Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources FOSSIL FUEL: - oil - PDF document

Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources FOSSIL FUEL: - oil Burnable material of organic matter - natural gas (by-product) that was formed a long time ago. - coal music: Baka Beyond from Senegal ENERGY CONSUMPTION: NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCE: 85% comes from fossil fuels takes a long time to form with resp. 53% from oil and gas to human life-time pick up HWs! Last discussion sessions: unclaimed HW6 will be destroyed Friday today/tomorrow SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources Easter Island: Human Impact or Natural Climate Change? Moais - one of most remote islands on planet Pollen Analysis - subtropical rainforest climate - lush forest with palm trees - first settled by Polynesians in 400AD - 800AD first signs of decline - used trees for boats, houses, fire - population thrived and increased - building moais (trees for transport) Waste Disposal Piles - porpoises,fish SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

Easter Island: Human Impact or Natural Climate Change? Moais - one of most remote islands on planet Pollen Analysis - (sub)tropical rainforest climate - lush forest with palm trees - first settled by Polynesians in 400AD - 800AD first signs of decline - used trees for boats, houses, fire - last tree gone by 1400AD - population thrived and increased - building moais (trees for transport) - 10,000 by 1400AD Waste Disposal Piles - porpoises, fish - shellfish, snails, bird eggs SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources Easter Island: Human Impact or Natural Climate Change? Moais - one of most remote islands on planet Pollen Analysis - (sub)tropical rainforest climate - lush forest with palm trees - first settled by Polynesians in 400AD - 800AD first signs of decline - used trees for boats, houses, fire - last tree gone by 1400AD - population thrived and increased - soil erosion; rats ate seeds - building moais (trees for transport) - 10,000 by 1400AD Waste Disposal Piles - crop failures (yam, banana) - porpoises,fish - shellfish, snails, bird eggs - rats, insects SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

Easter Island: Human Impact or Natural Climate Change? Moais - one of most remote islands on planet Pollen Analysis - (sub)tropical rainforest climate - lush forest with palm trees - first settled by Polynesians in 400AD - 800AD first signs of decline - used trees for boats, houses, fire - last tree gone by 1400AD - population thrived and increased - soil erosion; rats ate seeds - building moais (trees for transport) - desolation - 10,000 by 1400AD Waste Disposal Piles - crop failures (yam, banana) - 1722: 2000 people lived caves, warfare - porpoises,fish - shellfish, snails, bird eggs - rats, insects - cannibalism SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources Mineral Resources mineral resources are non-renewable metallic non-metallic Native metal: - building stone (e.g. sandstone) naturally occurring metal - gravel and sand e.g. copper, gold, silver - gypsum for drywalls - phosphate and others for fertilizer Metal ores: - salt metal in a rock or chemical compound e.g. iron, aluminium • deposits through long, special processes • extraction expensive, complicated, toxic SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

The Dependence on Importing Minerals strategic metals: Manganese (95%); Cobalt (95%); Chromium (100%); Platinum (95%) other raw materials 100% import: arsenic trioxide, bauxite, bismuth, graphite, strontium, thallium, thorium, gemstones (99%) SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources Lifetimes (in Years) of Ore Supplies MINERAL RESOURCES ARE NON-RENEWABLE! 2013 Sverdrup et al. Silver: worldwide - exhausted by 2240 2018 Mohr et al. peak production Lead: 2025 Zinc: 2031 “lead supplies will decline slowly post-peak due to recycling” Source: “Earth, Portrait of a Planet” by Marshak -2003 SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

Waste of Resources Two of the most environmentally damaging metals mined ! Cu wasted in landfills instead ! use Hg to extract Au ! 30% of Au locked away of recycled ! only 25% unmined ! increasing price of Cu may lead to more recycling? ! new threat: Cu thieves Data: World Watch Institute SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources China’s Rare Earth Production Rare earths: plentiful in Earth’s crust but not in economically exploitable form Source: USGS Can lead to Mining produces toxins economical and and radioactivity political turmoil SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

