Exam 3 Pt 2 Flashcards
(24 cards)
Fracking is?
Injecting brine water into a geologic formation to fracture shale and extract oil and natural gas
What are the major problems with ethanol production for fuel use in the U.S.?
Requires a vast amount of corn, burns fast but production is slow
What is a limiting factor of wind energy in the U.S.?
Land use, noisy, expensive, geographically not well suited for diverse environments
From 1970 to about 2005, what happened to U.S. oil and natural gas production?
Oil production decreased while natural gas production stayed about flat
Why has production of both oil and natural gas increased over the past 10 years?
Fracking
What is the best description of the effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown?
Thousands are going to get cancer from the radiation, likely plenty deaths in the next 15 - 20 years
A consequence of the second law of thermodynamics is?
Entropy levels increase within an isolated system
What is OPEC?
They control oil pricing
Is the world likely to run out of fossil fuels in the next 50 years?
No; we likely have thousands of years left
What is one impact of the Three Gorges Dam?
Flooded valleys, extremely expensive to build, cut off fish migration
What are the components of a nuclear reactor?
Fuel, moderator, control rod, eminent structure
What are some safety concerns for a nuclear reactor before an accident?
Idk
Two atoms are called isotopes when they?
Have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons
How much energy does the U.S. use per year?
About 100 quadrillion BTU
About how much of the energy used in the U.S. is wasted?
A significant amount
What are some potential impacts of fracking on drinking water?
Water contamination, increased water demand/consumption, strain on resources, potential earthquakes
Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner are most closely associated with which scientific advance?
Discovery of nuclear fission
Energy is a?
Source
Rain with a pH of 4 is how many times as acidic as a pH of 5?
10 times
What is the difference between conventional and subsistence agriculture?
Conventional: gigantic farms for markets using tech; Subsistence: personal use, meets farmer & family needs
How did industrialization impact agriculture?
Improved transportation, linked food production to energy, pesticides, fertilizer, higher nutrient pollution
Which requires more energy to produce, 1000 cal of meat or 10,000 cal of grain?
1,000 cal of meat
What causes a dead zone?
Increase in nitrogen from fertilizers running off into the Gulf of Mississippi
We produce enough food for every person on Earth to meet their caloric needs, but how many hungry people are there?
About 800 million
