Environ 201 Exam

What are some benefits and drawbacks of single stream recycling?

Single-stream recycling produces lower quality recycling streams, but higher overall recycling rates.

What are some ways biodiversity enhances food security?

Wild strains provide disease resistance and variety

Why is water called the "universal solvent?"

more substances can be dissolved in water than any other liquid

What are some environmental and ecological benefits from organic agriculture?

- Better soil helps buffer plants to prevent drought - Better soil, same yields, more profit, less energy and CO2

Bottled water is classified as food by the FDA, what does this mean in terms of unintended contaminates?

- Bottled water is not subject to report many regulations tap water reports - Several brands of bottled water is contaminated with industrial chemicals, radioactive contamination, fertilizer pollution, bacterial contamination, etc.

Which Atlantic fishery collapsed in the 1980s off the coast of Canada and Maine? How did the US and Canadian governments react? What does this fishery look like today?

- Cod (ground fish, benthic) - $700 million, 16% Newfoundland workforce - Collapse --> $4 billion in compensation to workers - Not fully recovered to this day

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?

- In 2014, Flint switched from Detroit water to the Flint River. It's water was slightly more acidic, which corroded the lead pipes. - lead is a neurotoxicant and developmental toxicant and can be stored in the bones for years before mobilizing - children and infants are especially at risk because it can affect their developing brains and nervous systems

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

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is the growing concern

Why are there no landfills in nature?

Ecosystems must obey the same thermodynamics laws.

What are some human health consequences of pesticide use?

Exposure to toxic chemicals through direct exposure (for the workers) or through the consumption of food with residue toxins

What is Fair Trade Certification and what does this process guarantee you?

Farmers receive a fair price and mandates certain ethical standards

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

Federal subsidies go to the meat and dairy industry, the grain industry, and the sugar, oil, and starch industry more than the vegetable and fruit industry

How has catch of global fisheries changed over time?

Global fisheries declining, china increasing

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

No known risks of consuming GMOS, but pesticides are known to be bad for health

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

Pros - GR reduces vitamin A deficiencies, will help the most malnourished people, no known negative health effects Cons - After 20 years still in trial stage, poorer yield than current rice, waste of money, corporation profits not the people

What is the general process for ocean acidification?

carbon dioxide pollution enters ocean > carbonate ions are formed and dissolve the coral reefs

What substances are not allowed in food?

carcinogenic substances

How much water on Earth is freshwater?

2.5%

Bottled water has ____________x the carbon footprint of tapwater

500

What are three natural sources of air pollution?

1. wildfires 2. volcanoes 3. dust storms

Roughly how much more does bottled water cost than tap water?

1000x more

How much was the food industry worth approximately in 2006?

$5 trillion

What are ethical issues related to fisheries?

- rich countries exploit fisheries - •Protecting marine areas can hamper developing countries fishing industry (97% of fishers are in developing countries) •852 million people don't have enough to eat •Fisheries provides 20% of the animal protein to 2.5 billion people

What are some drawbacks to organic agriculture?

- No subsidies - "Big Organic" - Generally more work and craft - Spoilage (no additives to extend shelf life) - Arduous certification process

How has waste generation changed in the last 50 years?

- Since 1960, waste generation has increased 2.8 times - Per capita generation increased 67%, specifically with plastics

What are some benefits of genetically modified organisms?

- ability to increase yields - produce favorable traits - allow greater compatibility with pest management

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

- chemical (any chemical substance: water, mercury, ethanol) - physical (extreme heat and extreme cold) - biological (viruses, bacteria)

What are some ecological concerns of GMOs?

- increased pesticide application harms non-target organisms - reduced genetic diversity - increased pesticide resistance

What is DES, what were the toxicological effects of exposure, and who did it effect?

- synthetic estrogen produced in 1938, proved to be ineffective in 1953 but still continued to be prescribed - sold as a supplement for pregnancies - in 1971, it was found that the daughters of mothers who took this were 40x more likely to develop cervical clear-cell cancer and it was banned in the US

What is the Rule of Capture and what kind of water does it cover?

-"ground water is the private property of the owner of the overlying land"

How much food is wasted on an annual basis, globally? How does food waste in developed nations differ from food waste in developing nation?