Cell Phones/Tablets/Laptops: Why should we REUSE? • contain rare ore called coltan from central Africa • increased mining destroys gorilla habitats • sadly, wildlife reserves suffer most (illegal mining) • contain hazardous chemicals, e.g. arsenic, antimony, cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, zinc • Eco-Cell recycles/reuses cell phones (just drop at S.D. Zoo entrance and Birch Aquarium at Scripps; Home Depot) coltan: columbite-tantalite SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources Recycling Fraction of recycled metals: - Au (45%) - Pt (45%) - Al (45%) - Pb (73%) - Cu (60%) - Fe (56%) U.S. - recycled material increased - primary metals have not more recent numbers decreased!! difficult to come by! ->WE MUST RECYCLE MORE! e-waste VERY problematic!! SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

Metal Recycling – U.S. Source: A. Mateus, Univ. Lisbon, Portugal recycling is NOT increasing! SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources ! glass and Al relatively easy to recycle ! recycling uses less energy than mining BIRCH AQUARIUM (2011 vanished since then): - every 2 months, Americans throw away enough aluminum to build our entire commercial air fleet - average American generates 4.4 pounds of waste per day; 100,000 pounds by age 65 -over the next 10 years, Americans will throw away 26 Mio tons of recyclable waste (Al, glass, office paper, newspapers) ->WE MUST RECYCLE MORE! SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

Recycling – Benefits (2015) Material Energy saving Air Pollution savings Aluminium 95% 95% Cardboard 24% Glass 5-30% 20% Paper 40% 73% Plastics 70% Steel 60% source: wikipedia paper recycling no longer lucrative USGS 2003: Al recovered from scrap has decreased from 2000 SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources ! CRV California Redemption Value Recycling Center by VONS, Regents Rd … a looong time ago…. Robert, Terry and Mack some recycling has ugly side-effects: e.g. commercial out-of-state recyclers exploit high CA CRV folks working here are paid below-minimum wage Switzerland has NO CRV on glass/plastic!! They STILL bring bottles back! SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

10/25/18 local recycling becomes less profitable -> decline SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources U.S. recycles less!! SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

trash can at German train station ! sorting recyclable material (labor/machine costs) vs ! trash separation SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources Light Bulbs incandescent fluorescent and CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) Photo: wikipedia Photo: Christian Taube, wikipedia Photo: wikipedia ! more energy efficient than incandescent light bulbs ! contain mercury; cannot go to dump ! city slow to take them back ! Home Depot? – not anymore! Photo: Dennis Brown, wikipedia SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

Light Bulbs LEDs! - currently expensive - but last longer! Photo: wikipedia SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources Plastics – Made from Petroleum! ! 84% of petroleum is used to make fuel ! petroleum is a non-renewable resource ! plastics are not biodegradable ! plastics are hard to recycle ! only small fraction (3.5%) is recycled SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources

THE BAD NEWS: Plastic is Made from Petroleum ! plastics are hard to recycle CLOTHING – all plastic ! only small fraction (3.5%) is recycled Nylon Polyester Acrylic microfiber ! complex composition/coding confusing + more available than cotton + softer + doesn’t cling when sweating * more flammable than cotton * added fire retardant toxic? SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources Fossil Fuels - Summary fossil fuels are non-renewable - global energy demand doubled in last 30 years - hydrocarbons now account for > 50% world’s energy production - fossil fuels account for nearly 85% - cheap oil reserves exhausted within 50 years (US: 20 years) - “cleaner” gas reserves probably within 100 years (US: 35 yrs) - coal reserves probably within 300 years (US: 300 yrs) NUCLEAR POWER: burning fossil fuels - long-term storage of used fuel rods - pollutes environment (half-life of some material 25,000 yrs) - accelerates greenhouse effects - accidents/earthquakes - Pu production and civil security burning coal RENEWABLE ENERGIES: - causes acid rain - hydroelectric - releases mercury - geothermal - wind - solar SIO15-18 Lecture 26: Anthropogenic Changes: Resources