Environmental Science Final

greenhomebuilding.com What is meant by "natural building", and what are some of the types of materials used?

"Natural building" is an umbrella term than connotes any sort of building that is accomplished with the use of natural materials primarily, as opposed to the use of man-made or industrial materials. - adobe - strawbale - corwood - bamboo

Green Building Supply Go to Flooring and bamboo. Are there different types of bamboo flooring? What type of plant is bamboo? (You may have to do some of your own research on bamboo).

- Bamboo is a tree - Yes there are different types

greenhomebuilding.com How much water does the average person in the US use each day? What are some simple ways of conserving water? What is "gray water"?

- The average person in the U. S. uses between 100 and 250 gallons of water a day. - The use of low water capacity toilets, flow restrictors at shower heads and faucet aerators are fairly common now - gray water is cooking water, bath water, use it to water plants

Home Power Magazine Lifestyle (Postmodern PV Pioneers) - What is the size of the Barker's PV array? How far does the average US meal travel before it hits the dinner table?

-5,000 watt array using 44 modules -1500 Miles

Home Power Magazine Green Building (Top 10 Eco-friendly Building Products) - According to this article what are the top 10 eco-friendly building products?

-ENERGY-EFFICIENT WINDOWS -ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY INSULATION -LOW- AND ZERO-VOC FINISHES -ENGINEERED LUMBER -STRAW BALES, ADOBE, STRAW-CLAY, AND NATURAL PLASTERS -FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL (FSC) CERTIFIED LUMBER -PLASTIC LUMBER -ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ROOFING MATERIALS -RECYCLED TILE -LOW- AND NO-FORMALDEHYDE PRESSED WOOD PRODUCTS

Seafood Selector Look at the wallet sea food food card provided on ICON. What is the better choice - wild Alaskan salmon or farmed salmon? What is the better choice - Yellowfin tuna or Bluefin tuna? How about imported shrimp - good choice or bad?

-Wild Alaskan -Yellowfin tuna -Bad

How many of the 50 U.S. states currently have bottle bills that encourage the recycling of beverage cans and bottles?

10 ( Ch. 22)

According to the article Postmodern PV Pioneers, how far does the average US meal travel before it hits the dinner table?

1500 Miles

In Glacier National Park, only _____ of the 150 glaciers present at the time of the park's inception in 1910 remain today

25 (Ch. 18)

Approximately how many cell phones do citizens of the United States currently throw away every day?

350,000 (Ch. 22)

According to your textbook, the wealthiest 20% of the world's population consumes ___% of the world's resources.

80

Recycling aluminum cans saves approximately _______ times the energy needed to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin bauxite.

95 (Ch. 22)

Scientist E. O. Wilson has appeared throughout the course on the following topics except for:

??

"To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering", is a famous quote by

Aldo Leopold

Better World Shopper Computers Rank the following: Apple, Microsoft, Samsung

Apple, Samsung, Microsoft

According to the Better World Shopper, the best choice for ice cream from the following list, when considering points of social and environmental responsibility, is ________.

Ben & Jerry's, Haagen Daaz, Edy's

Better World Shopper Ice Cream Rank the following: Haagen Dazs, Klondike, Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's, Haagen Dazs, Klondike

Case Studies Chapter 4

Black and White, and Spread All Over: Zebra Mussels Invade the Great Lakes - Black-and-white-striped shellfish the size of a dime, zebra mussels attach to hard surfaces and feed on algae by filtering water through their gills. This mollusk, given the scientific name Dreissena polymorpha, is native to the Caspian and Black seas where Europe meets Asia. - Within just two years of their discovery, zebra mussels had multiplied and reached all five of the Great Lakes. - Today, they have colonized waters in 30 U.S. states. - The zebra mussel's larval stage is well adapted to disperse long distances. Its tiny larvae drift freely for several weeks, traveling as far as the currents take them - Zebra mussels also exert severe ecological impacts. They eat primarily phytoplankton: microscopic photosynthetic algae, protists, and cyanobacteria that drift in open water

