ENVIR 239 EXAM 3

2/20/25 - Energy 1: Energy Intro & Transportation

Energy Introduction

• Renewable: wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass, and others

• Non-renewable: fossil fuels (ancient plants or animals with stored carbon) including coal, oil, and natural gas ; nuclear fuel (doesn’t have contributions to climate change, but can produce nuclear waste that can cause human and environmental harm for a long time)

  • Most of energy we use

Energy Use in the World Per Capita, 2023

• Extensive use in the North Hemisphere compared to the South

  • Doesn’t indicate any carbon emissions associated with energy use

U.S. Primary Energy Consumption by Energy Source, 2022

• Petroleum = 36%

• Natural gas = 33%

• Renewable energy = 13% → slowly growing in recent years

• Coal = 10%

• Nuclear electric power = 8%

Net Electricity Generation in the United States by Source (2023)

• “Only” 16% coal → Reliance on coal has dropped drastically in the last decade (policy changes → EPA changed air quality standards and coal burning contributes greatly to air pollution; aging/retiring of old technologies)

• 43% natural gas → fracking, more affordable

• 19% nuclear

• 21% renewables → wind power is increasing dramatically

Total U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Economic Sector in 2022

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Life Cycle Analysis: Electric vs. Gas-Powered Car

• Raw materials: ecological justice and health issues in the global South with mining the materials necessary for an electric car’s battery → therefore gas-powered is better

• Use: only buying the battery once, electric is rechargeable, but have to consider where the electricity is coming from; how long does the battery last compared to gas

• Disposal: reusable/repurposable electric car battery if recycled properly, where are the components being sent and how is it handled

Carbon Offsets

• Paying to reduce carbon emissions elsewhere to contradict your own personal carbon emissions

  • Reforestation, methane gas capture, etc.

• Controversial: could be buying offsets that actually do nothing/were already going to happen without outside sourcing, enables bad ecological behavior

• If you do want to purchase a carbon offset, make sure it is third party certified/verified

“Hypermiling”: Driving to Improve Fuel Economy

• Car Maintenance

  • Inflate your tires to the appropriate amount → 2% less fuel use

  • Remove excess weight

  • Keep your engine tuned up/car maintained

  • Use the lowest viscosity oil recommended for you car

  • Clean your air filter → old cars only

  • Removed roof top box and/or roof racks

• Driving

  • Avoid traffic

  • Be gentle with the accelerator

  • “Drive as if you don’t have brakes” → coast as much as possible

  • Keep track of your miles per gallon → can help you use less gas

  • Take shortcuts and stack your errands

  • Drive less often

Millennial Driving Habits

• Differences between baby boomers (1946-1964) driving & millennial (1982-2004( driving?

  • Fewer millennials drive/own cars/have licenses

  • More walk/bike to work

  • More public transit

  • More rideshare

• What drives the differences

  • Millennial incomes ~20% lower than boomers at the same age

  • More millennials live in cities or with their parents

  • More boomers live in single-family homes

  • Higher pro-environmental attitudes in millennials

Seattle going Car-Less

• Danger of getting your car-robbed

• Cheaper to not own a car → gas, repairs, tickets, etc.

• Public transportation is highly developed and Seattle is a more compact city than others

Seattle Car Ownership 2025 (Gene Balk, FYI Guy)

• Seattle is growing but we seem to have reached “peak car”

• In 2023, share of Seattle households that were “car-less” hit 20% for the first time

• ⅓ of renter households vs. 1/20 of home owning households

Vision Zero

• Aims to eliminate pedestrian (includes bikers) fatalities

• Successful in many communities

• Adopted in Seattle in 2015

  • Pedestrian deaths have risen since that time → more than double in five years after compared to five years before, and worse since the pandemic

• People of color and elderly and poorer communities disproportionately affected due to lack of wealth and infrastructure

• Fewer car-pedestrian accidents, but more of them are fatal

Driving & Cycling

• Even on short trips, bikes are rarely used

• US: cycling less than 2% of all trips

  • Japan = 14%

  • Denmark = 18%

• In the Netherlands, 27% always bike commute, and 40% sometimes bike commute

2/27/25 - Energy 2: Active Transportation, Energy in Seattle, & Energy Use in Buildings

