Chapter Four Slides

Key Concepts:

1. Fossil fuel resources are finite and are nonrenewable on the human time scale.
2. Before fossil fuels can be burned, they must be extracted from the Earth; these extraction processes cause substantial environmental and human health impacts.
3. Oxides and particulates, which are basic products of any combustion, are released whenever fossil fuels are burned.
4. Burning of fossil fuels also releases metals and volatile organic compounds that are present in fuels—whether put there by nature or by humans.
5. After the burning of fossil fuels releases pollutant gases, chemical reactions in the atmosphere produce new pollutants; these are called secondary air pollutants.
6. People are exposed to the particulates and pollutant gases that result from burning fossil fuels mainly via inhalation; these pollutants have both respiratory and nonrespiratory health impacts.
7. People are exposed to the mercury and lead released by burning fossil fuels mainly via noninhalation pathways; both of these metals are neurotoxicants.
8. The atmospheric warming that results from burning fossil fuels is an anthropogenic enhancement of the naturally occurring greenhouse effect of gases in the troposphere.
9. Global climate change is more than just warming.
10. Global climate change is expected to have substantial human health impacts.
11. The 2005 Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that commits the signatories to reduce greenhouse emissions.
12. The U.S. regulatory framework uses a combination of approaches to control air pollution.
13. For the most part, the nuclear fuel “cycle” is actually a linear series of events.
14. The front end consists of the steps before the actual production of power in a nuclear reactor.
15. A nuclear reactor produces energy (heat) through the deliberate splitting of uranium atoms and the ensuing controlled chain reaction. This process creates radioactive isotopes as byproducts.
16. Disposal of the highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power reactors raises difficult technical and political challenges at the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle.
17. The disposal of low-level radioactive wastes, though these wastes are less hazardous and easier to manage than high-level wastes, is proving to be a thorny problem.
18. Each major stage of the nuclear fuel cycle poses some health risks.
19. The risk of exposure to ionizing radiation must be managed at each stage of the nuclear fuel cycle.
20. Our current dependence on fossil fuels can’t continue indefinitely, and our large scale, centralized power systems are inherently brittle.
21. The level of energy consumption and the degree of dependence on fossil fuels in the United States and other industrialized countries is not sustainable, and it will not be an option for less developed countries in the years to come.
22. Some renewable options (wind power, hydropower, solar energy, geothermal energy) are especially attractive in that they don’t rely on fuels at all. But this does not mean they are without environmental impacts.
23. Alternative technologies that use nontraditional fuels—biomass fuels, nontraditional fossil fuels, and hydrogen fuel cells—all have important limitations.
24. New fuels have been developed that are blends of fossil and nonfossil fuels, or are derived from fossil fuels.
25. The hydrogen fuel cell is attractive in principle but raises practical questions.
26. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, though it gives modest supports for alternative energy, gives much greater support to traditional energy sectors.

Learning Objectives:

Homework:

Answer all of the following study questions and email the attached questions and answers in Word of pdf format to the instructor by Canvas email no later than 5 pm on Sunday the last day of Session 3. In the beginning of your emial message identify the class session for the homework being submitted.

Study Questions

1. Explain how the use of fossil fuels results in human exposures to heavy metals, comparing the sources and impacts of methylmercury and lead.

2. One important lever in the effort to control global climate change is an overall reduction in emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. What do you think are fair and realistic expectations of the world’s more developed and less developed countries in this effort?

3. Summarize the factors, related to both exposure and hazard, that combine to make naturally occurring radon a concern as a risk factor for lung cancer in uranium miners (or in the general population in some geologic regions).