Earth Science: Unit 6 - Solutions for a Sustainable Future

Burning Fossil Fuels

• Burning fossil fuels contributes to environmental causes of death around the world.

• Fossil fuel air pollution deaths distribution varies across the globe.

• Pollutants emitted by cars and power plants include:

  • PM (particulate matter, including Black Carbon)

  • $NO_2$ (nitrous oxides)

  • $O_3$ (ozone)

  • $SO_2$ (sulfur dioxide)

  • CO (carbon monoxide)

• Deaths are related to fossil fuels due to the pollutants released during combustion.

• Activity: Fossil Fuel Air Pollution

  • Death Rates & $CO_2$ Emissions

  • Carbon Footprint Calculator

  • US Compared to Other Countries

• Air pollution deaths from fossil fuels were measured in 2015, showing annual excess mortality from health impacts.

• Fossil emissions measure $CO_2$ emitted from burning fossil fuels and industrial processes.

• Fossil $CO_2$ includes emissions from coal, oil, gas, flaring, cement, steel, and other industrial processes.

• It does not include land use change, deforestation, soils, or vegetation.

• Per capita $CO<em>2$ emissions, 2015: Carbon dioxide ($CO</em>2$) emissions from fossil fuels and industry. Land-use change is not included.

• Emissions of air pollutants, 1750 to 2022: Air pollutants are gases that can lead to negative impacts on human health and ecosystems. Most are produced from energy, industry, and agriculture.

  • Nitrogen oxide ($NO_x$)

  • Sulphur dioxide ($SO_2$)

  • Carbon monoxide (CO)

  • Black carbon (BC)

• Energy consumption by source in United States, France and India:

  • Measured in terms of primary energy using the substitution method.

Air Pollution

• Activity: Refining Solutions - Fossil Fuel Air Pollution

  • Initial Thoughts

  • Read & Sort

  • Generate

  • Solve

  • Evaluate

  • Constraints: Limitations or restrictions

  • Cost-Benefit: Estimate strengths & weaknesses

  • Trade-offs: Giving up one thing to get another

• Lab: Global Systems Investigation

• Carbon Impact

• Carbon Movement

  • Carbon Dioxide and the Carbon Cycle (Interactive)

  • Carbon Cycle Reservoirs

    • Fossil Fuels: 10,000 Gt

    • Ocean: 41,000 Gt

    • Atmosphere: 840 Gt

    • Land Biomass: 2500 Gt

    • Rocks: 60,000,000 Gt

• Greenhouse Gases

  • Group of gases that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

  • Examples:

    • Carbon dioxide ($CO_2$)

    • Methane ($CH_4$)

    • Nitrous oxide ($N_2O$)

    • Fluorinated gases (HFCs, PFCs, $SF_6$)

  • Effects: The primary effect is global warming and climate change.

    • Rising temperatures

    • Changes in weather patterns

    • Sea-level rise

    • Impacts on ecosystems

• Air Pollution

  • Presence of harmful substances in the air detrimental to human and environmental health.

  • Examples:

    • Particulate matter (PM)

    • Ozone ($O_3$)

    • Nitrogen oxides ($NO_x$)

    • Sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$)

    • Carbon monoxide (CO)

  • Effects:

    • Human health: Respiratory diseases, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and premature death.

    • Environmental damage: Acid rain, smog, damage to vegetation, and harm to wildlife.

    • Climate change: Contribution to global warming by pollutants like methane and black carbon.

  • Sources:

    • Burning of fossil fuels: Coal, oil, and natural gas combustion in vehicles, power plants, and industrial facilities.

    • Industrial processes: Emissions from factories and manufacturing activities.

    • Agriculture: Release of ammonia and methane from livestock and fertilizer use.

    • Natural sources: Dust storms, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, and the release of gases from decaying vegetation.

• Greenhouse Gases vs Air Pollution

  • GREENHOUSE GASES: Drive global climate change

  • POLLUTION: More immediate threats to human health and local environmental quality

Designing Solutions

• Activity: Using Oceans to Capture Carbon

  • Use a Model to Analyze the Solution

  • Defining the Problem & Describing the Solution

  • Refining the Solution

  • Evaluating the Refinement

Heat Islands

• Urban Heat Island: Urban areas experience higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas due to heat-absorbing materials like buildings, roads, and pavement.

• Causes of Heat Related Deaths

  • Heat-stress Deaths: Caused directly by heat (Heat exhaustion & hypothermia).

  • Heat-exacerbated Deaths: Caused indirectly by heat (Heat worsens existing condition, such as heart disease).

• Neighborhood Impacts

  • Heat Vulnerability Index: Tool used to assess & map areas most susceptible to negative effects of heat exposure.

    • Demographics - age, income, race

    • Environmental Factors - urban heat island effect, vegetation cover

    • Health Indicators - prevalence of chronic disease

• Demographics for Heat Related Deaths

  • Black New Yorkers - 2x as high as that of White New Yorkers

  • Poor neighborhoods had higher rates than wealthier ones

  • Lowest rates among people aged 20 and younger

  • Highest among people aged 60 and older

  • Rates of heat-stress deaths were higher among males than females.

• Activity: Heat in NYC

  • Heat

  • Zoning

  • Trees

  • Energy

  • Names

• Lab: Modeling Sustainability

  • Mathematical model to understand how pieces work together and impact each other.

  • HEAT SCORE

    • = Land Use x Energy Use / Tree Cover

  • Increase in each variable affects the heat score Increase % high end Ex. 0-10% = 10 # on map Decrease Heat Score.

Compare Your Results: Increased Heat in NYC

• Computational Model

• Sustainability - being able to meet the needs of a society today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

• The use of land in the city also affects all of the other organisms living within it.

