ESS Topic 7 Climate Change and Energy
Climate change and energy reserves
Weather: daily result of changes in temperature, pressure, precipitation in environment
Climate: long term average of weather events.
Super cold weather doesn’t negate climate change
Why do interior states not close to water have drastic temperature swings
Proximity to ocean, wind patterns, latitude
Maritime is influence by ocean, continental is influenced by land
Offshore currents affect nearby land areas
Maritime climate is less extreme because ocean moderates temperature (high specific heat capacity)
CO2 increases because. . .
Fossil fuel growth
Deforestation/land alteration
Prevents carbon sequestration and destroyed vegetation releases the carbon that’s been released
Methane levels also increasing
Increasing agriculture (feed them seaweed? Could solve issue)
Melting permafrost which trapped methane
Rice production
Landfills (waste → decomposing)
Why does increasing average global temperature lead to. . .
Lower pH
More CO2 → ocean acidification
Reactions between Co2 & pollutants
Shells degrade
Lower biodiversity
Changes in ecosystems → some die out (trophic cascade)
Affecting PH and acidity → deaths
Less water → affects food chain
Genetic diversity and Simpson’s diversity index
Sex based on temperature (?!)
Threaten human health (disease/pests)
Disease: skin disease/heat
Glaciers melting → release old diseases
Pest: throw off climate of areas and migrate → more invasive species
Water cycle disruption:
More evaporation → sea levels drops
More evapotranspiration
Melting ice caps → rise
Weather more unpredictable (droughts/floods more extreme)
Less groundwater → quicker usage
Food systems:
too hot to grow, too dry
Soil degrades/desertification
Salinization (nutrients left behind)
Evaporates → need more water bc dry → more water
More severe storms:
Forms more hurricanes
Desertification → sand storms
Cover crops don’t function
Sea level rise
Albedo effect: more ice melts
Less ice/less white → more heat absorbs
Runoff when things melt
Climate change is not new
IPCC Report
International Panel on climate change
8 year study that shows impacts of climate change
Est. in 1988 by WMO and UNEP (190 gov’t and scientists)
World Meteorological Organization
UN Environmental Program
Mitigation of Climate Change
Attempts to reduce (maintain current levels) the effects of climate change
Reduce the source of increase the # of sinks
Ex:
Carbon taxes
Lifestyle changes
Co2 reduction
Reduce chemical fertilizer
Reduce intensive livestock
Fossil fuels alternatives
Increased efficiency in GHG’s usage
Carbon capture (technocentric)
Adaptations to Climate Change
Adjustment of lifestyle to overcome
Construction of infrastructure to deal with sea level rise
Changing agricultural practices (ex: GMOs)
Strategies to address range of invasive species
Increase freshwater access in drought areas
Case studies
Egypt - sea level rise
Sudan - drought
Botswana - drought
Bangladesh: sea level rise, salt intrusion
Philippines: drought, flood
Green Climate Fund
Adaptive measures are hampered by inequalities – MEDCs never meet goal to give money to LEDCs
LEDCs: Despite contributing ~1% of emissions, they get 70% of the deaths
International Efforts to Address CC
Lip service but little tangible action
Kyoto Protocol - 1997/2005: countries pledged to reduce GHG to 1990 levels within 15 years
No country met the target. Most saw increases in GHGs
US never ratified the treaty → doomed it from the start
Paris Agreement: pledged at most a 2 degrees Celsius increase in temperatures
Most projections predict a 3.2 degree increase
Most countries have made little progress
US withdrew then came back in 2021
Feedback Loops
Positive Loop - changes the baseline and spirals out of control. Once negative lop hits tipping → positive loop
Negative loop: changes from baseline then hits something that returns it back to the base. Equilibrium or self regulating.
Energy Security
Energy Security: Ability to secure affordable, reliable, and sufficient energy supplies for a particular country
Maintain national security
Depend on energy price fluctuations, political changes → fear of depending on solely one source
“Spread the risk” and invest in multiple places
Unfortunately, energy sources aren’t spread evenly
Inequitable availability → conflict or social unrest
If imports > exports = insecurity
Energy crisis: bottleneck in supply of energy (driven by increase in demand, decrease in supply, political tensions, oil wars)
Energy choice: depends on factors like
Availability
Technology
Politics
Economics
Cultural attitudes (ex: love of cars here in the States)
Sustainability
Environmental considerations (is it dangerous?)
Energy usage
Sun is ultimate source
99% of energy used to heat Earth is from Sun → also drives other forms of energy indirectly
81% of commercial energy is nonrenewable (finite supply)
20th century energy trends
Coal use dropped by half
Oil increased
Natural gas increased
Nuclear increased
Renewables decreased → LEDCs use biomass most
Energy efficiency: make tasks require less energy. Sustainable design that leads to conservation
Buildings that absorb sun depending on season to heat
Green roofs
Recycled materials (denim, fly ash, etc.)
Energy efficient devices and appliances (light bulbs)
Energy conservation: decreasing how much energy used overall
Gov’t initiatives - taxes on fuels or rebates/tax credits
Change your behavior
Electricity generation (both renewables and nonrenewables)
Generation of electricity
Regardless of source, all thermal power plants work in some basic way (combustion)
Water turned to steam
The energy released moves a turbine
Generates electricity
Fossil fuels: found naturally in Earth’s crust
Made of decomposing plants/animals
Coal, petroleum, natural gas (C, H, N, O, S, minerals, except for natural gas)
Swap from biomass/steam to fossil fuels over the last few years
We continue to use them because they’re transportable, in expensive, have infrastructure
However, they lead to CO2 emissions
Coal:
Solid fuel formed of tree, fern, and plant remains from 280-360 million years ago
Most abundant
“Dirtiest” fossil fuel → most emissions when used or to obtain
Mining leads to poor working conditions
Types ranked by age: older coal has more coal expunged (more processing required, I think)
Largest reserves in the US, Russia, China, and Australia
(Crude) Oil/Petroleum
Widely used fossil fuel occurring in underground deposits
Liquid mixture of hydrocarbons, water, and sulfur
Extracted through ground wells
Mixture injected at high pressure → forces oil up
Not as bad as coal mining
Once extracted, it’s distilled to separate different products, each with different condensing point (Fuel oil, diesel, kerosene, gasoline, gas)
US uses ~816 million gallons of oil/day
Top oil producers are Saudi Arabia, Russia, US, Iran, China, Canada, and Iraq (50% of all oil produced comes from 7 countries)
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: possibility of 378 billion gallons of oil, but may harm habitat
Petroleum is used in things like plastic, lubricant, pharmaceuticals, cleaning solvents (baby products too)
Natural gas
Cleanest of the fossil fuels
Associated w/ petroleum and is found within petroleum on deposits
Mostly used in electricity or industrial processes
Used in fertilizer production, heat homes, dryers/heaters
Liquefied for BBQs
Extracted in same way as oil
Fracking
Oil/gas extraction isn’t 100% efficient
Lighter materials flow easily but heavier ones don’t → hydraulic fracturing
Oil/gas extraction through high pressure fluids force open cracks in rocks deep underground
Disrupts soil into groundwater
Negative impacts
Often uses water during drought → high water use
Disposal of wastewater
Disrupts soil (How do you feed people) → habitat destruction
Flowback (methane in water)
Coal to Liquid (CTL)
Synthetic alternative of crude oil since we’re running out of oil
Would give energy security but would have 2x emissions of conventional oils
Renewable Energy
Geothermal
Nuclear
Hydroelectric
Solar
Wind