Lecture 7 - February 17, 2005

schedule for today

• discuss app2
• quiz comments
• air pollution
• vc3
• media3
• break
• climate and climate change
• water pollution and treatment options

1. return application

list of different problems that people addressed

• aluminum cans (you were supposed to pick another example)
• bottles - glass
• milk cartons
• food packaging
• food
• batteries
• cigarette butts
• paper
• diapers
• oven cleaner - NaOH
• motor oil
• mattresses
• ink cartriges
• light bulbs
• CDs
• shoes - old sneakers
• computers
• plastic or paper bags
• recycling the stuff people use in public places (not at home)

comments on setting up an institution

• looking for longer term solutions
• paradox of recycling - may actually increase consumption
• The paradox of increased efficiency (Lifset 2002 6(1))
• we'd like to see the Environmental Kuznet's Curve
  • impact per unit decreases with wealth
• Rebound effect
  • saving energy will just result in more production
  • using more product
  • more impact
  • saving money doesn't help unless people don't spend the money on other products

 

2. Return quiz

assessment vs. quiz performance squares

vocabulary term "aquifer"

	correct on quiz	wrong on quiz
correct on assessment
wrong on assessment

 

concept question - "why net energy is the only energy that counts"

	correct on quiz	wrong on quiz
correct on assessment
wrong on assessment

 

 

3. Air pollution

review - toxicology

• is there a threshold for pollution?
• acute vs. chronic
• parts of population

types of air pollution

• indoor
• outdoor
  • in the air, all around
  • dynamically produced and destroyed (such as smog)
  • air shed models
  • regional

4. Global Climate and Climate Change

Climate & History

• heat engine of air and water currents
• atmosphere processes
• global carbon cycle
• system behavior
  • positive and negative feedback
  • potential costs
  • prediciting using GCM
    • how GCMs work
    • consensus science
    • difference from traditional science
  • perturbations - discussion

future scenarios

• alternate actions
• predicted outcome
  • degree of risk
  • potential for rapid climate change
  • threshold effects
• choosing an action
  • taking it to the brink

 

5. Ozone depletion

Ozone production as an example of taking it to the brink

2 major parts of ozone depletion

• natural ozone production and relationship to UV radiation
• catalysts that destroy ozone (CFCs and others)
• impact on humans
• impact on natural communities
• policies and progress

6. Water pollution and control

impact of water pollution

• reduction of water resources
• dynamic - DO sag
• toxicity - accumulation in the food chain

 

eutrophication of lakes

• cultural eutrophication
• link to watershed processes
• fast-slow processes

 

ground water contamination

• dispersion/dissipation
• may be essentially irreversible

 

treatment options

• local, small scale technology
• swales
• wetlands
• treatment is local - impact could be wide spread