Environ 201 Final

Entropy

The amount of disorder or uncertainty in a system

Methane

CH4, potent greenhouse gas. It’s one of the main gasses released by landfills and other waste processing plants

Leachate

A liquid that absorbs harmful materials from waste

1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics

1) Energy and mass can be neither created nor destroyed

2) All systems tend toward disorder/entropy

How has waste generation changed in the last 50 years?

Waste generation has nearly tripled (who knows how old that data is), per capita waste is up 67%, especially plastics

Why is source reduction the preferred approach to waste management?

Minimizing the amount of material that enters the system at all conserves energy, saves money, and reduces pollution

How are landfills and dumps different? What do landfills control for?

Landfills are created to mitigate methane gas release and prevent leachate from reaching water. They are more environmentally friendly than dumps which are essentially holes in the ground.

What is the “not in my backyard problem” when it comes to waste management?

Everyone wants waste management services, but no one wants to live near them for the smell, the eyesore, and the traffic

Why are there no landfills in nature?

It goes against the second law of thermodynamics: nature will trend toward entropy, not toward an ordered system like a landfill.

Why do we have such a high percentage of car batteries recycled?

Carrot and stick: you get money off of your next one if you do recycle it, and you get fined for dumping it in the trash because it’s hazardous waste.

What do “bottle bills” like Michigan’s 10 cents a can deposit do to state recycling programs?

Increase recycling rates significantly

What are the benefits and drawbacks of single-stream recycling?

Benefit: increases overall recycling rates because it’s simple

Drawback: less efficient recycling, lower quality recycling

Can you recycle an empty glass bottle of olives? What about a pizza box? Where can you take an old, non-working cell phone? (Using Ann Arbor’s system)

Glass olive bottle: yes

Pizza box: no

Take your old phone to “The Drop-off Station”

What is the difference between community composting facilities and a compost bin in your backyard?

Community composting has more space, can save residents money, and allows you to compost meat and bioplastics you wouldn’t be able to compost in your backyard.

What are the costs and benefits of trash incineration?

Benefits: reduces pressure on landfills, better than historical open-air burning

Costs: toxic ash, co2, toxic particulates released

What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and what material is it made of predominately?

Massive floating patch of trash in the Pacific Ocean. Made primarily of microplastics that can’t be efficiently retrieved.

Haber-Bosch process

Nitrogen is abundant but unusable for fertilizer. Haber-Bosch created a way to use atmospheric nitrogen for synthetic fertilizer, leading to a boom in agriculture and population.

Monoculture

Large expanse of a single crop. More efficient but susceptible to disease and bad for biodiversity.

CAFO

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

Basically industrial feeding operations for raising animals. It’s where we get most of our meat

Pesticide treadmill

Chemists perpetually have to change pesticides or increase toxicity to deal with pests that become resistant

What happens to food consumption as nations become wealthier?

It increases, they tend to eat more meat, dairy, sugar, and oil.

What are some costs and benefits of the Green Revolution?

Benefits: saved millions from starvation, made food cheaper, those with lots of land benefitted

Costs: lots of energy needed for industrial agriculture (oil, fertilizer, seed), high yields led to lower prices which led small, poor farmers to lose out, corporate ownership of seed and fertilizer hurts small farmers, more monoculture means more pesticides needed and we become exposed to them.

How do pests develop resistance to pesticides?

Pesticide is applied, killing all but those with lucky genes. These then reproduce with their resistant genes and the whole pest population becomes immune.

What are some human health consequences of pesticide use?

Direct worker exposure, residue on food and in the environment. Can cause all sorts of diseases if you’re exposed

What are the dirty dozen and clean fifteen? What is the general trend? What are the pros and cons of this system?

Dirty dozen are the foods on which pesticides are most heavily used, while the clean fifteen are those with the least pesticides and GMO’s that you can afford to buy industrially.

The trend is to push for less exposure to pesticides, encourage pesticide-free agriculture

Pros: more awareness of how our feed is being produces, can limit our exposure to pesticides

Cons: give people a list of what’s good rather than force them to ask why, false sense of vegetables and fruits as bad, allows for price increases in organic, doesn’t really help solve pesticide problems.

What are some ways biodiversity enhances food security?

More diversity=more resistance to disease, more variety

How have energy inputs changed in terms of raising cattle from the 1940s to today?

Energy inputs have increased 200-fold for each calorie of food from cattle. This is because the whole system now uses industrial machines.