Case Studies Chapter 10

Can Organic Farming and GMOs Coexist? - Marsh had turned to organic farming on his 477 hectares (ha; 1200 acres) of land because he wanted to safeguard the health of his family and the integrity of his soil and water by eliminating many of the pollution sources common to conventional industrial agriculture. He raised sheep and grew wheat, rye, and oats without using chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, and he had worked diligently to obtain official certification as an organic farmer. - Baxter grew canola in the conventional way on his 900 ha (2200 acres): planting vast stands of the crop in monocultural fields, using chemical pesticides to ward off insects and weeds, and applying synthetic fertilizers to provide extra nutrients to the plants. - But after Baxter harvested his GM canola, Marsh discovered that some of its seeds, stalks, and leaves had blown into Marsh's fields. Under Australian law, farm produce can be labeled organic only if it is 100% free of any genetically engineered material. Consequently, inspectors de-certified the crops on 70% of Marsh's land, and as a result he was no longer able to sell his harvest as certified organic. - In 2014, Marsh lost his case before Western Australia's Supreme Court. The court declared that Baxter had done nothing illegal.

Case Studies Chapter 12

Certified Sustainable Paper in Your Textbook - As you turn the pages of this textbook, you are handling paper made from trees that were grown, managed, harvested, and processed using certified sustainable practices. - If you were to trace the paper in this book back to its origin, you might find yourself standing in a mixed forest of aspen, birch, beech, maple, spruce, and pine in northern Wisconsin or in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. - Once harvested, the trees are shipped to a nearby pulp mill where the timber is chipped and fed into a digester, which cooks the wood chips with chemicals to break down the wood's molecular bonds.

Case Studies Chapter 16

Collapse of the Cod Fisheries

Case Studies Chapter 15

Conserving Every Drop in California - the governor announced mandatory water restrictions that required cities and towns in California to reduce their water use by 25%—an aggressive target intended to help the United States' most populous state and the world's eighth largest economy deal with one of its worst droughts in recorded history. - Record-low levels of precipitation coupled with record-high heat have kept California in drought conditions since 2012 - The drought has had devastating effects on California's agricultural sector, which uses 80% of California's water and supplies half the United States' produce, including 90% of its tomatoes, 95% of its broccoli, and 99% of its pistachios and almonds - The U.S. Forest Service estimated in 2015 that the drought had led to the death of more than 66 million trees in California alone, many killed when trees weakened by drought were infested by parasitic beetles. - In addition, endangered giant kangaroo rats (Dipodomys ingens) are starving in California's Carrizo Plain outside Los Angeles as the grasslands they occupy slowly turn to desert - Chinook salmon are experiencing massive die-offs in northern California as water levels drop and temperatures rise to lethal levels. - The El Niño winter of 2015-2016 provided California a reprieve from stifling drought, but with the state's population expected to grow and the threat of severe drought ever-looming, it is clear the state will be dealing with water supply issues for the foreseeable future.

Case Studies Chapter 6

Costa Rica Values Its Ecosystem Services - this nation of 4.9 million people has regained much of its forest cover, boasts a world-class park system, and stands as a global model for sustainable resource management. - One key step was the decision to pay landholders to conserve forest on private land, in a novel government program called Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA)—Payment for Environmental Services. - Nature provides ecosystem services (p. 4, 116-117), such as air and water purification, climate regulation, and nutrient cycling. - In Costa Rica, which had lost more than three-quarters of its forest, political leaders adopted this approach in Forest Law 7575, passed in 1996. Since then, the Costa Rican government has been paying farmers and ranchers to preserve forest on their land, replant cleared areas, allow forest to regenerate naturally, and establish sustainable forestry systems. - To fund the PSA program, Costa Rica's government sought money from people and companies who benefited from these services. - Because carbon dioxide is emitted when fossil fuels are burned, the nation used a 3.5% tax on fossil fuels to help fund the program. - Deforestation slowed in Costa Rica in the wake of the program; forest cover rose by 10% in the decade after 1996. - Back in 1948, Costa Rica abolished its army and shifted funds from the military budget into health and education.

IRENEW (Iowa Renewable Energy Association) Are tax incentives for home solar instal lation increasing or decreasing over the next few years?

Decrease

Tax incentives for residential solar systems in the United States are scheduled to ________ over the next several years.

Decrease

___________ leads the world in the proportion of its electricity generation that comes from wind power.

Denmark (Ch. 21)

Case Studies Chapter 9

Farm to Table (and Back Again) at Kennesaw State University - In 2009, the university opened The Commons, a dining facility that serves more than 5000 students each day and was granted gold-level certification as a sustainable building by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program (p. 343). - Today, the university runs three farms on 27 hectares (67 acres) of land near the campus that grow thousands of pounds of produce each year, supplying many of the fruits and vegetables served to students in The Commons.

Case Studies Chapter 7

Fracking the Marcellus Shale - In exchange for the right to drill for natural gas on their land, Cabot would pay them royalties on sales of the gas extracted from drilling pads placed on their property. - Soon the new drilling sites around Dimock were producing the largest quantities of natural gas from anywhere in the Marcellus Shale, the vast gas-bearing rock formation that underlies portions of Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, and Ohio - Their once-quiet community was now experiencing noise, light, and air pollution; heavy truck traffic; and toxic wastewater spills. Soon, many people's drinking water began to turn brown, gray, or cloudy with sediment, and chemical smells began wafting from their water wells. On New Year's Day, 2009, Norma Fiorentino's well exploded. Methane had built up in her well water, and a spark from a motorized pump set off a potentially lethal blast. - Residents blamed the drilling technique that Cabot Oil and Gas was using: hydraulic fracturing. - Josh Fox came to town and filmed residents setting their methane-contaminated tap water on fire. His 2010 film Gaslandwon numerous awards, and Dimock became Ground Zero in the burgeoning national debate over hydraulic fracturing. - In formations such as the Marcellus Shale, natural gas is locked up in tiny bubbles dispersed throughout the shale rock. The technique of hydraulic fracturing is now making this shale gas accessible. - Hydraulic fracturing (also called hydrofracking, or simply fracking) involves drilling deep into the earth and then angling the drill horizontally once a shale formation is reached - In this way, fracking boosts the amount of natural gas that can be extracted from a rock formation. - The debates in Dimock have been occurring throughout Pennsylvania and across the nation as fracking has spread.

Which of the following is an assumption of neoclassical economics?

Growth is good. - Focused on processes of production and consumption between household and business, viewing the environment merely as an external factor (Ch. 6)

Home Power Magazine Micro-hydroelectricity (Intro to Hydropower) - What two things combine to yield waterpower?

Head and Flow strength

The peak in conventional U.S. oil extraction around 1970 was predicted in 1956 by:

Hubbert (Ch. 19)

Which energy source has the highest EROI (energy return on investment) value?

Hyrdoelectric (Ch 20.)

Home Power Magazine Passive Solar Design (Designing Your Place in the Sun) - According to the figure on page 63, for a home at 40°N what are the respective noon sun angles for March 21, June 21, September 21, and December 21?

June 21: 73°at noon March & September 21: 50° at noon December 21: 27° at noon

Which of the following items has the highest recycling recovery rate in the United States?