Barriers to Cycling as Transportation

• Bikes get stolen → often in Seattle

• Don’t know how to ride a bike

• Mobility issues

• Unsafe bike lanes/not many bike trails

• Identity → not a “cyclist” type

• Weather

• Nowhere close to go → community level issue

Benefits to Cycling

• Environmental

  • Reduces carbon emissions and better air quality

  • Reduces need to drill for petroleum

  • Uses less resources to make and produces less waste if thrown out → metal and rubber

  • Less parking lots and infrastructure necessary

  • Stronger connection to nature

• Health

  • Reduces heart disease

  • Great low impact exercise → more accessible

  • Mental benefit → less stressful commute, connection with nature

  • Community bonding

• Equity

  • Accessible to all ages

  • Cheaper to own, rent, and repair a bike

  • More welcoming community life

  • Increased bike infrastructure allows for more accessible transport options

• Economic

  • Cheaper to fix and cheaper to own

  • Supports more local businesses

  • No speeding or parking ticket

  • Don’t have to pay for insurance

Seattle Cycling

• Seattle Bike Master PLan Goals:

  • Increase ridership

  • Improve rider safety

  • Increase connectivity

    • Trails, protected bike lanes, “sharrows,” “neighborhood greenways”

    • Bike network connects to places people want to go; provides a “time-competitive” travel option

  • Livability → more bikes leads to more vibrant c communities

  • Equity → access to and equity to invest in above

Active Transportation Advocacy

• Bike Works, Rainier Valley Greenways, and Walkable Washington

• Promote cycling/walking on a variety of levels

• Sustainable Citizen

Local Bike Resources and Classes

• Learn the basics of cycling, focus on the rules of the road, learn about mountain biking, learn how to change a flat, learn how to make repairs, etc.

• UW bike routes and resources → ASUW bike shop, transportation services, etc.

• Cascade bike club classes

Seattle GHG Emissions by Sector

• Transportation → 60% (higher than the U.S. average)

• Industry → 31%

• Buildings → 8%

Seattle City Light as a Green Utility:

2024 Seattle City Light

• 88% Hydro

• 5% Wind

• 4% Nuclear

• 2% Unspecified

• 1% Biogas

  • Over 80% of the power delivered is generated from clean, carbon-free hydroelectricity.

  • Seattle uses less than 2% fossil energy for electricity.

Green Up Program

• Voluntary green power

• Join for as little as $1 per month → set monthly donation or percentage of your bill

• SCL buys electricity from independent companies producing electricity from renewables

• Third party certified by Green-e Energy Program

Community Solar Program

• Benefits to solar

• $$ to buy and install: barrier to solar in SEA isn’t climate, it is awareness, infrastructure and $

• Community solar is about pooling resources → individuals can buy solar units in a project

Smith (2015): Are you obsessing about the wrong energy use?

• Majority of power in our homes comes from things we don’t think about because we don’t interact with all the time:

  • Water heater, air conditioning, and furnace

• Important ways to reduce these uses:

  • Turn down your thermostat; turn off when you’re gone and down lower at night → 3% of your bill for every degree

  • Shorter showers/fewer showers/showers instead of baths

  • Turn down your hot water heater

  • When you hot water heater breaks, replace it with a smaller one → if you have gas, consider and instant hot water heater

  • If you need to replace your home heating, consider a heat pump

  • Air conditioning? Open your windows or program your AC to turn on when it’s actually necessary (80 over 70 degrees)

Energy Star: US EPA voluntary program

• “Superior energy efficiency” saves people $ and protects our climate/resources

• Designed to “up the ante” – certification standards keep getting steeper

• Must be third-party certified based on testing in recognized labs

Personal Choices make a Big Difference

• Occupant activities and choices control about 50% of residential energy use

• For people to reduce energy use the need: knowledge, motivation, and control

• Petersen et al 2015:

  • Campus Conservation electricity and water use reduction competition among dorms on college campuses

  • 100-200K people involved each year

  • ~4% reductions in electricity use, 6% reduction in water use

    • Better electricity reductions associated with web real time viewing

  • Top 10% of dorms achieved 28% (electricity) and 36% (water) reductions

  • Post competition surveys suggests conservation behavior is sustained past competition

  • Motivation and empowerment associated with improved conservation behavior

  • Competition particularly powerful for groups not otherwise motivated

3/4/25 - Sustainable Water pt.1

Broadly, What three things can we do to reduce our negative impact on our water supply?

• Reduce water use → direct and indirect

  • From food, running water, etc.