• Biodiversity - variety of life; all species and ecosystems

Analyzing Feedbacks

• Scenario 1. Temperature increases

  • Air conditioners create heat waste, and high levels increase local temperatures by more than 1 degree C (1.8 F) (source), further compounding conditioning.

• Scenario 2: TREE COVER increases

• Scenario 3: BIODIVERSITY increases

• Scenario 4: URBANIZATION/PAVING increases

• HEAT VULNERABILITY INDEX PART 4: EVALUATING THE MODEL

Sustainability

• How do we increase sustainability?

  • Reduce energy use

  • Increase green spaces

  • Increase biodiversity in the city

  • Increase the albedo of the city/change the surface types being used in manufacturing and commercial zones

Introduction to Climatopias

• Examples of CLIMATOPIAS - utopian urban designs that attempt to address CLIMATE CHANGE

  • Floating cities

  • Skyscrapers covered in trees

  • Zero-carbon smart cities

• Design for Climate Change - What makes a city SUSTAINABLE?

  • Environmental Planning - Building sustainable communities

    • URBAN PLANNING

    • GEOGRAPHY

    • ECONOMICS

    • AGRICULTURE

• Sustainable development:

  • Uses natural resources responsibly

  • Promotes economic opportunities

  • Environmental justice, laws & policies

• Social Equity - everyone has just & fair access to HOUSING & INCOME to cover basic needs

• Quadruple bottom line: positive results for PEOPLE, PLANET, PROFITS and COMMUNITY

• Models & Planning Tools

  • ZONING - designating where different land uses can take place

    • RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT - housing

    • COMMERCIAL DISTRICT - businesses

    • COMPACT ZONES - combination, reduces need for people to drive across the region

• Smart Growth Planning - seeks to control and direct the movement sprawl

  • SPRAWL - outskirts of cities EXPANDING into open, undeveloped land

  • ECOLOGICAL DESIGN - effort to build buildings/cities that

    • Mimic NATURE

    • Passive SOLAR design - use of the Sun for heating & cooling

• New Urbanism - Smart Growth Planning on a NEIGHBORHOOD scale

  • Gentrification - value of land and rent INCREASE in LOWER income areas from a new influx of investment.

  • Redlining - color coding of urban MAPS to indicate which neighborhoods were considered HIGH risk to lend money to with blacks and immigrants being rated the highest risk & were outlined in red

  • Urban Renewal - process that allowed cities to CLEAR away areas deemed as blighted to allow for new CONSTRUCTION of highway system

• Cities allow for the development of:

  • Efficient access to services

  • Cheaper electricity & internet access

  • Centers of diffusion & cultural exchange

  • Innovation, new economic frontiers & technological advances

• Cities create pressure in the form of:

  • Waste

  • Pollution

  • Strain on water resources

  • Services not distributed evenly create uneven health outcomes

• Air Pollution (ACID RAIN) - factory & car POLLUTION mixes with water in ATMOSPHERE - can be experience HUNDREDS of miles away

• Water pollution - SEWER overflows - water QUALITY - chemical DUMPING

• Gray-green divide - Higher income neighborhoods have more GREEN vegetation to decrease urban heat island effect -

  • Lower income neighborhoods have more GRAY pavement to increase urban heat island effect, has EFFECT on Mood, Health and Biodiversity.

• Environmental Justice

  • Grew out of 1960’s movement for CIVIL RIGHTS Idea that every person is entitled to PROTECTION from environmental hazards regardless of:

    • RACE, GENDER, AGE, CLASS and POLITICS

• Creating SUSTAINABLE cities is about planning for the FUTURE and reconciling the PAST. Materials & construction industries are responsible for 10% of the world’s GREENHOUSE gases emission in early 2020’s

• Retrofits: Reuse old materials and spaces; Reduces greenhouse gas emissions, Saves biodiversity outside cities and Minimizes habitat fragmentation.

• Greenfield development - blank slate, Brownfield development - reuse land and Cooperative - group of people who come together COLLECTIVELY to manage a resource; Housing and Agricultural production.

• Sustainability Score

  • $Sustainability = \frac{Biodiversity \times Tree Cover}{Land Use \times Energy Use}$

Deforestation

• $1/4$ of the $CO_2$ absorbed by all land

  • $1/2$ of $CO_2$ → soil

  • healthy ecosystem

  • high levels of biodiversity

• Trees cool the air by circulating water

  • Combat heating from climate change

  • Increases moisture in the atmosphere

• Trees absorb pollution

  • Burning fossil fuels

  • Forest fires

Green Roofs

• Green Roofs contribute to sustainability, combine to heat deaths globally?

• Sustainability Equation:

  • $Sustainability = \frac{Biodiversity \times Tree Cover}{Land Use \times Energy Use}$

Impacts of Mining

• Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals from the Earth.

• The raw product is called an 'ore' and it contains impurities.

  • High-grade ore: low impurities

  • Low-grade ore: high impurities

• Refining: industrial process that removes these impurities

  • Processes vary by ore

  • Process requires fossil fuel and water use

• Case Study - Gold

  • Ores sometimes contain as little as .005 ounce of gold per ton of rock

  • Highly valuable

  • Use a cyanide 'wash' to remove impurities from gold

  • Cyanide is a potent poison

  • Waste 'slurry' must be chemically treated and stored safely

• After target ore is removed, the leftover impurities are called tailings.

  • Tailings contain crushed rock, water, trace quantities of metal, additives used in processing (such as petroleum byproducts, sulfuric acid and cyanide).

  • Placed in TSF (tailing storage facility)

• Reserve: a location that has a high abundance of a mineral of interest

  • More disturbance of land is required as high-grade ore is depleted

• Types of Mining

  • Surface: above-ground

  • Sub-surface: below-ground