Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Chapter 11: Energy and water




Benefits of higher energy consumption
o Electricity makes life easier (TV, AC, heat, light, computers)
o Modern transport systems are based mainly on oil / petroleum use
o Industry requires energy to make it work (economy can’t grow, wealth cannot be
increased and people’s lives will not be improved)
The problems
o The resources will soon run out
o The use of fossil fuels is resulting in air pollution (global warming)
o The inter-dependence of countries on each other for resources can lead to conflicts
o Nuclear power is not safe (Japan – Fukushima power plant)




A renewable fuel is one that is being formed as fast we are using it
Coal, oil and gas are fossilized energy and are produced from organic material millions of years
ago
...




Oil – Crude oil or petroleum, is a mixture of different hydrocarbons
o It was formed from plankton that previously floated in the oceans and as they died, they
fell to the seabed getting buried in the mud
...

o To extract it, oil rigs are located on land and sea which drill boreholes and the oil either
comes out under its own pressure or needs pumping out
...

o The two methods are deep underground mining (when the coal is deep underground)
and opencast mining (quarrying // when the coal seams are closer to the surface)
Deep underground mining is when shafts are either vertical or inclined
...
After the coal is extracted, the waste rock and soil are put back and the
land is returned to other uses



Dangers of deep mining: visual pollution, subsidence (when the surface collapses), dangers such
as gas explosions, accidents with machinery and roof collapses



Dangers of opencast mining: visual pollution from excavation, temporary loss of land, noise
pollution from the blasting and machinery and dust when the pit becomes dry










Natural gas also known as methane can form from plankton in the same way as oil
...
It accumulates
in porous rocks and is extracted in the same way as oil
...
Problems include: deforestation, longer distances have to be traveled to
collect wood, burning wood in confined spaces can lead to respiratory illnesses
...
These fuels are going to be used more due to anticipated increase in oil prices,
concerns about the environmental effects and sustainability
...

Solar power
o Light needs to be converted into electricity, the normal method is to use solar panels
(photovoltaic cells) the energy can also be stored in a battery
Advantages: safe, pollution-free, production is cheap, greatest potential in warm countries
Disadvantages: initial capital input is high, weather dependent, less effective for high-output
uses such as powering TVs
Biofuels
o Bioethanol
o Biodiesels
o Biogas
o Solid biofuels
Disadvantages: land previously used for food production is now being used to produce crops for
biofuels thus increasing in food prices and a decrease in food supply

















Advantages: prices could be more stable than world oil prices, reduces dependency on imported
fuels, fewer pollutants are produced, they are carbon-neutral as the growing crops absorb
carbon dioxide
Power stations

dam/reservoir building;desalination plants;more boreholes/wells/underground;cloud
seeding;water treatment/purification;water supply infrastructure/pipelines;transfer water from wet
areas to areas where there is a shortage;conserve water/or examples of methods to
max 2/rationing;teach skills/educate people about how to purify water/how to conserve;tanks on roof
of houses (to collect water)/water butts;import water from other countries



---