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Climate Change Articles Packet 1 (Greenhouse Gases)

Carbon Framing Gets a Nod at Paris Climate Conference, NPR, December 8, 2015

  1. What is the current level of carbon dioxide?
  1. What level do scientist recommend carbon dioxide should be cut back to in order to curb climate change?
  1. What do a growing number of environmental advocates consider to be the best opportunity for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide?
  1. Define tilling. Why is tilling often used in conventional farming?
  1. How can tilling result in the loss of carbon?
  1. What percentage of soil carbon has been lost?
  1. How did the farmer profiled in the article improve the amount of carbon in his soil? Explain.
  1. What are two other strategies that can increase the amount of soil carbon?

Missing Tropical Forest Animals could Hasten Climate Change, Scientific American, December 18, 2015

  1. Look up the following words (not defined in the article)

Frugivore-

Fauna-

Defaunation-

  1. Why could defaunation in tropical forests result in less stored carbon?

“Good Gas, Bad Gas” Part 1, National Geographic; December 2012

  1. What are the bubbles trapped under the Alaskan lake composed of? And how does the grad student confirm this fact?
  1. How has the temperature change in the Arctic compared to the amount of temperature change elsewhere on the planet?
  1. How does the heat-trapping power of methane compare to that of carbon dioxide?
  1. If methane is burned what is produced? ______
  1. Why has hydraulic fracturing (fracking) increased the production of methane?
  1. Name an advantage and a disadvantage to producing natural gas through hydraulic fracturing.
  1. How much methane is buried in the permafrost compared to the amount currently in the atmosphere? ______
  1. While some methane is being released from permafrost in the Arctic (high latitude), most is coming from lower latitudes. Name the main sources.
  1. Under what conditions is methane normally produced by microbes?
  1. Name four locations that have these conditions for methane-producing microbes.
  1. How else can methane be produced besides microbes?
  1. Since natural gas can be formed by the same physical processes acting on organic matter as coal and oil it is often found buried with these other fossil fuels. Why was it often burned or simply vented rather than being utilized?
  1. How much has natural gas fracking increased since 2005? ______
  1. What fraction of natural gas currently comes from fracking?______
  1. What is another source of methane besides deep shale? What conditions is needed to keep it stable?
  1. How much has the methane levels in the atmosphere increased since preindustrial times? ____
  1. The levels of methane emissions leveled off from 1999 to 2006 (although they are now increasing again with the development of fracking techniques.) What are two theories on why they might have leveled off during the 1999- 2006 time period?

“Relief in Every Window, but Global Worry Too”, New York Times; June 20, 2012

  1. How much has air conditioner sales increased in China and India? ______
  1. The Montreal Protocol in 1987 regulated certain CFC’s because of what environmental problem?
  1. What environmental problem is not addressed by the Montreal Protocol?
  2. Scientists estimate that the greenhouse gases from air conditioners will contribute how much toglobal warming by 2050?
  1. What is the name of these new gases that replaced CFC’s?
  1. What are some difficulties in trying to produce a coolant that is neither an ozone-depleting compound nor a greenhouse gas?
  1. How have rules to forbid the sale of air conditioners that contain HCFC been evaded in the US?

Omnivore’s Dilemma “There Goes the Sun”, by Michael Pollan

  1. Nitrogen is required by all organisms in order to build which organic molecules?
  1. Why is the abundant atmospheric nitrogen unusable by most organisms?
  1. Name an organism that is able to produce usable nitrogen compounds (nitrates) from atmospheric N2. Where can these organisms be found?
  1. What natural process can also convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates?
  1. According to Vaclav Smil, what fraction of the world’s population owes its existence to the increased farming productivity due to Haber’s invention of inorganic (synthetic) fertilizers?
  1. Why is Haber not well known, despite his Nobel Prize in 1920 for his important invention?
  1. Since the reaction to break apart the triple bond between N2 molecules require a large amount of energy, what form of energy in used to produce synthetic fertilizer?
  1. When you add together all the energy demands of industrial corn, how much oil is used per bushel of corn?
  1. Name the specific greenhouse gas that is created from excess fertilizer.
  1. When excess nitrogen fertilizer seeps into the water table, what are the potential health risks? What age group is most at risk?
  1. When excess nitrogen fertilizer is washed off into aquatic ecosystems, how does it affect the lakes and other bodies of water?
  1. To summarize, what two greenhouse gases result from synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Explain how/why.