Which animal-based foods require the most food (and water)? Which take the least?

Least to greatest feed input: Milk, chicken, eggs, pork, beef.

Beef around 20 times more energy for each edible kg

How has our consumption of meat changed in the US in the 20th century?

Total consumption has increased more than 5 times in the last century-ish, we eat some of the most meat in the world.

What are some costs and benefits of CAFOs?

Benefits: reduces environmental harm from grazing, cheaply produce meat

Costs: tons of resources used-1/3 of world’s cropland, 45% of grain, 50% of antibiotics (risk of resistance), cattle produces 18% of all emissions, esp. Methane

Runoff from CAFO’s and industrialized agriculture…

2 of the main sources of algal blooms are fertilizer from agricultural runoff and runoff from waste lagoons of CAFO’s

How do excess nutrients create dead zones in lakes and oceans?

Same as exam 1.

Organic

Low input agriculture that doesn’t use synthetic pesticides or GMO’s but instead relies on biocontrol of pests.

In animals, it means no GMO’s, hormones, or antibiotics. Must have access to outdoors and be fed organically.

GMO

Genetically Modified Organisms

Increased yields, better pest management

Bt

“Bug toxic”

Poisons whatever bug eats it

HT

Herbicide Tolerant

Makes crops invulnerable to weed killers so they can be applied to kill weeds

Round up

Herbicide. Lots of lawsuits against Monsanto, the company that owned round up because of negative impacts on crops

Pesticides and herbicides

Pesticides kill pests that would munch on crops

Herbicides kill unwanted plants and weeds that would compete with crops

Consumption of what has increased in the US in the 20th century

Sugar and meat

Not sure why this is here, but whatever.

How has organic agriculture production changed from the mid-90s until now?

Organic foods have become more popular since then. They account for more of our total agriculture and a higher percent— from 1% to 4% of total agriculture.

What are some environmental and ecological benefits of organic agriculture?

Better soil and more drought resistant crops, similar or slightly lower yields, but more profit and less co2 and energy

What are some drawbacks to organic agriculture?

No subsidies so it’s much more expensive, “big organic,” so similar scale and monopoly problems as Green Rev., more work, spoilage without additives, hard to get certified.

What are some benefits of genetically modified organisms?

Increased yields, favorable traits, better compatibility with pest management

How do you get the Bt gene into a plant like corn or cotton?

Crispr: take bt from a naturally occurring source and splice it into the DNA of corn or cotton.

How is genetic modification the same/different than artificial selection?

Instant vs. long-term, invasive vs. non-invasive

In both cases, though, humans are the origin of change

What is Golden Rice and what are three pros and three cons to this GMO?

A crop developed to supplement Vitamin-A diets for poor parts of the world

Pros: reduce Vit.-A deficiencies, help really impoverished people, no known negative health impacts

Cons: still not available after 30 years, lower yield, corporations profit rather than farmers because of patents

What are the 2 large concerns with GMO’s and the environment?

1) Backcrossing with native species and allowing these genes into the native populations

2) Bacterial resistance to Bt and other insect-killing GMO’s

Ecological concerns of GMO’s

1) The resulting increased pesticide application harms non-target organisms

2) Less genetic diversity: the fear of cross-contamination, superbug pests that are resistant to everything, less variety of crops

3) Bacterial resistance (pesticide treadmill)

Are GMOs a risk to human health? What about pesticides?

GMO’s have no known harms to human health. However, they lead to increased pesticide application, which is bad for humans. Bt reduces the need for insecticides, though.

Sustainable agriculture and its three areas of focus

^{Meets the food needs of the present without compromising the future- emphasizes environmental health, economics, and social equity}

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Bovine Growth Hormone

rBGH

Hormone that increases milk production in cows and has not been shown to have negative health impacts or to cause early puberty

Food deserts

Low-income communities without access to healthy foods

Food swamps

Overabundance of unhealthy foods

Food justice

Considers past social and political practices that have led to food inequalities and how we can solve them

Food sovereignty

The right of communities to have access to healthy and culturally appropriate food. Values food growers, local control, and food for people.

Food miles

Each mile that your food travels to get to you

No-till agriculture

Crop rotations that mimic nature by having winter cover crops that die and nourish the soil. By minimizing disturbance done to the soil, you keep carbon and other nutrients inside.

Agroecology

Study of ecological processes applied to agriculture. Organic, permaculture, companion-planting.

