Environmental Science Exam 3 Potential Questions What was the book by Rachel Carson based on o Her book was based on pesticides the environment and the effects it had on birds and other organisms She also expressed and emphasized how we are all interconnected in a giant web of life and that all of our actions effect one another in some way bringing widespread environmental awareness to public attention What is the most common way of getting malaria o Mosquitos Usually people get malaria by being bitten by an infective female Anopheles mosquito Only Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit malaria and they must have been infected through a previous blood meal taken from an infected person When a mosquito bites an infected person a small amount of blood is taken in which contains microscopic malaria parasites About 1 week later when the mosquito takes its next blood meal these parasites mix with the mosquito s saliva and are injected into the person being bitten cdc gov What is the most common method of eradicating mosquitoes o Mosquito nets and certain insecticides have proven the most effective in getting rid of mosquitoes What is energy o A universal and fundamental quantity that describes fundamental physical interactions It is conserved being neither created nor destroyed What is the difference between potential and kinetic energy o Potential energy is the stored energy in an object or system because of its position or configuration while kinetic energy is the energy of a body or a system with respect to the motion of the body or of the particles in the system Potential energy is not relative to the environment of an object Kinetic energy of an object is relative to other moving and stationary objects in its immediate environment What are some types of energy that we use o Wind solar nuclear hydroelectric natural renewable coal and oil What is the main source of energy for the activities on Earth o Solar Energy What are most and least efficient methods sources of energy o The most efficient is hydroelectricity The least efficient is anything that involves the burning of wood What are the laws of energy efficiency o The first law deals with the amount of energy without any consideration of the quality or availability of the energy The second law refers to how well matched the energy end use is with the quality of the energy source What is a good expectation of efficiency o This question pertains to a percentage A good expectation would As a marginal example automobiles use 25 of their total mean that 50 of the energy is being used energy What are the big Greenhouse Gases GHGs o There are many of course but Water H2O and Carbon Dioxide CO2 are the biggest most prevalent in our atmosphere Who uses the majority of energy Developed or undeveloped o Developed countries This ties back into the ongoing debate of overconsumption What are the top fuels for consumption globally and in the U S o Oil coal and gas and the top fuels around the world What are the only 2 types of energy that we have o Solar energy and nuclear energy Everything else we have is a result of that fuels Over the last 4 years looking at the US in particular how are we with fossil o Our consumption of fossil fuels is about the same which is still quite a lot but it hasn t been increasing What is cogeneration o Combined heat and power This is the use of a heat engine or power station to simultaneously generate electricity and useful heat Describe short long wave radiation o Shortwave radiation visible light contains a lot of energy longwave radiation infrared light contains less energy than shortwave radiation shortwave radiation has a shorter wavelength than longwave radation Solar energy enters our atmosphere as shortwave radiation in the form of ultraviolet UV rays the ones that give us sunburn and visible light The sun emits shortwave radiation because it is extremely hot and has a lot of energy to give off Once in the Earth s atmosphere clouds and the surface absorb the solar energy The ground heats up and re emits energy as longwave radiation in the form of infrared rays Earth emits longwave radiation because Earth is cooler than the sun and has less energy available to give off nc state ncsu edu How much water vapor is emitted into our atmosphere o 95 Out of all of the other greenhouse gases this one in particular is in the greatest abundance and absorbs the most heat Who is the IPCC and what do they do o Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change o The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC which is the main international treaty on climate change IPCC reports cover the scientific technical and socio economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human induced climate change its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation Explain the Heat Island Effect o As urban areas develop changes occur in their landscape These changes cause urban regions to become warmer than rural surroundings forming an island of higher temps in the landscape Heat islands occur on the surface and the atmosphere On a hot day the sun can heat urban surfaces such as roofs and pavement to temps hotter than the air while shaded or moist surfaces often in more rural surroundings remain close to air temperatures Surface urban heat islands are typically present day and night but tend to be strongest during the day when the sun is shining What is the main problem with taking temperatures o Location Human interference with things such as cell towers and other technologies inhibits accurate readings of temperatures What is the difference between new and historical records of temperatures o The difference between historical records and new records is that new records stay away from urban sites and stick to more pristine sites The reason for this is the same as that listed above in the previous bullet location effects temperature readings and so it is important to bypass these variables