-Food waste in developing countries: poor infrastructure, lack of storage, inability to harvest\ -Food waste in US: forgotten in fridge, past expiration date, made or ordered too much, "ugly produce" The US wastes about 30-40% of its food. An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally each year, one third of all food produced for human consumption

What are PFAS?

-PFAS a class of forever chemicals generated by many different industries (non-stick products, fire-fighting foam) -PFAS present throughout US, MI has issued do-not-eat fish advisories for several water bodies (including the Huron River), also do-not-eat deer in Oscoda (bioaccumulation)

What was the Cuyahoga River fire of 1969 and what government legislation did it spur?

-The Cuyahoga River is a river in the United States, located in Northeast Ohio, that feeds into Lake Erie. The river is famous for having been so polluted that it "caught fire" in 1969 •In US Federal Water Pollution Act of 1972 established, then became the Clean Water Act in 1977

How many Americans are exposed to unsafe drinking water in their lifetimes?

1 in 10

What is Ann Arbor's current water problem?

1,4 dioxane was used by Gelman Sciences/Pall Life Sciences in the 1980s to manufacture medical supplies but now has contaminated the drinking water system and is thought to be a carcinogen

What are UM's four sustainability goals?

1. Climate action 2. Waste prevention 3. Healthy environments 4. Community engagement

What are the first and second laws of thermodynamics?

1. Energy and mass cannot be created nor destroyed 2. All systems tend towards disorder (entropy increases)

Beyond technology, what are five other reasons fisheries have collapsed?

1. Focusing on maximum sustainable yield 2. Size bias- artificially select for smaller fish by removing large individuals 3. Fishing down the chain 4. Lack of recovery time 5. climate change creating smaller fish

pesticide treadmill

A cycle of pesticide development, followed by pest resistance, followed by new pesticide development cycle of chemists changing chemicals and increasing toxicity to keep up with increasingly resistant pests

Two large concerns about using GMOs and the environment

1. They can backcross with native plants, transferring the genes freely into the environment. 2. Pests will soon develop resistance to Bt and other insect killing genes

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. only ~1% are tested

What do "bottle bills" like Michigan's 10 cents a can deposit do to state recycling programs?

A law establishing a program whereby consumers pay a deposit on bottles or cans upon purchase—often 5 or 10 cents per container— and then receive a refund when they return them to stores after use. Bottle bills reduce litter, raise recycling rates, and decrease the waste stream.

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

A lot of places offer refundable deposits when purchasing car batteries. businesses that sell new batteries also collect old batteries.

Entropy

A measure of disorder or randomness.

How does BPA affect human health? Why are we especially concerned about babies being exposed to BPA?

Affects brain growth for babies and fertility

Why is our designation of five oceans incorrect?

All of the oceans are connected, we are arbitrarily assigning names

pesticide vs. herbicide

An artificial chemical used to kill insects (called an insecticide), plants (called an herbicide), or fungi (called a fungicide)

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

Artificial selection selects traits that are already present in a species, whereas GM creates new traits.

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

Beef requires the most. Chicken and eggs requires the least.

What are some costs and benefits of the Green Revolution?

Benefits: -increased yields - major advancements in synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides, irrigation, machinery, high yield crops. -Intensified agriculture saved millions from starvation. Costs: -Only rich farmers benefited with lots of land benefited, poor farmers were driven away to cities. - High energy input needed - high yields = surpluses = lower prices = poorer farmers - corporate ownership of crops pressures farmers - Fewer varieties, more monoculture = more disease potential = more pesticides and herbicides needed

What are the costs and benefits of trash incineration?

Benefits: reduces pressure on landfills, much better than historical open-air burning Costs: similar costs to a coal fired plant (toxic ash, CO2 emissions, etc.), huge effort to limit pollutants (scrubber and baghouse)

bioaccumulation vs biomagnification

Bioaccumulation refers to how pollutants enter a food chain; biomagnification refers to the tendency of pollutants to concentrate as they move from one trophic level to the next.

Fresh drinking water is highly regulated in the US with 100,000+ tests on water quality done annually. What about bottled water? In general, in the US, which is safer? Cheaper?

Bottled water is not heavily regulated and is usually less safe than fresh drinking water. It is also much more expensive: the ratio of cost for bottle to tap is $6.75 to $0.0065

What do Bt and HT genes do?

Bt = "bug toxic", kills any bug that eats it HT = herbicide tolerant, makes crop resistant to weed killers

What are some costs and benefits of CAFOs?