What is the definition of CAFO. What are some major issues of CAFOs that are contrary to a well-functioning ecosystem?

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation

No species diversity- only one species

Linear economy means the waste is put to no use and the energy flows out of the system, no predators means no limiting factors

Why do we feed cows corn instead of grass, which is what they have evolved to eat (they are a class of mammals called ruminants)?

Impossible to get grass to cows in CAFO, corn fattens them up and gets them to market faster, better than grain because it causes fewer diseases in people.

Why is antibiotic use in farm animals such a big concern?

Bacterial resistance—meat could cause illnesses that we can’t treat with our antibiotics

Why do we add preservatives and enhancers in our food? What substances are not allowed in food?

Improve shelf life, taste, and appearance

Nothing carcinogenic is allowed, but other known, harmful stuff is because it nullifies harm from eating spoiled or less nutritious food.

Many foods like meat, eggs, soda, butter, beer have become cheaper in the past 50 years, where fruits and veggies are getting more expensive. Why has this happened?

Subsidies for the former, while very little subsidization for the latter. Also, CAFO’s and the usage of corn in everything means this stuff can be made in more abundance which drives the price down.

What is the definition of industrial agriculture?

Large scale production of plant or animal products, often with use of synthetics. Tends toward monoculture and CAFO’s

How do local food systems like community supported agriculture and community food security movements strengthen the food system in general?

Concentrates power at the local level where problems can more easily be solved. Provides local autonomy. Gives people access to nutritious food and cuts down on food miles

How is sustainable agriculture compared to the industrial agriculture in terms of yield, pesticide use and fertilizer usage?

Yield: less

Pesticides: less

Fertilizer: less

What are 3 broad ways to improve agriculture?

Agroecology, no-till farming, mimicking or balancing nature (aigamo method).

What are three benefits of no-till agriculture?

Helps soil retain nutrients, requires less labor and energy, keeps carbon stores in the soil rather than in the air

What is the Aigamo method in rice production? How is this method related to sustainable agriculture?

Ducks and fish are grown alongside rice to take care of pests and weeds. It’s an example of mimicking natural processes, which can be helpful for sustainable agriculture.

What is “Fair Trade Certification” and what does this process guarantee you? What are the social and environmental implications?

It assures you that farmers and laborers were compensated fairly for their work and that community development and humane treatment of workers took place on the part of distributors purchasing the product.

It’s good socially because the community is developed and workers are paid. Good environmentally because it often stresses conservation and environmental sustainability.

What is “Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffee” and what does it guarantee you?

More ecologically, ethically sound products. Guarantees you better standards for ecosystem conservation, wildlife, water, and soil.

How much food is wasted on an annual basis in the US? How does food waste in developed nations differ from food waste in developing nations?

The US wastes about 40% of its food, 160 billion pounds a year.

Developed country food waste is due to being left in the fridge and expiring, or else people just buy more than they need.

Developing country waste is due to a lack of infrastructure to transport, store, or harvest food

Environmental health

Branch of public health focused on promoting well-being of people through their interactions with their environment, both natural and built.

Hazard

Agent or set of conditions that can cause adverse effects for humans

Source

Location where a hazard originates

Exposure (and routes)

The amount or degree to which someone comes into contact with a hazard. Can occur through various routes.

Dose

How much of an agent (hazard) actually gets into the body and causes a response

Response

If someone is sufficiently exposed to a hazard, the adverse reaction will occur.

Toxicology

Study of potentially adverse effects that occur in organisms due to chemical exposure.

Difference between bioaccumulation and biomagnification

Bioaccumulation takes place when an organism ingests toxins from the environment. They’re excreted slowly, so they accumulate with high or continued exposure.

Biomagnification is the accumulation of toxins as you move up the food chain, from animals eating each other and not being able to eliminate the toxins

Bisphenol A

BPA, imitates reproductive hormones. Found commonly in plastics and pretty well-known chemical

DDT. Why is it controversial and what type of toxicants are insecticides?

Pesticide from Exam 1 with the eagles. Extremely helpful against malaria, decimated deaths from the disease.

Also was sprayed on kids. Possibly carcinogenic and caused nausea and vomiting among others.

It’s controversial today because it does so much good against malaria but can be carcinogenic and has side effects.

It’s a synthetic insecticide? Dermal and ingestion, point source most of the time.

What is DES, what were the toxicological effects of exposure, and who did it affect? What are the transgenerational impacts of DES exposure?