Lead and acid batteries (Ch. 22)

Case Studies Chapter 13

Managing Growth in Portland, Oregon - With fighting words, Oregon governor Tom McCall challenged his state's legislature in 1973 to take action against runaway sprawling development, which many Oregonians feared would ruin the communities and landscapes they loved. - The state legislature passed Senate Bill 100, a sweeping land use law that would become the focus of acclaim, criticism, and careful study for years afterward by other states and communities trying to manage their own urban and suburban growth. - Oregon's law required every city and county to draw up a comprehensive land use plan in line with statewide guidelines that had gained popular support from the state's electorate. each metropolitan area had to establish an urban growth boundary (UGB). - Residents of the area around Portland, the state's largest city, established a new regional planning entity to apportion land in their region. The Metropolitan Service District, or Metro, represents 25 municipalities and 3 counties. - Ballot Measure 37 required the state to compensate certain landowners if government regulation had decreased the value of their land. - Under Measure 37, the state had to pay these landowners to make up for theoretically lost income, or else allow them to ignore the regulations. - Landowners filed more than 7500 claims for payments or waivers affecting 295,000 hectares (ha; 730,000 acres). - Oregon's voters passed Ballot Measure 49 in 2007. It restricts development outside the UGB that is on a large scale or that impacts sensitive natural areas, but it protects the rights of small landowners to gain income from their property by developing small numbers of homes.

Better World Shopper Clothing - Rank the following: J Crew, Ralph Lauren, Patagonia, North Face

Patagonia, North Face, J Crew, Ralph Lauren

Case Studies Chapter 14

Poison in the Bottle: How Safe Is Bisphenol A? - The chemical bisphenol A (BPA for short) has been associated with everything from neurological effects to miscarriages. Yet it's in hundreds of products we use every day, and there's a better than 9 in 10 chance that it is coursing through your body right now. - Chemists first synthesized BPA, an organic compound (p. 27) with the chemical formula C15H16O2, in 1891. - Chemists also found that linking BPA molecules into polymers (p. 27) helped create polycarbonate plastic, a hard, clear type of plastic that soon found use in water bottles, food containers, eating utensils, eyeglass lenses, CDs and DVDs, laptops and other electronics, auto parts, sports equipment, baby bottles, and children's toys. - Fully 93% of Americans carry detectable concentrations in their urine, according to the latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). - In reaction to research involving animals, a growing number of researchers, doctors, and consumer advocates are calling on governments to regulate BPA and for manufacturers to stop using it. - In light of a growing body of research, some governments have taken steps to regulate the use of BPA in consumer products.

Green Building Supply Go to Countertops. What recycled material are Vetrazzo countertops made from?

Recycled Glass

Which is the best choice for your special seafood dinner?

Salmon Tilapia Tuna Crawfish (lecture)

Case Studies Chapter 3

Saving Hawaii's Native Forest Birds - The 'akiapōlā'au (or "aki" for short) is a sparrow-sized wonder of nature—one of many exquisite birds that evolved on the Hawaiian Islands and exists only there - Half of Hawaii's native bird species (70 of 140) have gone extinct in recent times, and many of those that remain—like the aki—teeter on the brink of extinction. - The aki is a type of Hawaiian honeycreeper. The Hawaiian honeycreepers include 18 living species (and at least 38 species recently extinct), all of which originated from a single ancestral species that reached Hawai'i several million years ago - The crisis began 750 or more years ago as Polynesian settlers colonized the islands, cutting down trees and introducing non-native animals. Europeans arrived more than 200 years ago and did more of the same.

During the period 2010-2015, the fastest‐growing sector of energy production using new renewable sources was _______.

Solar/PV Solar (Ch. 21)

Better World Shopper Coffee Rank the following: Starbuck's, Folgers, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, Starbucks, Folgers

Case Studies Chapter 2

The Tohoku Earthquake - At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011 - These tremors were caused when a large section of the seafloor along a fault line 125 km (77 mi) offshore suddenly lurched, releasing huge amounts of energy through the crust and generating an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale - The Tohoku quake caused the island of Honshu to sink perceptively, thereby lowering the height of the seawalls by up to 2 m (6.5 ft) in some locations. Waves reaching up to 15 m (49 ft) in height then overwhelmed these defenses -

