Exam 2 - Study Guide Questions
1. Why are fossil fuels referred to as ‘ancient sunlight’?
They are made from the ancient animals that died and decomposed forming coal.
2. Be able to list, explain & compare the environmental impacts of extracting (mining or drilling) and
burning coal, oil and natural gas.
Extracting: water pollution, acid rain
Burning: Mercury emissions, sulfur, nitrogen oxide, and carbon dioxide
Oil: Possible Explosion, Water Pollution, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen
Oxides, and air toxins.
Natural Gas: Pipeline explosion, terrorist target
3. Compare the environmental and human health impacts of strip mining and underground mining.
Strip: Acid Mine Drainage
Underground: Black Lung Disease
4. What is acid rain? How does it form? What are the effects of acid rain? What can be done to reduce
the formation of acid rain?
Sulfur Dioxide and nitrogen oxide react with the water in the atmosphere and form a mild solution of
acid. May cause corrosion, deforestation, and deterioration.
5. What are some of the costs associated with clean-coal technologies?
Higher Construction Costs
6. Compare the environmental impacts of coal, petroleum and natural gas combustion.
Coal: Mercury emissions, sulfur, nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, water pollution, and acid rain
Petroleum: Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxides, and air toxins.
Combustion: Greenhouse gas emissions and possible flare.
7. Define bioaccumulation & biomagnification.
Bioaccumulation: An organism absorbs a substance faster than it excretes it, results in organism having
higher concentration than surrounding environment.
Biomagnification: Increase in concentration of certain stable chemicals in higher trophic levels of the
food chain or web.
8. How does mercury get into fish? Why do some fish contain higher concentrations of mercury than
others? Why are people concerned about mercury pollution?
Mercury goes from the air, dissolves in the water, and goes through the food chain from the algae to the
fish.
9. Describe the carbon-pools (or reservoirs) and processes of the carbon cycle.
Carbon Pools: Forests, humans, cows, ocean, corals, atmosphere, coal, corn, fungi, seaweed, fish, and
oil.
Photosynthesis: CO2 is absorbed by plants, the plants use the energy from the sun to convert the energy
to carbohydrates, and the carbon atom becomes part of the plant.
Respiration: Oxygen is combined with carbohydrates to release stored energy and produce water and
carbon dioxide.
Consumption: Carbon goes into corn, corn goes into food, food goes into humans, some is used for
respiration and the rest becomes biomass.
Decomposition: Detritivores break down dead tissue and through respiration the detritivores release
CO1 or CH4.
Combustion: Carbon is released through burning of biomass and natural gas.
10. Explain the greenhouse effect.
Sunlight brings energy into climate system and is absorbed by oceans and land, heat radiates outward
from surface, some of infrared energy is absorbed by greenhouse gases and remitted on all directions,
some of infrared energy warms the earth, some of infrared energy emitted to space, higher
concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases trap more energy in the atmosphere and further
warms the earth.
11. What are the main anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases?
