Write out brief essays in answer to the following FOUR questions, worth 15 point

Question

Write out brief essays in answer to the following FOUR questions, worth 15 points each. Attention will be paid to factual content, as well as coherence and grammar. Use a separate page for each of your answers, even though they may well take up less than a page, and head your answer with the topic chosen, underlined, before you start your essay. 1. Give three significant pros and three significant cons and your own conclusion for either: electricity from nuclear energy, or electricity from wind power. 2. Review the evidence for a strong anthropogenic component in ‘Climate Change’ and indicate three significant global effects expected from Climate Change by the end of this century. Comment on what measures could mitigate these effects. 3. Review some of the issues involved in one of the following environmental concerns: the Ozone Layer, or Air Pollution in Major Cities. 4. Discuss what is causing the pH of the oceans to change slightly and why this is a concern.

Explanation / Answer

ANSWER:

1) Electricity from Nuclear Energy:

Pros

1. Relatively Low Costs

Generating electricity in nuclear reactors is cheaper than electricity generating from oil, gas and coal, not to speak of the renewable energy sources.

2. Base Load Energy

Nuclear power plants provide a stable base load of energy. This can work synergistic with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

3. Low Pollution

The environmental effects of nuclear power are relatively light compared to those. However, nuclear waste is potential harmful for both humans and the environment.

Cons

1. Accidents Happen

The radioactive waste can possess a threat to the environment and is dangerous for humans. We all remember the Chernobyl accident, where the harmful effects of nuclear radiation on humans can even be witnessed today.

History shows that we can never really protect us 100% against these disasters. Accidents do happen.

2. Radioactive Waste

The nuclear power plants emit negligible amounts, if any, carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, the processes in the nuclear fuel chain such as mining, enrichment and waste management does.

3.Disposal of Waste

Waste disposal of nuclear waste is one of the biggest drawback for the nuclear energy plants.It cause severe effect to the environment.

2) Climate Change :

The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring, its causes, and its probable consequences. The scientific consensus is that the Earth's climate system is unequivocally warming, and that it is extremely likely that this warming is predominantly caused by humans.

1) Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities

2) Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, the widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level

3) The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change, associated disturbances e.g. flooding, drought, wildfire, insects, ocean acidification and other global change drivers e.g. land-use change, pollution, fragmentation of natural systems, over-exploitation of resources.

3) Ozone Layer :

Current global rocket launches deplete the ozone layer by no more than a few hundredths of 1 percent annually, But as the space industry grows and other ozone-depleting chemicals decline in the Earth’s stratosphere, the issue of ozone depletion from rocket launches is expected to move to the forefront.

Highly reactive trace-gas molecules known as radicals dominate stratospheric ozone destruction, and a single radical in the stratosphere can destroy up to 10,000 ozone molecules before being deactivated and removed from the stratosphere.

Effects on Human and Animal Health

The impact on human health with potential risks of eye diseases, skin cancer and infectious diseases.

Experiments on animals show that UV exposure decreases the immune response to skin cancers, infectious agents and other antigens

Effects on Air Quality

This can increase both production and destruction of ozone and related oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide which are known to have adverse effects on human health, terrestrial plants and outdoor materials.

4) pH of the oceans :

Increasing acidity is thought to have a range of potentially harmful consequences for marine organisms, such as depressing metabolic rates and immune responses in some organisms, and causing coral bleaching

1) Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

2) Seawater is slightly basic (meaning pH > 7), and the process in question is a shift towards pH-neutral conditions rather than a transition to acidic conditions (pH < 7).

3) An estimated 30–40% of the carbon dioxide from human activity released into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes.

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