Case Studies Chapter 5

The Vanishing Oysters of the Chesapeake Bay - In 1930, Deal Island had a population of 1237 residents. In 2010, it was a mere 471 people—and only 75 of them were under age 18, indicating that the population of Deal Island was aging as young people moved away to work and start families. - It was caused by the collapse of the Chesapeake Bay oyster fishery. - Hundreds of millions of oysters kept the bay's water clear by filtering nutrients and phytoplankton from the water column - Oysters had been eaten locally since the region was populated, but the intensive harvest of bay oysters for export didn't begin until the 1830s. - Perpetual overharvesting, habitat destruction, virulent oyster diseases, and water pollution had nearly eradicated this economically and ecologically important organism from bay waters. The monetary losses associated with the oyster fishery collapse in the Chesapeake Bay have been staggering, costing the economies of Maryland and Virginia an estimated $4 billion from 1980 to 2010. - one of the biggest impacts on oysters in recent decades is the pollution of the bay with high levels of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertilizers, animal manure, stormwater runoff, and atmospheric compounds produced by fossil fuel combustion.

Home Power Magazine Natural Building (From the Ground Up) - What is embodied energy?

The energy consumed by harvesting, transporting, manufacturing, and disposal of materials

Which of the following materials does not work well for providing thermal mass:

These do: Concrete, brick, stone, water tanks, rock filled chambers straw, ceramic tile

Better World Shopper Cars Rank the following: Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Volvo

Toyota, Volvo, Ford & Chevrolet

Case Studies Chapter 8

Will China's New "Two-Child Policy" Defuse Its Population "Time Bomb"? - When Mao Zedong founded the country's current regime six decades ago, roughly 540 million people lived in a mostly rural, war-torn, impoverished nation. Mao's policies encouraged population growth, and by 1970 improvements in food production, food distribution, and public health allowed China's population to swell to 790 million people. At that time, Chinese women gave birth to an average of 5.8 children in their lifetimes. - Chinese leaders decided in 1970 to institute a population control program that prohibited most Chinese couples from having more than one child. - Fertility declined with these initiatives, and by 1975 China's annual population growth rate had dropped from 2.8% to 1.8%. - In 1979, the government began rewarding one-child families with government jobs and better housing, medical care, and access to schools. Families with more than one child, meanwhile, were subjected to costly monetary fines, employment discrimination, and social scorn. - The nation's growth rate is now down to 0.5%, and Chinese women now have only an average of 1.7 children in their lifetimes. - The shrinking workforce caused by the one-child policy may now slow the growth of the thriving Chinese economy it helped to produce.

Case Studies Chapter 11

Will We Slice through the Serengeti? - Each year more than 1.2 million wildebeest migrate across the vast plains of the Serengeti in East Africa, along with more than 700,000 zebras and hundreds of thousands of antelope - This epic migration, with its dramatic interplay of predators and prey, has cycled on for millennia - The people native to this region, the Maasai, are semi-nomadic herders. - Tourism injects close to $3 billion into these nations' economies and creates jobs for tens of thousands of local people. Because the region's people see that functional ecosystems full of wildlife bring foreign dollars into their communities, many support the parks. - The proposed highway would slice right through the middle of the wildebeest migration path (Figure 11.1). Scientists predicted that the road and its vehicles would physically block migration routes and kill countless animals in collisions. - In 2010 a Kenyan nongovernmental organization, the African Network for Animal Welfare, sought to stop the highway with a lawsuit in the East Africa Court of Justice, a body that adjudicates international matters in the region. This court in 2011 issued an injunction halting the road project, and in 2014 after hearing appeals from the Tanzanian government, it issued a new ruling reinforcing its prohibition of the project. - Such an oil pipeline (accompanied by a road) would create a barrier to migratory animals just as a highway would.

IRENEW (Iowa Renewable Energy Association) Look at the Directory under the Resources tab. Are there any solar contractors in eastern Iowa?

Yes

Which of the following represents the proper current ranking of the world's total energy production from the greatest to least used?

fossil fuels, biomass, nuclear, hydroelectric, new renewables? (Ch 20)

Water power is the combination of ____ and ____.

head and flow strength