carbon cycle case studies Flashcards
Norway energy mix
Oil and gas makes up half of energy mix, hydropower makes up 40%
Hydroelectric power due to significant amount of rainfall and steep valleys - only makes up 40% due to cost of transporting energy from remote regions to urban centres
Oil and gas are big because of deep water drilling technology which allowed Norway to access north sea oil
Norwegian government doesn’t allow privatisation, uses taxes to prepare for a future without fossil fuels
UK energy mix
90% of energy is fossil fuels
North sea oil reserves are declining so it’s having to rely more on overseas energy
Coal is being used less as current technology and environmental policies are making coal extraction expensive
Privatisation of UK energy supply means companies have control over energy mix
Nord stream 1&2 pipelines disruption
Designed to carry gas from Russia to Germany
Has been criticised for giving russia too much power and money
Qatar/Europe energy pathway
Qatar has proposed a pipeline to connect Qatar to Europe, as this would reduce Russia’s power over Europe
Pipeline would have to go through Syria, but due to Syria’s close ties with Russia they will not give approval
Suez canal choke point
2021, giant containership became wedged across the Suez canal in Egypt, blocking one of the worlds busiest trade routes
Hormuz strait choke point
20% of worlds oil passes through here, so even a small disruption would cause the price of oil to increase significantly
Canadian tar sands
Social benefits: produces local income
Social costs: indigenous people forced to leave, very expensive for consumers
Environmental effects: process creates contaminated wastewater which damages the ecosystem and makes new vegetation growth almost impossible
Brazilian deepwater oil
Lapa deepwater oilfield was discovered in 2007, off the south coast of Brazil, and extraction began 10 years later
Social benefits: reduces reliance on hydroelectric power which could be under threat of droughts
Social costs: due to oil being 2km deep it is very expensive
USA fracturing
Social costs: increased air pollution around fracking sites
Environmental effects: involves removal of large areas of vegetation which causes habitat destruction, wastewater is produced
Examples of kuznets curve: Ethiopia
Great Green wall initiative Africa
Planted over 350 million trees in 12 hours
China afforestation project
Reforesting to stop the spread of the desert
Problems: lack of variety of species of trees causes forest to be fragile and not resilient, the tree species is not well adapted to climate in china
Nuclear power Hinckley point c
Pros: able to generate high levels of power, produces nearly 0 greenhouse gases, relatively cheap once up and running
Cons: increased risk of nuclear disasters, increased vulnerability to terrorism threats
Wind power - hornsea project 1 in Yorkshire
First offshore wind farm to reach 1GW in capacity, produces enough green energy to power over 1 million homes
Pros: creates well paid jobs, offshore so saves space
Cons: nimbyism issues, suitable land needed, climate dependent
Solar power - chapel lane solar farm dorset
UK’s biggest solar farm, powers 60,000 households
Pros: becoming increasingly affordable as maintenance costs are low
Cons: takes up a lot of space, high initial cost, climate dependent
Brazil biofuels
Planting of sugarcane for Biofuels has meant that other types of agriculture have been displaced leading to large scale clearance of rainforest to replace this agriculture
Pros: cheap, biodegradable,ears to investment + development projects in rural areas
Cons: uses a lot of land, needs pesticides and fertilizers which are produced using fossil fuels
Carbon capture + storage
E.g boundary dam canada
Pros: prevented over 5 million tonnes of CO2 entering atmosphere in total
Cons: expensive + complex technology needed, uncertain of how long carbon is actually stored for, not accessible for every country
Hydrogen fuel cells
E.g NASA space shuttelz
Cons: hydrogen is not widely available + it’s expensive
Brazil land use change
Government was in debt so encouraged people to clear more land to grow more crops and earn FDI needed to repay debt
US land use change
Losing grassland for biofuel crops causing CO2 to be released from soils
Amazon changing land use
Widespread droughts will be caused by rising temperatures
Droughts in the Amazon cause a negative feedback loop: warming temperatures cause drought which kills trees and releases CO2 causing greater warming
Amount of carbon released from 2005 drought was more than annual emissions of Europe and Japan combined
Indonesia forest loss
Worlds biggest producer of palm oil, temporarily took over USA for GHG emmisions in 2015 due to forest burning
Local communities and indigenous populations forced to leave, 700 armed conflicts in 2016 due to land rights in indonesia
River Yukon Alaska impact of climate change
Increased temperatures are causing increased flooding frequency and intensity
Since 2000, inflows to the Yukon river have increased by 39%
Between 1958 and 2008, total ice area in Yukon river basin shrank by 22%