Synthetic estrogen marketed to pregnant mothers to help safeguard pregnancies. It turned out to be carcinogenic and led to a rare cervical cancer in daughters of those whose mother took it

Transgenerational because it was passed on to the kids who had no say in the matter

PFAS

The most prominent of forever chemicals that don’t degrade in the environment or the body. Increasing concentrations have led to no-fishing warnings in bodies of water around MI.

Explain the background and causes of the Flint Water Crisis. How does lead affect the body and which demographic of people are especially at risk of developing health problems from lead exposure?

2014, new management tried to cut costs and redirect the water supply through the Flint River. They didn’t put protective covering on the lead piping, which got corroded and got into the water supply.

People were exposed to 5x safe levels of lead, which led to developmental problems and neural problems, especially in kids.

Why are we concerned about the high use of chemicals in industry? How many chemicals are manufactured or processed in the United States, and how many high-production volume chemicals have been adequately evaluated as to their basic environmental and human health effects?

80,000 chemicals used in US commerce. 90% are missing one or more basic safety tests

They can be toxic, and we rarely have sufficient information.

US is often reactive rather than proactive with these chemicals: let them go to the market and if they’re bad, we’ll take them off.

What are the three main types of environmental health hazards, and what is an example of each?

Chemical- any substance, water, ethanol, mercury etc

Physical- extreme heat and cold

Biological- viruses and bacteria

What are the four main classifications of sources? Give an example of each

Stationary: factory

Mobile: car

Point source (easy to point to where it’s coming from, single entity): a smokestack, contaminated salad

Area source (hard to point to where it’s coming from, not coming from a single entity): agricultural runoff, forest fire

What are the main exposure routes for chemicals to enter the body? What are the mediums of environmental exposure?

Ingestion (swallowing), inhalation (breathing in), dermal (enters through skin)

Stomach, lungs, and skin, then, presumably.

Explain Paracelsus’s quote “The dose makes the poison”. How does this apply to both poisonous chemicals (like mercury) and non-poisonous chemicals (like water)?

Everything is poisonous in some dose: too much water will kill you just the same as too much mercury. Toxicity has to do with what is too much of a chemical.

Difference between toxicants and toxins

Toxicants are non-biological in origin, they can occur naturally, like Mercury, or be synthesized.

Toxins are specifically the poisonous chemicals produced by an organism

What is an LD50 and how is it measured? Know relative LD50 values (what is toxic, what is non-toxic), and be able to say why LD50 is limited as a standard of toxicity

The amount of a substance that is a lethal does for the median person, the 50th percentile.

Sugar is 30,000 mg of chemical per kg of body weight

Cyanide is 10 mg/kg

Botulinum is .00001

Limitations-only measures short term and not long term, people might assume if something scores highly, then it isn’t dangerous at all.

What are the traits that allow chemicals to bioaccumulate, and what are some examples of chemicals that bioaccumulate? Why are we concerned about eating large fish such as swordfish and king mackerel?

Large molecular structures or things we store in fat make them bioaccumulate. Stuff with low excretion rates.

Examples include PFAS, mercury, pesticides

We’re concerned about eating large fish because at the top of the food chain, they biomagnify the bioaccumulated chemicals from other species they eat.

What are PFAS? Why has the presence of PFAS in our freshwater made fish of inland Michigan and some deer off limits to consume?

Forever chemicals that degrade painfully slowly in the environment and in our bodies. Because the fish and deer ingest them and will pass them onto us if we eat them.

What were the main sources of lead exposure in the past, and how can we still be exposed to lead today?

Heavy metal used in ancient times. Now used for piping and bath lining due to its resistance to water. Also used as a food additive and used in gasoline for many years in the US.

Nowadays its common in paint and still used in piping

Rule of Capture (and what kind of water does it cover)

Ground water is the private property of whoever owns the overlying land

Ground water

Surface water

Water accessible on the earth’s surface: rivers, streams, lakes, oceans, etc.

Lost through evaporation, replenished through rain and snow. They replenish groundwater

Ground water

Water located below the earth’s surface in soil or rock spaces

Aquifer

A geological formation containing large amounts of groundwater.

Recharge very slowly, removed by humans and natural springs

Why is water called the universal solvent? Why does this property make monitoring water so important?

Because more liquids can be dissolved in water than in any other substance. It bears watching because whatever is around water will likely become dissolved in the water and could be risky for whoever interacts with the water.