CAFO = concentrated animal feeding operation costs: 1/3 of the world's cropland goes to animal feed, 45% of all grains go to animal feed, 50% of antibiotics are produced by livestock. 9% of CO2, 37% of methane, 65% of N2O, 19% of all emissions driven by climate change Benefits: reduces grazing impacts on the environment, inexpensive

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)?

Corn fed beef fattens faster, has a different (less-gamey) taste

What are linear and cyclic economies and how do they differ?

Cyclic: aims for the elimination of waste through the design of products, and business models. Its essence is to design products with no waste products that facilitate disassembly and reuse. Linear: raw materials are used to make a product, and after its use any waste (e.g. packaging) is thrown away.

Explain the history of DDT usage, why its use decline, why its use is such a contentious issue even today.

Developed in 1940 as a synthetic insecticide -Used to protect against primarily mosquitos -Sprayed on crops, in buildings, and directly on the skin (akin to bug spray) -Extremely effective at reducing insect populations and reducing the spread of malaria and other insect-borne diseases However, many negative environmental effects -Thinning of bald eagle eggshells -reproductive effects However, DDT is still largely used worldwide -Malaria still responsible for over 800,000 deaths/year worldwide

What are the three industrialized fishing practices that have overexploited our oceans? Which one is the worst and why?

Driftnetting, longline fishing, and bottom trawling. Bottom trawling is the worst.

What is the Aigamo method in Asian rice production? How is it related to sustainable farming?

Ducklings, fish, and tiny ferns (Azolla) are grown with rice. Ducks and fish eat pest while Azolla increases N. Increases yield 20-50% and reduces labor.

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

Huge increase in meat consumption: from average of 100 lbs or meat per person a year in 1909 to 160lbs/person in 2012

How do pests develop resistance to pesticides? This is a good example to answer using the principles of Natural Selection.

If a pesticide doesn't kill 100% of the pest, those with innate resistance survive and end breed more restating pests. This is a form of 'unwanted' Natural Selection (or artificial)

Why is the Colorado River in the Southwest of such concern when thinking about the future of water availability in the region?

It is a major diversion of water to LA, Arizona, and many other locations but is being depleted and is called the most endangered waterway in the US

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

LD50: historically standard measurement of toxicity -'lethal dose for 50% of a population' -LD50 measures acute toxicity-Effects of a single dose -Units: mg/kg-mg of chemical per kilogram of body weight In general, chemicals with LD50 values less than 300mg/kg are considered highly toxic, those with LD50 values between 300 and 1,000 mg/kg are considered moderately toxic, and those with LD50 values between 1,000 and 5,000 mg/kg are considered slightly toxic.

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

Landfills are considered safe in industrialized countries. They are engineered to reduce methane emissions and leachate from contaminating the ground water.

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

Landfills smell,generate traffic •Wayne and Oakland county citizens not happy with landfill, but no voting rights •Recently stopped proposed landfill expansion

What is the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)? Why does a focus on MSY fail to produce sustainable fisheries?

MSY: theoretical largest yield that can be taken from a species under prevailing ecological conditions without preventing them from reproducing and growing. - estimation problems - variability/change in environmental conditions - risk of size bias (smaller fish > bigger)

Sugar and meat consumption have dramatically increased in the US in the past century.

N/A

What happens to food consumption as nations become wealthier?

They consume more meat which has a bigger toll on the environment

Ogallala Aquifer

World's largest aquifer; under parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas (the Midwest). Holds enough water to cover the U.S. with 1.5 feet of water. Being depleted for agricultural and urban use.

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

eutrophication Dead zones are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans and large lakes, caused by "excessive nutrient pollution from human activities coupled with other factors that deplete the oxygen required to support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom water.

What seafood choices are sustainable? Which are not? - focus on farmed vs wild-caught and imported vs domestic, not the type of fish for this question.

farmed fish are more sustainable, domestic fish are more sustainable

Monoculture

farming strategy in which large fields are planted with a single crop, year after year

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

increased

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

ingestion, inhalation, and dermal

Are we in a linear or cyclic economy?

linear

Leachate

liquid that results when substances from the trash dissolve in water as rainwater percolates downward

What are some of the main messages of the Story of Stuff?

lots of waste in every step in the production process, must transition from linear to cyclical economy, consumer pressure to replace goods that are perfectly usable, corporate lobbying prevents added government regulations

What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch made of predominantly?

microplastics

Two major sources of algal bloom nutrients, __________ and _____________, come from agriculture runoff and overflowing CAFO waste lagoons.

nitrogen and phosphorus

Point/non-point sources of pollution in freshwater

point: from a particular place and time (factory, sewer pipe, etc.) non-point: cumulative and diffuse over large areas (farms, city streets, etc.)