• Reducing pollution and toxins in wastewater

  • Protecting watersheds, collecting water from alternative sources

• Stop supporting water privatization

  • Don’t buy bottled water

Water Waste in Las Vegas

• 350 gallons per day per capita → double that of NYC which gets 10 times the rainfall

• 70% is used outside

• Hotels are actually good at conserving

  • ~4000 room Bellagio uses less water than the golf course it replaced

    • Reduce water use through gray water, shower aerators, instant hot water

How to increase water in Vegas? How is water allocated? Who decides?

• First in time, first in line – “arcane world of water rights”.. Should we “thrust it into a 21st century free market” → Seattle Times, Bush 2019

• Allocation rules allow Nevada to pay for conservation projects in other states and use the conserved water

  • Las Vegas seriously considering building a desalination plant in California or Mexico in exchange for some of their Colorado River allocation – hundreds of millions – billions of dollars in infrastructure (2018-still considering)

• 2008 report examined shipping water from Alaska and piping water from the Columbia

• 2015: proposal to ship water from Alaska to California

American Water Crisis

• “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin Franklin

• Valuable, exhaustible resource that we treat as valueless and inexhaustible

• “Limitless quantity of high-quality water for less $ than we pay for our cell service”

• Landowner wells

• In many places, water rights follow a “use it or lose it” approach

• Existing supplies are at capacity, but our population is still growing

• We have traditionally engineered our way out of water shortages with dams, diversions, and wells but not much more we can do

U.S. Water Usage

• Peaked in the 1980s

• Population growth: 1980 ~ 225 million vs. today ~ 340 million

• More land area irrigated

• How did we accomplish this?

  • Improved technology and conservation behaviors

U.S. Water Litigation

• Multi-state water negotiations decided by the Supreme Court

  • Court usually hears several interstate water cases each year

  • “Essentially irrelevant” whether headwaters of a river begin in one state or another → states cannot hoard water

  • In 2023: Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo (Dine) → the U.S. federal government does not have responsibility to help Navajo secure their treaty protected water rights (Colorado River)

  • 2025 article about “Looming” Supreme court case if States cannot determine allocation → after many low water years

  • November 2021: Supreme Court rule unanimously against Mississippi claim that it has “sovereign ownership of all groundwater beneath its surface” in an aquifer shared with Tennessee and instead must be “equitably apportioned” → e.g. “groundwater is like all other water”

How do we think about water?

• Water quantity

  • How much is available? Sustainability available?

  • How is it allocated among humans?

  • How is it allocated between humans and ecosystems?

• Water quality

  • What is the water’s condition relative to requirements of..

    • One or more species?

    • A human need or purpose?

Direct water use/Direct water footprint

• Your direct water use – that which runs through toilets, taps, and garden hoses at home/work/school

• Average American uses ~80 gallons per day → U.S. EPA

• ~5% of our total footprint

Reducing your direct water footprint

• Personal Solutions

  • Shorter showers, not letting the tap run while you’re washing dishes/getting ready/etc., use water-efficient appliances, make native plant gardens, repairing appliances, running dishwashers/laundry when they are full

• Community or National Level Solutions

  • Market: making water rights tradeable/sellable, making water more expensive based on usage, tax breaks on reduced water use

  • Policy: limit allocations in certain areas (i.e. golf courses), make water intensive products illegal, make water-saving products more affordable

  • Education: sharing knowledge about water use with other, mandatory lessons about water use and conservation, shaming biggest water users in community

Indirect Water Use or Footprint

• Product’s Water Footprint → Virtual Water, Embedded water

• Water consumption and pollution behind all the goods and services your buy

• Much larger than your direct water footprint (95% of total)

• Average American uses 2000 gallons per day

Reducing your indirect water use

• Eating vegan/vegetarian or less meat overall

• Buying/consuming less and buying used instead

• Use less energy → drive less, buy things locally made or grown

Seattle Watershed Water Resources

• Increasing demand puts supply at risk

  • Population growth –

    • But we use about the same amount of water today as we did in 1960 → with double the population

    • Seattle as a green public utility → great water conservation programs, including free low flow shower heads, stepped pricing, and watering bans in dry years

  • Declining groundwater levels

  • Impacts of climate change → rain in the mountains instead of snow

3/6/25 - Sustainable Water pt.2: Water quantity, quality, and access

Water is a renewable resource but…

• Renewal takes time

• The current rate of renewal is unsustainable

  • Groundwater mining/overdrafting → “mining” phrasing highlights how water is in fact a precious resource

