Introduction to Pollution

Question 1

What is environmental pollution a function of?

Answer 1

Population, affluence, and technology.

Question 2

How does affluence impact pollution?

Answer 2

It increases consumption of unsustainable resources.

Question 3

What are examples of anthropogenic pollution?

Answer 3

Landfills from municipalities, nuclear power plants generating plutonium, natural gas wells from hydraulic fracturing processes, thinning of the ozone layer, acidification of waters preventing freshwater fish migration

Question 4

What are concepts used in the discussion of sustainability?

Answer 4

Ecological footprint, tragedy of the commons, and shifting baselines, and triple bottom line, and systems thinking, and circular economies, externalities and the precautionary principle.

Question 5

What are shifting baselines syndrome?

Answer 5

Gradual changes in accepted norms for condition of the natural environment, due to lack of past information of experience of past conditions

Question 6

What is the triple bottom line?

Answer 6

That companies should focus as much on social and environmental concerns as they do on profits.

Question 7

What is systems thinking?

Answer 7

This requires an understanding of an entire system and their interconnectedness, so to understand unintended consequences.

Question 8

What are examples of environmental disasters in the US as a result of pollution?

Answer 8

Effects of DDT in 1962, 1962 Cuyahoga River industrial waste pollution catching fire,

Question 9

What came as a result?

Answer 9

The 1970 US Environmental Protection Agency.

Question 10

What acts followed from this?

Answer 10

Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act…

Question 11

What was the goal of these?

Answer 11

To set up pollution control programs

Question 12

What is the purpose of green chemistry laid out by the EPA?

Answer 12

Reduce waste, reduce resource consumption, reduce energy consumption…

Question 13

What are the common primary pollutants?

Answer 13

CO, Nox, SO2, and VOC’s

Question 14

What are the common secondary pollutants?

Answer 14

O3, PM2.5/PM10, SO4, and NO3.

Question 15

How have NO2 emissions changed over time in the UK?

Answer 15

1% decrease since 2021, that being 15.6ug/m3 in 2022 (gov.uk, 2023)

Question 16

What is the general cycle of pollution?

Answer 16

Emissions (what sources), transport (how), dispersion (how), deposition (how), accumulation (where), exposure (who), and effects, potential feedback loops also.

Question 17

What are the forms of dispersion?

Answer 17

Diffusion, turbulent mixing, and other physical processes (influenced by topography, weather conditions, and pollutant properties.

Question 18

When does accumulation occur?

Answer 18

Where input of pollutant exceeds rate of removal/degradation, especially persistent ones like heavy metals and organic chemicals.

Question 19

What is an example of a feedback loop?

Answer 19

Burning fossil fuels increases wildfire occurence, increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Question 20

What are the types of deposition?

Answer 20

Dry and wet.

Question 21

What is dry deposition?

Answer 21

Process od direct deposition onto surfaces, without significant chemical transformation in the atmosphere.

Question 22

What is an example of dry deposition?

Answer 22

Nox like NO2 and NO produced from combustion.

Question 23

How does NO2/NO form?

Answer 23

During combustion, N2 reacts with O2, forming Nox, with incomplete combustion leading to NO2 and NO production (N2 + 02 –> 2NO.

Question 24

What can NO2/NO equilibrium produce?

Answer 24

NO2 reacts with NO forming N2O4 and NO.

Question 25

What is the stoichiochemistry of this?

Answer 25

2NO2 <–> N2O4

Question 26

What influences these reactions?

Answer 26

Temperature, pressure, other atmospheric particles…

Question 27

What is wet deposition?

Answer 27

Transfer of acidic compounds from the atmosphere to the surface through precipitation, including fog, typically SO2 and Nox.

Question 28

What is an example?

Answer 28

SO2 release through fossil fuel combustion, reacting with O2 and H2O, forming sulfuric acid (H2SO4), with incorporates into clouds and water droplets.

Question 29

What is the equation for this?

Answer 29

SO2 + O2 + H2O –> H2SO4