Chapter 50

For a given crop yield, modern agricultural practices require how many times more energy and mineral resources than is require by subsistence agricultural practices?

100

Fossil fuels will be commercially depleted within the next _____ years.

100

At currents rates of clearing and degradation, the disappearance of the tropical rain forest biome may be complete by the year _____.

2035

Of the earth's land, what is the maximum percentage now being used for agriculture?

21%

If one kind of plutonium isotope is not removed, the wastes from a nuclear power reactor must be kept out of the environment for how many years before they are safe?

250,000

About how many beverage containers sold in the United States each year are nonreturnable cans and bottles, many of which are discarded in public places?

50 billion

What percentage of urban wastes are paper products?

50%

How many trees are required just to print all the Sunday newspapers in the United States?

500,000

For every million liters of water in the world, only about __ liters are in a form that can be used for human consumption or agriculture.

6

In the United States, how many metric tons of pollutants are discharge into the atmosphere each day?

700,000

Using recycled paper could reduce the air pollution that results from paper manufacturing by:

95%

Which processes are generally considered a component of tertiary wastewater treatment?

Absorption of dissolved organic compounds, precipitation of suspended solids, reverse osmosis

The atmosphere above which region is known to have a hole in the ozone layer?

Antarctica

List the effects of acid rain.

Attacks nylons, attacks marble statues, causes toxic metals to become motile in the ecosystem, can be reduced in the local area by tall smokestacks

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are pol It ants because biogeochemical mechanisms for their removal have not yet appeared in the _____

Biosphere

Transportation-produced smog causes air to turn ____ (color).

Brown

Acid rain is NOT a serious problem in some areas because of the presence of which substance in the soil?

Carbonate

The soils in the tropical rain forest are nutrient-poor because ______ of organic matter is very rapid

Decomposition

Carbon dioxide is a pollutant because it cannot be recycled at a rate ____ to its present production

Equal

Primary treatment of sewage involves ______ & ______, which physically treats water.

Filtration & sedimentation

Industrial smog causes air to turn ____ (color).

Gray

What are factors characteristic of a city primarily plagued by photochemical smog?

High concentration of nitrogen oxides, significant amounts of PANs, large numbers of internal combustion engines

Which factors are characteristic of a city primarily plauged by industrial smog?

High concentration of sulfur oxides, dependence on fossil fuel for manufacturing, cold wet winters

In brown air fog, which substance combines with nitrogen dioxide in the sunlight to form photochemical smog?

Hydrocarbons

To produce power from fusion, ______ atoms are joined to form ______.

Hydrogen, helium

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has dramatically _____ in the last few decades

Increased

Deforestation results in ____ air temperatures, _____ soil fertility, and _____ rainfall patterns

Increased; decreased; altered

The new high-yield crops require what that cannot be supplied by subsistence agriculture?

Irrigation, pesticides, fossil fuel energy, and fertilizers

Give examples of processes/movements that could increase the earth's carrying capacity.

Irrigation, recycling, conservation, green revolution

List the cities that have and are known for brown fog

Los Angeles

Nuclear power plants net energy productions is relatively ____.

Low

Air pollution may cause what physical ailments?

Lung cancer, emphysema, bronchitis, burning eyes

Tropical plants or their products have provided humans with:

Medicines, fuels, spices, resins, dyes, etc.

Which acid is the most severe air pollutant?

Nitric acid

The two chemical elements associated with acid deposition are ____ & ____

Nitrogen & sulfur

Landfills should contain _____ solid wastes

No recycled

The region of the United States most affected by acid rain is the _____

Northeast

List examples of nonrenewable resources.

Oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear energy

The primary cause of desertification in the world today is _____ of marginal lands.

Overgrazing

After secondary sewage treatment, the water may contain:

Oxygen demanding wastes, pesticides and industrial chemicals, nitrates and phosphates, viruses

Approximately 50 percent of the billions of tons of solid wastes produced in the United States is ______.

Paper

When the burning of fossil-fuels in manufacturing plants gives off particulates and sulfur oxides, we have ______.

Photochemical smog

Uses of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) include:

Plastic packaging, aerosol propellants, refrigeration coolants

Problems associated with the extraction or use of coal as a large-scale source of energy include:

Production of sulfur oxides, amplification of the general warming trend of the earth, stripmining in fragile semiarid environments

List results or effects of irrigation

Raised water tables, increased food production, water logging of soil

Primary treatment of wastewater does involves:

Sedimentation tanks, chemicals such as aluminum sulfate, mechanical screens

When the burning of fossil fuels in vehicle engines off particulates and nitric oxides, what results?

Smog

List examples of particulate wastes.

Smoke, soot, asbestos, dust

The most harmful element in coal that causes serious pollution problems is ______.

Sulfur

What is the most reliable source of energy for the next few hundred of thousands of years?

Sun

The concept of solar-hydrogen energy can accurately be described as:

Sunlight produces electricity which is used to produce hydrogen fuel

What factors are correlated with a decrease in atmospheric ozone? (Name at least 3)

Suppression of the immune system, decreased rates of photosynthesis, increased incidence of skin cancers

Subsistence agriculture does not ____ fertilizers

Synthetic

Acid rain increases the mobility of ____ heavy metals, is the major reason for the production of sterile _____ around the world, has a pH of _____ 7, and is primarily the result of _____ pollution.

Toxic; lakes; below; industrial

Name substances that contribute to acid rain.

Waste products from the burning of gasoline, waste products from the burning of coal, nitrogen fertilizers

A thermal inversion refers to a layer of ____ air trapped underneath a _____ air blanket.

cool;warm

The unequal distribution of acid rain over the United States is closely correlated with burning ____ ____.

fossil fuels

Air pollution _____ visibility, ______ buildings, caused various human ______, and damages plants.

reduces; corrodes; diseases

Acid rain occurs when ____ released in burning ____ combines with water in the atmosphere.

sulfur; fossil fuels