The point of the questions this week is to apply the concepts of scale to what we know about energy use and environmental issues.

Example question: Put the evolution of society and energy into a scale perspective. What are the ranges of energy available involved and what processes are available at these different energy ranges?

Parsing: energy and society is the table going from hunter-gatherer to information age society

Components of a good answer: address the range of energies and processes that the society is performing

My comments: This would be a good discussion question to address whether we want to decrease energy consumption or get it from renewable sources. What global and information processes will be loosing access to if we restrict energy use.

Example question: Describe how the texture of an environment can be lost or homogenized with too much power density.

Parsing:

define energy and power, and density

texture - natural assortment of objects and processes

power density and dissipation of energy with high denisities leads to homogenization

 

Components of a good answer: A thoughtful example would probably be the best way to answer this question in the context of our course.

My comments: This question brings together aspects of scale and energy.