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36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Describe 'finite' |
everything we have on this planet is all that we will get. We can not renew many of or resources, we cannot gain more. They are ending, in terms of minerals, water, etc. |
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Astronauts in space |
1. the beauty of the planet 2. how small it is in the vast emptiness of space |
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Earth as a spaceship metaphor |
Everything on the space ship is all they have, the resources are limited to what is on teh ship. all cycles are interconnected |
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Easter Island--first arrival impression |
Dutch arrived, small volcanic island and noticed that it was inhabited by natives, a primitive society.. however began to notice that there was evidence of a much more sophisticated society (Moai), this did not make sense |
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Polynesian theory |
the island wasa inhabited by polynesians from the west who were travelling and that it have originally been heavily forrested. with them they brought food (chickens and sweet potatoes) did agriculture by the slash and burn method, ate polynesian rats. it was through pass time that they believed the Moai were developed |
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How did deforrestation cause collapse of society? |
Used wood for everything, shelter, boats, agriculture etc. as this resource started to deplete it caused warfare between the clans |
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Why did they not stop harvesting the trees? |
if one decides to stop, but the other does not they lose out and the others continue to gain. brings about the notion of the tragedy of the commons |
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tragedy of the commons |
using the example of common pasture land, farmers can all use it.. if one farmer chooses to add another sheep he gains the benefits from this while the others lose. generally good up until a certain point can tie this concept to clans and to spaceship earth |
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Hunt and Lipo |
went to easter island originall as a tourist, as a stop on hsi way to do research elsewhere. warfare broke out in that country so he chose to stay and finish the story but it was nto matching up |
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Hunt and Lipo hypothesis |
the rats caused the deforestation, they ate all the seeds of the trees (visible by knawing) and they had no predators |
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how does science work? |
idea is generate, theory is developed, put out in form of journal, then becomes open to debate |
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Challenge with books |
anyone with a decent amount of money can publish a book, we need reliable information because we need to be able to make decisions about important topics such as fracking, GMOs etc. |
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renewable resources |
those that are replenished relatively quickly ex. trees |
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non renewable resources |
those that take hundreds or thousands of years to replenish ex. fossil fuels |
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what is the main challenge of mining |
the main challenge of mining is that the rock we are after is only a small portion of the rock that we must harvest, therefor left with all these tailings that we must figure out what to do with |
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explain the idea of low hanging fruit in mining |
the low hanging fruit is easy to get and does not require alot of energy--these are the good mining sites that are easy to access with high yields. most of these have been used and we must now use a ladder to climb up the tree, which requires more work for the same amount of yeilds |
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how are waste rock and ore related |
when you have a smaller amount of ore, the amount of waste rock that you produce increases exponentially smaller amount of ore require more energy, bigger mines and a huge amount of tailings |
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What is a challenge with mining and associated rock? |
generally other metals that are associated with those we want to mine have a toxic effect. ex. the rock in which gold is found is also associated with arsenic |
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What does this effect the tailings and water ways? |
If the tailings contain this toxic element is can enter the water way because all precipitation must pass through the tailings and then it accumulates in the watercourses |
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what did the artickle saunder et al. find? |
examined an abandonned mine site from 1930 wanted to examine the arsenic levels in the soils, plants and the vole. they found that the arsenic levels were higher in all three and there were significant detectable differences in the voles at the cellular level |
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How do Canadian mining companies work? |
in canada must undergo extensive environmental assesment before a mine can be opened, must submit a plan for the whole life of hte mine. 75% of mining companies HQ are in canada but they must only follow the mines of the country they're mining in. |
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What debate is there when mining in other countries? |
People who get hired by the mines do extremely well so they want the mines, others must suffer the health consequences etc. that are involved with teh mine |
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Blackfire comapny |
a restaurant owner in mexico was shot outside his restaurant in 2009. led to an rcmp investigation, blackfire said they were only following the laws, but found out they had bribed the mayor. resulting in the formation of bill c-300 |
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billc300 |
stated that canadian companies mining in other countries must follow canadian guidelines.. companies argued they would not be able to do as well because they could then no compete and that they would move their headquarters. bill was revoked |
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with what structure is diamonds in canada associated |
kimberlite pipes.. aboriginal issues vulnerable populations of caribou and grizzlies.. would also need to drain 6 lakes. made an environmental plan to do this succesfully |
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What are the stages of mining? |
exploration, extraction, processing, smelting, closure |
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concerns with uranium minds |
uranium is more radioactive than the ground soil. mining involves digging test holes that can become airborne and affect near by ground water |
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Light up the world video: how did they heat their homes what did they switch to |
they were using kerosene lamps, kerosene took 20-30% of yearly income, unsafe, and health concerns switched to solar powered LED lights |
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Wood as a form of combustion |
the more efficient you are at burning, the less you have to worry about particulates, when wood is burnt the carbon in the wood oxidizes to CO2 which adds to the inventory of atmospheric co2, there are 2 carbon cycles the burning and the decomposition can be carbon neutral if done effectively |
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Biomass |
NS paper plant were going to use the energy to run the plant and then sell the rest to ns power.. on a small scale it is effective, however larger scale poses problems |
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is biomass carbon neutral? |
manomet study concluded that in many cases it is not carbon neutral because when you're buring you're creating a carbon debt because there is a delay in the uptake of the carbon because it takes a while for the trees to regrow and to reabsorb the co2 |
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how is efficiency related to being carbon neutral |
it take longer to become carbon neutral at lower efficiencies because you must burn more hog fuel to get the same amount of energy |
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COMFIT program |
NS gov't established with the goal of having 25% renewable energy by 2015 and 40% by 2020. idea that eligible parties would invest in renewable infrastruture and NS power would buy it back at an increased rate, discontinued in 2015 because of increased power rates accross teh country |
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AWC advanced wood combustion |
very effective large scale space heating. has filters that improves the quality of the air |
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Biogas |
methane.. when organic products break down they undergo aerobic respiration producing h2o and co2 and then undergo anaerobic which has a waste product of methane.. this can then be combusted |
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Biomass in the form of ethanol |
sugar cane fermented and distilled, brazil is a world leader in north america canada uses grain and the USA uses corn in the us there is a competition between corn for livestock and corn for ethanol production |
