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April 20, 2014

ENVIRONMENT HOODSTERS
Ozone Depletion
Montreal Protocol It is an international treaty designed to reduce the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances in order to reduce their abundance in the atmosphere to protect the earth's fragile ozone layer.

Solutions to Ground Level Ozone

Under the Clean Air Act, EPA has set protective health-based standards for ozone in the air. EPA, state, and cities have instituted a variety of multi-faceted programs to meet these health-based standards like, cutting Nox and VOC emissions from vehicles, industrial facilities and electric utilities.

Ground!level ozone vs. Stratospheric Ozone

Ground Level!
Ground level ozone or bad ozone is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile(VOC) organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. The major sources of Nox and VOC comes from electric utilities, motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents. Ground level ozone is bad for the environment because it damages vegetation andD

Stratospheric Ozone!
Stratospheric Ozone or good ozone is produced naturally, but slowly being destroyed by man-made
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April 20, 2014

The Hole in the Ozone Where is it? What is it?

The hole in the ozone is located in Antarctica which was discovered in 1985 while monitoring the stratosphere. It is there because of the weather conditions, the extreme cold, the freezing vortex wind, frozen stratospheric clouds and six month darkness all provide ideal conditions for chlorine to break from the CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbon gases). Due to the breakage the chlorine gases (along with bromine) destroy the ozone causing the ozone hole.

chemicals referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS), including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), halons, methyl bromine, ect. With the good ozone being depleted the sun's UV rays are more apparent causing health effects such as cataracts and skin cancer. As for environmental impacts UV can also damage sensitive crops like soybeans as well as reduce crop yields. It can also put phytoplankton (the base of the oceans food chain) under stress due to the UV radiation which will cause an upset in the food chain.

The Hole

Solutions
The solutions for the hole would be to prevent ozone depletion which is being done by the Montreal protocol, but what you can do all in a nutshell is less your fossil fuel burning activities. Walk instead of drive, avoid or restrict the use of insecticides and pesticides, prefer buying energy-efficient appliances like fluorescent bulbs. Go Green!

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April 20, 2014

Major Types of Fuel Types

Oil!
Pros: easier to extract from the ground than coal, about 40% of our energy comes from oil, oil red power stations can be very efcient, it is easy to distribute and cheaper to transport Cons: emits carbon dioxide, nonrenewable, drilling can lead to spills, endangers/destroys environment, expensive!

Causes of Global Climate Change Greenhouse gases

What are they? Greenhouse gases are gases present in the Earth's atmosphere that contribute to the Greenhouse Effect due to properties which absorb and emit infrared radiation. The primary sources of greenhouse gas emission in the United states are electricity production(32%), transportation(28%), industry(20%), commercial and residential(10%), agriculture (9%), and land use and forestry (15%).

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

Natural Gas!
PROS: inexpensive, can be used for transportation, no waste, produces little soot, verifying the clean-buring claim, emits 45% less CO2 than coal and 35% less CO2 than oil, abundant CONS: non renewable, requires extensive pipeline to deliver, extraction process causes water pollution due to fracking, gas used in fracking is toxic it ends up in drink water, runoff destroys millions of acres of farmland

The Greenhouse Effect is a process which warms the earth's atmosphere due to the absorption of radiation energy by several trace gases. The greenhouse gases allow solar radiation to reach the earth's surface but then absorb the energy as it is reemitted as infrared radiation, acting to contain the heat within the atmosphere. It occurs naturally and is increased by human effects

Coal!
PROS: abundant, relatively inexpensive, continuous power CONS: non renewable, contains the most CO2, largest contributor to global warming, devastation of environment around coal mines.

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El Nino & La Nina

What is el Nino?
El Nino refers to the largescale ocean atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperature across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific.

EPAs Regulated Air Pollutants

The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards for six common air pollutants which are commonly found in air pollutants. The six are groundlevel ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and lead. PARTICULATE MATTER EPA is concerned about particles that are 10 micrometers in diameter or smaller because those are the particles that generally pass through the throat and nose and enter the lungs GROUND-LEVEL OZONE Montreal protocol CARBON MONOXIDE EPA first set air quality standards for CO in 1971. For protection of both public health and welfare, EPA set a 8hour primary standard at 9 parts per million (ppm) and a 1hour primary standard at 35 ppm. SULFUR OXIDES EPA set a 24-hour primary standard at 140 ppb and an annual average standard at 30 ppb (to protect health). EPA also set a 3-hour average secondary standard at 500 ppb (to protect the public welfare NITROGEN OXIDES In January 2010, EPA established an additional primary standard at 100 ppb, averaged over one hour LEAD EPA removal of lead from road motor vehicle gasoline, emissions of lead from the transportation sector

What is la Nina?
La Nina represents periods of below-average sea surface temperatures across the eastcentral Equatorial Pacific. La Nina impacts tend to be opposite to those of El Nino impacts along with ocean temperatures. Impacts
! -La Nina tends to

bring wetter than normal conditions across the Pacific Northwest and dryer and warmer than norma conditions across much of the southern tier.
! -El Nino tends to

bring flooding due to the rainfall in the coastal zones which accompany the offshore warming.

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