Haber-Bosch process

production of fertilizers by combining nitrogen and hydrogen to synthesize ammonia -Greatly improved yields and rates of plant growth -Human population greatly increased -Process also important in industry and making explosives

Three benefits of no-till agriculture

reduces erosion, helps retain soil moisture, enhances soil structure, retains soil nutrients, decreases fossil fuel use, enhances quality of equipment, increases long term crop yielding

What are four main classifications of sources with examples?

source = location where a hazard originates point - smokestack, contaminated salad area - agricultural runoff, forest fire stationary - incinerator mobile - automobile

Why is source reduction the preferred approach to waste management?

source reduction = minimize the amount of waste generated It is the preferred approach because of the first law of thermodynamics.

Surface water vs groundwater vs aquifers

surface water - accessible on earth's surface, lost through evaporation and replenished from precipitation and snow melt, small amounts of surface water recharge groundwater groundwater - located below earth's surface in rock spaces or soil aquifer - geological formation containing large amounts of groundwater

List some of the diverse habitats the ocean creates. Describe the photic and aphotic zones.

tidal pools, salt marshes, coral reefs, kelp forests, open oceans. aphotic = sunlight cannot reach photic = sun can reach

Explain the difference between toxicants and toxins

toxicants - non-biological origin. they may occur naturally (in heavy metals) or be synthesized toxins - toxic chemicals produced within a living organism

What are upwelling and downwelling and what do they do to nutrients in the water?

upwelling - cold, nutrient rich water is drawn to the surface downwelling - gas rich (O2, CO2), warm water pulled down burying CO2

What are some of the main reasons many people around the world don't have access to clean drinking water?

war, drought, natural disaster, etc.

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

•1940-Produced 2.3 calories of food/calorie of fossil fuel input •2010-Produce 1 calorie of food/10 calories of fossil fuel input Over 200 times the energy input!

Riparian doctrine vs the doctrine of prior appropriation for water laws

•Applies mainly to surface waters •Riparian doctrine-Eastern US, water a public resource, landowners adjacent to water can reasonably use •Doctrine of Prior Appropriation-Western US, water as a public commodity, "first in time, first in right"

What are the traits that allow chemicals to bioaccumulate, and what are some examples of chemicals that bioaccumulate?

•Bioaccumulation-accumulation of a substance in an organism -Bioaccumulative chemicals are slowly excreted -May have large molecular structure or store in fat -Continuous exposure and slow excretion leads to buildup Examples: •Heavy Metals -Mercury, Lead •Pesticides •Forever chemicals-do not naturally degrade in the environment. Recent example: per-/polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, PFOS, PFOA)

What is Bovine Growth Hormone and why was it used? Is it safe?

•Bovine Growth Hormone (e.g., rBGH) -Increases milk production (which decreases costs) -FDA, WHO, NIH have all stated dairy and meat from treated cows safe for human consumption -No definitive scientific evidence linking early puberty with milk produced from hormone-injected cows

What is the definition of industrial agriculture?

•Monocultures and large farms—number of farms in US has been cut in half

What are 3 broad ways to improve sustainable agriculture?

•No-till agriculture •Crop rotations (N-fixing legumes) •Winter cover crops

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)?

•Primary determinant regarding likelihood of response from exposure -Small dose -less likely to cause a response -Large dose -more likely to cause a response

How do coral reefs become "bleached" and what are the stressors that cause this to happen?

•Prolonged stress causes coral to expel algae, breaking symbiosis •Stressors include: heat, pollution, over exposure to light, extreme low tides, and ocean acidification

What is the definition of sustainable agriculture? What three general areas does it focus on?

•Sustainability means being able to meet the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to do the same Environmental health, social equity, and economic profitability

What are some physical processes on Earth that regulate ocean temperatures?

•Thermohaline circulation •El Niño-Southern Oscillation •La Niña