist and advocate)