  • “Fossil water”

Seattle Watershed Water Resources

• Water Supply: “firm yield” or what we expect to be able to provide is 172 million gallons per day (MGD) → some models suggest substantial decrease due to climate change

• Water Demand: 125 MGD projected to increase gradually to 137 MGD by ~2040

• Annual demand not expected to exceed annual supply until after 2060 with 90% certainty

  • This is misleading :0! Winter demands are 100 MGD, and Summer demand is 200 MGD

• Most water is already legally spoken for → already allocated

Washington State Water

• In WA: water is a public resource that can’t be owned → the right to USE the water, however, is “exclusive and treated like a property right”

• “Worldwide, as temperatures rise and aquifers dry, investors are increasingly bullish on water, and buying vineyards, farms, and ranches for what’s underneath or flowing through.”

• Crown Columbia Water Resources → Wall Street buyer trying to purchase land/property in Washington to gain WA water rights

Storm Water in Seattle

• Reducing stormwater runoff improves our water quality

• The landscape as a green filter → precipitation doesn’t runoff, but slowly percolates through the soil and is cleaned as it travels through and enters the groundwater → i.e. Seattle Rainwise

• In contrast, the landscape as a gray funnel → allows pollution and toxins to be washed away into waterways as it goes straight into drainage systems

• In Seattle, there is Combined Sewage Outflow → all the water from your home and storm drains is placed into the sewage treatment plant and is cleaned before it goes into the water → true in dry weather (includes typical Seattle rain)

  • Separate Sewage Outflow has sewage waste go one way and storm sewage go into the water

Improving Seattle Water Quality

• Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) → bioswales, rain gardens, etc.

  • Act as biofilters, removing sediments & pollutants such as heavy metals from the water 

  • Treat anthropogenic discharge such as wastewater, stormwater runoff, or sewage (constructed wetlands)

  • Also provides wildlife habitats

• Seattle Rain Water Harvesting

  • Decreases demand AND improves water quality

  • A water right is NOT required for rooftop water harvesting

    • UW Mercer Hall Rainwater Laundry

      • First large scale rainwater laundry in the U.S.

• 125,000 gallon storage tank (cistern) → pipes to a central location

Improving Seattle’s Water Quality

• Reduced runoff and reduce toxins in that water with green stormwater infrastructure

• Reduce demand and runoff by harvesting rainwater

• Reduce toxins in the water

  • Reduce chemicals in personal care products and cleaning products

  • Avoid Microbeads

• Do not support privatized water

Reducing Toxins in our Waste Water

• 1976: Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

  • EPA must prove a chemical poses an “unreasonable risk” to public health or the environment before it can be regulated

  • Between 1957 and 2003, ACS recorded over 15 million new chemicals

  • Less than 1% have been completely evaluated as potential health or ecological hazards

  • products/ingredients including in cosmetics do NOT need FDA approval before they are available to buy

• 2016: Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act

  • For the first time, the EPA was given authority to evaluate existing chemicals, starting with those of highest concern → but has a huge backlog

• 1938 was the last time Congress passed a law regulating the cosmetics industry

• The EU has banned close to 1,400 harmful cosmetic ingredients; the U.S. has only banned 11

What can individuals do?

• Reduce our consumption of products that go down the drain or on our skin

• Vote with our dollars: buy better products

• Research products → EWG Skin Deep

• Advocate for better laws → make change and be a sustainable citizen

• Green stormwater infrastructure

What are microbeads? Why are they used? Why are they a problem?

• Mini-plastics included in a lot of exfoliating face products

• They go down the drain when we wash it off, and end up in our water sources or animals

  • We ingest microbeads if the fish we eat ingested microbeads → terrible cycle

Privatized Water – What are the problems?

• Contributes to excessive plastic pollution (downcycled) and GHG emissions during production/shipping

• Exploits freshwater resources in other countries

• Manufactured demand → miseducation on the safety of tap water

• Must beat out the competition → the right to clean, affordable water

What can we do about Privatized Water?

• Stop drinking bottled water

• Water infrastructure is underfunded in the U.S. by 24 billion dollars → advocate & vote

• Lobby to increase drinking fountains/bottle fill stations, or ban the sale of bottled water at school, work, and the city