Introduction:

Natural disasters and catastrophes can drastically change our environment. Theses natural processes include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tornado, hurricanes and tsunami's, wildfires, floods, drought and intense heat waves.

Many of these natural processes have service functions and can be predicted. Thus adverse effects may be minimized. In chapter 16 we will discuss natural disasters and how these processes impact the environment.

Energy is central to the understanding of the environment and is a commodity that we purchase every day. Energy is the ability to do work. Humans are a major part of the energy flow in the food web. There are many types of commercial sources of energy including fossil fuels, wood, nuclear power, hydroelectric power, wind and geothermal power but ultimately they all can be traced back to the energy produced by the sun.

In Chapter 17, we will discuss what energy is, review the laws of thermodynamics, learn to calculate energy efficiency, describe energy units, contrast energy with power, and show how energy consumption is impacting the environment.

Fossil fuels, or coal, oil and natural gas, are highly concentrated forms of partially decomposed organisms that have been trapped in the earths lithosphere. They represent the storage of carbon compounds from the primary production and food webs that existed during the last 300 million years. Rapidly increasing consumption of fossil fuels over a relatively short period of time have resulted in two problems. The first is that fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource. The second is that the rapid release of carbon dioxide is having drastic affects on our environment. In Chapter 18, we will discuss how fossil fuels are formed, how they are used and the impacts they have on our environment.

Learning Objectives :

After reading these chapters you should understand,

Chapter 16: Objectives -

• What natural hazards, disasters, and catastrophes are.
• That linkages exist between hazards.
• That hazard events are predictable.
• The common adjustments to hazardous events.

Chapter 18: Objectives-

• How fossil fuels are formed.
• What are the environmental effects of producing and using fossil fuels.
• Why fossil fuels are considered a nonrenewable resource.

Chapter 17: Objectives -

• That energy is neither created nor destroyed by is transformed from one type to another.
• The concept of energy efficiency and how to calculate it.
• Soft and Hard path approaches to energy planning.
• Sustainable energy planning.
• What elements are needed for integrated energy planning.

Learning Activities :

• Read Chapter 16: Natural Disasters and Catastrophes.
• Read this article from the National Hurricane center on the most catastrophic hurricanes in history.
• Read through these eight steps to preparing for a hurricane. Hopefully you will not need to use them this year.
• Read Chapter 17: Energy: Some Basics in your text.
  
• Answer the question below on this weeks discussion board.
  
  What are some alternative sources of energy that you use on a daily basis?
  
• Take a minute to look through the National Energy Policy.
  
• Explore the details of the Renewable Energy Project.
• View this description of Hard Path vs. Soft Path energies.

• Read Chapter 18: Fossil Fuels and in your text.
  
• Read this article on how much fossil fuels are consumed by industry.
  
• Read these four articles on environmental impacts of fossil fuel production and consumption.

Review:

On a piece of paper briefly answer these 15 review questions. Circle the questions that you cannot answer without going back to the text. Then go back find the answers to the questions you circled.

1. A ________ is a hazardous event that occurs over a limited timespan in a defined geographic area.
A) catastrophe
B) disaster
C) natural hazard
D) natural process

2. ________ is a massive disaster that requires significant expenditure of money and time for recovery to take place.
A) catastrophe
B) disaster
C) natural hazard
D) natural process

3. Any natural process that is a potential threat to human life and property .
A) catastrophe
B) disaster
C) natural hazard
D) natural process

4. The entire Hawaiian Island chain was created by this natural process.
A) landslide
B) hurricane
C) earthquakes
D) volcanic eruption

5. A Tsunami is normally (80% of the time) produced by
A) earthquakes
B) volcanic eruption
C) hurricane
D) landslide

6. Total worldwide energy use today is about 13.8 terawatts (trillions watts), and that figure is increasing very rapidly. The two general trends that are leading to the rapid increase in energy use are population growth and:
A) increasing urbanization
B) declining energy efficiency
C) changes from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources
D) rising standard of living
E) increasing demands for environmentally benign energy

7. A train carries 200 passengers from Washington, D.C. to New York. The locomotive uses 2800 liters of diesel fuel during the trip. Afterwards, all the energy that was in the diesel changed to:
A) potential energy
B) kinetic energy
C) heat
D) high-quality energy
E) antimatter

8. The second law of thermodynamics states that:
A) efficiency of energy conversion is always less than 100%
B) energy is never created, never destroyed, but always preserved
C) the present is the key to the past
D) energy is measured in joules, power in watts
E) energy can go from higher quality forms to lower, but not in the opposite direction

9. Hard path energy is characterized as:
A) high quality, decentralized, low technology
B) high yield, technology-intensive, and flexible
C) centralized, technology-intensive, and high yield
D) high tech, polluting, and based entirely on fossil fuels
E) centralized, diverse, low yield

10. Water stored behind a dam is an example of:
A) potential energy
B) kinetic energy
C) efficient energy
D) inertial energy
E) momentum

11. Formation of oil and gas involves:
A) deposition of organic-poor material
B) temperatures and pressures well below conditions at the Earth's surface
C) migration of oil into the source rock
D) secondary enrichment by escaping gases
E) migration out of the reservoir rock blocked by a trap

12. All fossil fuels require a certain amount of energy input to get them out of the ground and process them into useful forms. Which of the following energy sources generally requires the most energy before it can be used as a fuel:
A) oil
B) low-sulfur coal
C) natural gas
D) oil shale
E) high-sulfur coal

13. One problem with petroleum as an energy source is that the resource is not distributed evenly about the Earth. The largest proven reserves of oil are located in:
A) the North Sea
B) the Gulf of Mexico
C) South America
D) the Middle East
E) the Far East and Australia

14. What is coal-bed methane:
A) a gas associated with petroleum reserves
B) a gas stored on the surfaces of organic matter in the coal
C) a gas stored in structural coal bed traps
D) a white solid associated with coal beds
E) a gas associated with cattle ranching

15. What is the major environmental benefit from burning coal-bed methane:
A) methane releases a greater amount of energy than conventional fossil fuels
B) the combustion produces a lot less CO2 than conventional fossil fuels
C) CO is not produced
D) coal bed methane wells are drilled in shallow depth
E) nitrogen oxides (NOx) are chemically bound to soot

Additional Resources :

• Barnes, J. 1998. North Carolina's Hurricane History. UNC press.
• Fickett, A.P. 1990. Efficient use of energy. Scientific American 263 (3): 157-163.
• Nixon, Will. 1991. Energy for the next century. E Magazine, May/June 1991, 31-39.
• Goodstein, David. 2004. Out of Gas: The end of the Age of Oil. WW Norton, New York.
• Holloway, M. 1991. Soiled shores. Scientific American, October 1991. A report on the Exxon Valdez spill and clean-up.

Assignments:

How have you or your family been affected by a natural disaster?

Answer the following in a 2 page assessment.

Describe three "alternative energy" sources. Discuss how the energy sources would be implemented on a national or international scale and which energy source would be the most practical to replace widespread fossil fuel consumption. In this discussion make sure to focus on both environmental and economic impacts of each source as well as sustainability of the resources. You may use Chapter 19 to help you with this question.

Lagnaippe: