1.
Greenhouse gas
–
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earths atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, without greenhouse gases, the average temperature of Earths surface would be about −18 °C, rather than the present average of 15 °C. In the Solar System, the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution have produced a 40% increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, from 280 ppm in 1750 to 400 ppm in 2015. This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a portion of the emissions by various natural sinks involved in the carbon cycle. Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions come from combustion of fuels, principally coal, oil. Greenhouse gases are those that absorb and emit infrared radiation in the range emitted by Earth. The proportion of an emission remaining in the atmosphere after a time is the airborne fraction. The annual airborne fraction is the ratio of the increase in a given year to that years total emissions. Over the last 50 years the annual airborne fraction for CO2 has been increasing at 0.25 ±0. 21%/year, therefore, they do not contribute significantly to the greenhouse effect and usually are omitted when discussing greenhouse gases. Some gases have indirect radiative effects and this happens in two main ways. One way is that when they break down in the atmosphere they produce another greenhouse gas, for example, methane and carbon monoxide are oxidized to give carbon dioxide. Oxidation of CO to CO2 directly produces an increase in radiative forcing although the reason is subtle. The peak of the thermal IR emission from Earths surface is close to a strong vibrational absorption band of CO2. On the other hand, the single CO vibrational band only absorbs IR at much higher frequencies, where the ~300 K thermal emission of the surface is at least a factor of ten lower. Oxidation of methane to CO2, which requires reactions with the OH radical, produces a reduction, since CO2 is a weaker greenhouse gas than methane. As described below this is not the story, since the oxidations of CO. In any case, the calculation of the radiative effect needs to include both the direct and indirect forcing
Greenhouse gas
–
The false colors in this image represent concentrations of carbon monoxide in the lower atmosphere, ranging from about 390 parts per billion (dark brown pixels), to 220 parts per billion (red pixels), to 50 parts per billion (blue pixels).
Greenhouse gas
–
Greenhouse effect schematic showing
energy flows between
space, the
atmosphere, and Earth's
surface.
Energy influx and emittance are expressed in
watts per
square meter (W/m 2).
2.
Ecological footprint
–
An ecological footprint is a measure of human impact on Earths ecosystems. Its typically measured in area of wilderness or amount of natural capital consumed each year, at a global scale, it is used to estimate how rapidly we are depleting natural capital. The Global Footprint Network calculates the global ecological footprint from UN and they estimate that as of 2007 our planet has been using natural capital 1.6 times as fast as nature can renew it. Ecological footprint analysis is used around the Earth as an indicator of environmental sustainability. Since 2006, a first set of ecological footprint standards exist that detail both communication and calculation procedures, Ecological footprints can be calculated at any scale, for an activity, a person, a community, a city, a region, a nation or humanity as a whole. Cities, due to concentration, have large ecological footprints and have become ground zero for footprint reduction. However, there has been some convergence of metrics and standards since 2006, City Ecological Footprints, are being measured. There are two types of measurements in use, the first measures ecosystem displacement which is defined as City Area minus remaining green spaces. This is a measurement that does not include human or other biological activity. The Second attempts to quantify surviving ecosystem health, specifically, it attempts to quantify both area and biological health of ecosystems surviving inside city areas such as nature reserves, parks, other green spaces. City footprints are being calculated and ranked with city ecological indexes, the first academic publication about ecological footprints was by William Rees in 1992. Originally, Wackernagel and Rees called the concept appropriated carrying capacity, to make the idea more accessible, Rees came up with the term ecological footprint, inspired by a computer technician who praised his new computers small footprint on the desk. In early 1996, Wackernagel and Rees published the book Our Ecological Footprint and this approach can also be applied to an activity such as the manufacturing of a product or driving of a car. Per capita ecological footprint, or ecological footprint analysis, is a means of comparing consumption and lifestyles, the tool can inform policy by examining to what extent a nation uses more than is available within its territory, or to what extent the nations lifestyle would be replicable worldwide. The footprint can also be a tool to educate people about carrying capacity and overconsumption. Ecological footprints may be used to argue that many current lifestyles are not sustainable, such a global comparison also clearly shows the inequalities of resource use on this planet at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In 2007, the biologically productive area per person worldwide was approximately 1.8 global hectares per capita. The U. S. footprint per capita was 9.0 gha, the WWF claims that the human footprint has exceeded the biocapacity of the planet by 20%
Ecological footprint
–
Ecological footprint for different nations compared to their
Human Development Index.
Ecological footprint
–
General
Ecological footprint
–
Population ecology
3.
Carbon capture
–
The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is a means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming. Although CO2 has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes, including enhanced oil recovery, the first commercial example was the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project in 2000. Other examples include SaskPowers Boundary Dam and Mississippi Powers Kemper Project, CCS can also be used to describe the scrubbing of CO2 from ambient air as a climate engineering technique. CCS applied to a conventional power plant could reduce CO2 emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80–90% compared to a plant without CCS. The IPCC estimates that the potential of CCS could be between 10% and 55% of the total carbon mitigation effort until year 2100. Carbon dioxide can be captured out of air or fossil fuel power plant flue gas using adsorption, membrane gas separation, amines are the leading carbon scrubbing technology. Capturing and compressing CO2 may increase the needs of a coal-fired CCS plant by 25–40%. These and other costs are estimated to increase the cost per watt energy produced by 21–91% for fossil fuel power plants. Applying the technology to existing plants would be expensive, especially if they are far from a sequestration site. Storage of the CO2 is envisaged either in deep geological formations, deep ocean storage is not currently considered feasible due to the associated effect of ocean acidification. Geological formations are considered the most promising sequestration sites. The National Energy Technology Laboratory reported that North America has enough capacity for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates. A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are difficult and uncertain. Extracting CO2 from air is possible, but not very practical because the CO2 is not concentrated. Organisms that produce ethanol by fermentation generate cool, essentially pure CO2 that can be pumped underground, fermentation produces slightly less CO2 than ethanol by weight. Flue gas from the combustion of coal in oxygen has a concentration of CO2. Therefore, it is energy and cost efficient to capture CO2 from coal-fired power plants
Carbon capture
–
Lake Nyos as it appeared fewer than two weeks after the eruption; August 29, 1986.
Carbon capture
–
Schematic showing both terrestrial and geological sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions from a coal-fired plant
4.
Thermal energy
–
In thermodynamics, thermal energy refers to the internal energy present in a system due to its temperature. Heat is energy transferred spontaneously from a hotter to a system or body. Heat is energy in transfer, not a property of the system, on the other hand, internal energy is a property of a system. The internal energy of a gas can in this sense be regarded as thermal energy. In this case, however, thermal energy and internal energy are identical, systems that are more complex than ideal gases can undergo phase transitions. Phase transitions can change the energy of the system without changing its temperature. Therefore, the thermal energy cannot be defined solely by the temperature, for these reasons, the concept of the thermal energy of a system is ill-defined and is not used in thermodynamics. In an 1847 lecture entitled On Matter, Living Force, and Heat, James Prescott Joule characterized various terms that are related to thermal energy. He identified the terms latent heat and sensible heat as forms of heat each effecting distinct physical phenomena, namely the potential and kinetic energy of particles, Heat transfer Ocean thermal energy conversion Thermal science Example of incorrect use of heat and thermal energy
Thermal energy
–
Thermal radiation in visible light can be seen on this hot metalwork. Thermal energy would ideally be the amount of heat required to warm the metal to its temperature, but this quantity is not well-defined, as there are many ways to obtain a given body at a given temperature, and each of them may require a different amount of total
heat input. Thermal energy, unlike
internal energy, is therefore not a state function.
5.
Electrical energy
–
Electrical energy is the energy newly derived from electric potential energy or kinetic energy. When loosely used to describe energy absorbed or delivered by an electrical circuit electrical energy talks about energy which has converted from electric potential energy. This energy is supplied by the combination of current and electric potential that is delivered by the circuit. At the point that this potential energy has been converted to another type of energy. Thus, all energy is potential energy before it is delivered to the end-use. Once converted from potential energy, electrical energy can always be called another type of energy, electric generation is The fundamental principle of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday. His basic method is used today, electricity is generated by the movement of a loop of wire. For electric utilities, it is the first step in the delivery of electricity to consumers, the other processes, electricity transmission, distribution, and electrical power storage and recovery using pumped-storage methods are normally carried out by the electric power industry. There are many technologies that can be and are used to generate electricity such as solar photovoltaics
Electrical energy
–
Turbo generators provide the majority of the world's electrical energy
6.
Coal
–
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon, along with quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen. A fossil fuel, coal forms when plant matter is converted into peat, which in turn is converted into lignite, then sub-bituminous coal, after that bituminous coal. This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time, throughout history, coal has been used as an energy resource, primarily burned for the production of electricity and heat, and is also used for industrial purposes, such as refining metals. Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, the extraction of coal, its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change. Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining, since 1983, the worlds top coal producer has been China. In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal –47. 7% of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production, in 2015 other large producers were United States, India, European Union and Australia. The word originally took the col in Old English, from Proto-Germanic *kula. In Old Turkic languages, kül is ash, cinders, öčür is quench, the compound charcoal in Turkic is öčür kül, literally quenched ashes, cinders, coals with elided anlaut ö- and inflection affixes -ülmüş. At various times in the geologic past, the Earth had dense forests in low-lying wetland areas, due to natural processes such as flooding, these forests were buried underneath soil. As more and more soil deposited over them, they were compressed, the temperature also rose as they sank deeper and deeper. As the process continued the plant matter was protected from biodegradation and oxidation and this trapped the carbon in immense peat bogs that were eventually covered and deeply buried by sediments. Under high pressure and high temperature, dead vegetation was slowly converted to coal, as coal contains mainly carbon, the conversion of dead vegetation into coal is called carbonization. The wide, shallow seas of the Carboniferous Period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, the exception is the coal gap in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where coal is rare. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants — this coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae, in its dehydrated form, peat is a highly effective absorbent for fuel and oil spills on land and water. It is also used as a conditioner for soil to make it able to retain. Lignite, or brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal, jet, a compact form of lignite, is sometimes polished and has been used as an ornamental stone since the Upper Palaeolithic
Coal
–
Anthracite coal
Coal
–
Bituminous coal
Coal
–
Coastal exposure of the Point Aconi Seam (Nova Scotia)
Coal
–
Coal miner in Britain, 1942
7.
Natural gas
–
It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years. The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of bonds in the gas. Natural gas is a fuel used as a source of energy for heating, cooking. It is also used as fuel for vehicles and as a feedstock in the manufacture of plastics. Natural gas is found in underground rock formations or associated with other hydrocarbon reservoirs in coal beds. Petroleum is another resource and fossil fuel found in proximity to. Most natural gas was created over time by two mechanisms, biogenic and thermogenic, biogenic gas is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, landfills, and shallow sediments. Deeper in the earth, at temperature and pressure, thermogenic gas is created from buried organic material. In petroleum production gas is burnt as flare gas. The World Bank estimates that over 150 cubic kilometers of gas are flared or vented annually. Before natural gas can be used as a fuel, most, Natural gas is often informally referred to simply as gas, especially when compared to other energy sources such as oil or coal. However, it is not to be confused with gasoline, especially in North America, Natural gas was used by the Chinese in about 500 BCE. They discovered a way to transport gas seeping from the ground in crude pipelines of bamboo to where it was used to salt water to extract the salt. The worlds first industrial extraction of gas started at Fredonia, New York. By 2009,66000 km³ had been used out of the total 850000 km³ of estimated remaining reserves of natural gas. An annual increase in usage of 2–3% could result in currently recoverable reserves lasting significantly less, unwanted natural gas was a disposal problem in the active oil fields. If there was not a market for natural gas near the wellhead it was expensive to pipe to the end user. In the 19th century and early 20th century, unwanted gas was burned off at oil fields
Natural gas
–
Natural gas coming out of the ground in Taiwan.
Natural gas
–
The global
Natural Gas Trade in 2013, numbers are in billion cubic meters per year.
Natural gas
–
Natural gas
drilling rig in Texas.
Natural gas
–
The location of
shale gas compared to other types of gas deposits.
8.
Geothermal power
–
Geothermal power is power generated by geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations, Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 24 countries, while geothermal heating is in use in 70 countries. As of 2015, worldwide geothermal power capacity amounts to 12.8 gigawatts, International markets grew at an average annual rate of 5 percent over the last three years and global geothermal power capacity is expected to reach 14. 5–17.6 GW by 2020. Countries generating more than 15 percent of their electricity from geothermal sources include El Salvador, Kenya, Geothermal power is considered to be a sustainable, renewable source of energy because the heat extraction is small compared with the Earths heat content. In the 20th century, demand for electricity led to the consideration of geothermal power as a generating source, prince Piero Ginori Conti tested the first geothermal power generator on 4 July 1904 in Larderello, Italy. It successfully lit four light bulbs, later, in 1911, the worlds first commercial geothermal power station was built there. Experimental generators were built in Beppu, Japan and the Geysers, California, in the 1920s, in 1958, New Zealand became the second major industrial producer of geothermal electricity when its Wairakei station was commissioned. Wairakei was the first station to use flash steam technology, in 1960, Pacific Gas and Electric began operation of the first successful geothermal electric power station in the United States at The Geysers in California. The original turbine lasted for more than 30 years and produced 11 MW net power, the binary cycle power station was first demonstrated in 1967 in Russia and later introduced to the USA in 1981, following the 1970s energy crisis and significant changes in regulatory policies. This technology allows the use of lower temperature resources than were previously recoverable. In 2006, a binary cycle station in Chena Hot Springs, Alaska, came on-line, Geothermal electric stations have until recently been built exclusively where high temperature geothermal resources are available near the surface. The development of binary cycle power plants and improvements in drilling, demonstration projects are operational in Landau-Pfalz, Germany, and Soultz-sous-Forêts, France, while an earlier effort in Basel, Switzerland was shut down after it triggered earthquakes. Other demonstration projects are under construction in Australia, the United Kingdom, the thermal efficiency of geothermal electric stations is low, around 7–10%, because geothermal fluids are at a low temperature compared with steam from boilers. By the laws of thermodynamics this low temperature limits the efficiency of engines in extracting useful energy during the generation of electricity. Exhaust heat is wasted, unless it can be used directly and locally, for example in greenhouses, timber mills, and district heating. The efficiency of the system does not affect operational costs as it would for a coal or other fossil fuel plant, in order to produce more energy than the pumps consume, electricity generation requires high temperature geothermal fields and specialized heat cycles. Because geothermal power does not rely on sources of energy, unlike, for example, wind or solar. However the global average capacity factor was 74. 5% in 2008, the earth’s heat content is about 1031 joules
Geothermal power
–
Krafla, a geothermal power station in Iceland
Geothermal power
–
Larderello Geothermal Station, in Italy
Geothermal power
–
A geothermal power station in
Negros Oriental,
Philippines.
9.
Uranium
–
Uranium is a chemical element with symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons, Uranium is weakly radioactive because all its isotopes are unstable. The most common isotopes in natural uranium are uranium-238 and uranium-235, Uranium has the highest atomic weight of the primordially occurring elements. Its density is about 70% higher than that of lead, and it occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few parts per million in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite. In nature, uranium is found as uranium-238, uranium-235, Uranium decays slowly by emitting an alpha particle. The half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.47 billion years, many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique nuclear properties. Uranium-235 is the naturally occurring fissile isotope, which makes it widely used in nuclear power plants. However, because of the amounts found in nature, uranium needs to undergo enrichment so that enough uranium-235 is present. Uranium-238 is fissionable by fast neutrons, and is fertile, meaning it can be transmuted to fissile plutonium-239 in a nuclear reactor, another fissile isotope, uranium-233, can be produced from natural thorium and is also important in nuclear technology. In sufficient concentration, these maintain a sustained nuclear chain reaction. This generates the heat in nuclear reactors, and produces the fissile material for nuclear weapons. Depleted uranium is used in kinetic energy penetrators and armor plating, Uranium is used as a colorant in uranium glass, producing lemon yellow to green colors. Uranium glass fluoresces green in ultraviolet light and it was also used for tinting and shading in early photography. The 1789 discovery of uranium in the mineral pitchblende is credited to Martin Heinrich Klaproth, eugène-Melchior Péligot was the first person to isolate the metal and its radioactive properties were discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel. An ensuing arms race during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union produced tens of thousands of weapons that used uranium metal. The security of those weapons and their fissile material following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 is a concern for public health. When refined, uranium is a white, weakly radioactive metal
Uranium
–
Uranium, 92 U
Uranium
–
Depleted uranium is used by various militaries as high-density penetrators
Uranium
–
The most visible civilian use of uranium is as the thermal power source used in
nuclear power plants
Uranium
–
Uranium glass glowing under
UV light
10.
Nuclear power
–
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant. The term includes nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion, since all electricity supplying technologies use cement, etc. during construction, emissions are yet to be brought to zero. Each result is contrasted with coal and fossil gas at 820 and 490 g CO2 eq/kWh, there is a social debate about nuclear power. Proponents, such as the World Nuclear Association and Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, contend that nuclear power is a safe, opponents, such as Greenpeace International and NIRS, contend that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment. These include the Chernobyl disaster which occurred in 1986, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, there have also been some nuclear submarine accidents. Energy production from coal, petroleum, natural gas and hydroelectricity has caused a number of fatalities per unit of energy generated due to air pollution. In 2015, Ten new reactors were connected to the grid, seven reactors were permanently shut down. 441 reactors had a net capacity of 382,855 megawatts of electricity. 67 new nuclear reactors were under construction, Most of the new activity is in China where there is an urgent need to control pollution from coal plants. In October 2016, Watts Bar 2 became the first new United States reactor to enter commercial operation since 1996. The same year, his doctoral student James Chadwick discovered the neutron, further work by Enrico Fermi in the 1930s focused on using slow neutrons to increase the effectiveness of induced radioactivity. Experiments bombarding uranium with neutrons led Fermi to believe he had created a new, transuranic element and they determined that the relatively tiny neutron split the nucleus of the massive uranium atoms into two roughly equal pieces, contradicting Fermi. Numerous scientists, including Leó Szilárd, who was one of the first, recognized that if fission reactions released additional neutrons, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction could result. In the United States, where Fermi and Szilárd had both emigrated, this led to the creation of the first man-made reactor, known as Chicago Pile-1, which achieved criticality on December 2,1942. In 1945, the pocketbook The Atomic Age heralded the untapped atomic power in everyday objects and depicted a future where fossil fuels would go unused. One science writer, David Dietz, wrote that instead of filling the gas tank of a car two or three times a week, people travel for a year on a pellet of atomic energy the size of a vitamin pill. The United Kingdom, Canada, and the USSR proceeded over the course of the late 1940s, electricity was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor on December 20,1951, at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho, which initially produced about 100 kW. Work was also researched in the US on nuclear marine propulsion
Nuclear power
–
The 1200
MWe,
Leibstadt fission-electric power station in Switzerland. The
boiling water reactor (BWR), located inside the dome capped cylindrical structure, is dwarfed in size by its
cooling tower. The station produces a yearly average of 25 million
kilowatt-hours per day, sufficient to power a city the size of
Boston.
Nuclear power
–
The
Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the largest in the US with 3
pressurized water reactors (PWRs), is situated in the
Arizona desert. It uses
sewage from cities as its
cooling water in 9 squat mechanical draft cooling towers. Its total
spent fuel /"waste" inventory produced since 1986, is contained in
dry cask storage cylinders located between the artificial body of water and the
electrical switchyard.
Nuclear power
–
U.S. nuclear powered ships,(top to bottom) cruisers
USS Bainbridge, the
USS Long Beach and the
USS Enterprise, the
longest ever naval vessel, and the first nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier. Picture taken in 1964 during a record setting voyage of 26,540 nmi (49,190 km) around the world in 65 days without refueling. Crew members are spelling out
Einstein 's
mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc 2 on the flight deck.
Nuclear power
–
The Russian
nuclear-powered icebreaker NS Yamal on a joint scientific expedition with the
NSF in 1994.
11.
Hydroelectricity
–
Hydroelectricity is electricity produced from hydropower. In 2015 hydropower generated 16. 6% of the total electricity and 70% of all renewable electricity. Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of global hydropower in 2013, China is the largest hydroelectricity producer, with 920 TWh of production in 2013, representing 16.9 percent of domestic electricity use. The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low, making it a source of renewable electricity. The hydro station consumes no water, unlike coal or gas plants, the average cost of electricity from a hydro station larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U. S. cents per kilowatt-hour. With a dam and reservoir it is also a source of electricity since the amount produced by the station can be changed up or down very quickly to adapt to changing energy demands. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, Hydropower has been used since ancient times to grind flour and perform other tasks. In the mid-1770s, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical-, by the late 19th century, the electrical generator was developed and could now be coupled with hydraulics. The growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well, in 1878 the worlds first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George Armstrong. It was used to power an arc lamp in his art gallery. The old Schoelkopf Power Station No.1 near Niagara Falls in the U. S. side began to produce electricity in 1881. The first Edison hydroelectric power station, the Vulcan Street Plant, began operating September 30,1882, in Appleton, Wisconsin, by 1886 there were 45 hydroelectric power stations in the U. S. and Canada. By 1889 there were 200 in the U. S. alone, at the beginning of the 20th century, many small hydroelectric power stations were being constructed by commercial companies in mountains near metropolitan areas. Grenoble, France held the International Exhibition of Hydropower and Tourism with over one million visitors, by 1920 as 40% of the power produced in the United States was hydroelectric, the Federal Power Act was enacted into law. The Act created the Federal Power Commission to regulate hydroelectric power stations on federal land, as the power stations became larger, their associated dams developed additional purposes to include flood control, irrigation and navigation. Federal funding became necessary for development and federally owned corporations, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority. Hydroelectric power stations continued to become larger throughout the 20th century, Hydropower was referred to as white coal for its power and plenty. Hoover Dams initial 1,345 MW power station was the worlds largest hydroelectric station in 1936
Hydroelectricity
–
The
Three Gorges Dam in Central China is the
world's largest power producing facilitiy of any kind.
Hydroelectricity
–
Museum Hydroelectric power plant ″Under the Town″ in
Serbia, built in 1900.
Hydroelectricity
–
Turbine row at Los Nihuiles Power Station in
Mendoza, Argentina
12.
Concentrating solar power
–
Concentrated solar power systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. Electricity is generated when the light is converted to heat. Heat storage in molten salts allows some solar thermal plants to continue to generate after sunset, CSP is being commercialized and the CSP market saw about 740 megawatt of generating capacity added between 2007 and the end of 2010. More than half of this was installed during 2010, bringing the total to 1095 MW. Spain added 400 MW in 2010, taking the lead with a total of 632 MW, while the US ended the year with 509 MW after adding 78 MW. The Middle East is also ramping up their plans to install CSP based projects, shams-I has been installed in Abu Dhabi, by Masdar. The largest CSP projects in the world is Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the United States, as of January 2014, Spain had a total capacity of 2,300 MW making this country the world leader in CSP. United States follows with 1,740 MW, interest is also notable in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as India and China. In Italy, a handful of companies are trying to get authorization for 14 plants, totalling 392 MW, the global market has been dominated by parabolic-trough plants, which account for 90% of CSP plants. However, the Chile Copiapó reached ¢6. 3/kWh, in 2015, CSP represented less than 2% of worldwide installed capacity of solar electricity plants. CSP is not to be confused with concentrator photovoltaics, in CPV, the concentrated sunlight is converted directly to electricity via the photovoltaic effect. A legend has it that Archimedes used a glass to concentrate sunlight on the invading Roman fleet. In 1973 a Greek scientist, Dr, the ship caught fire after a few minutes, however, historians continue to doubt the Archimedes story. In 1866, Auguste Mouchout used a trough to producе steam for the first solar steam engine. The first patent for a collector was obtained by the Italian Alessandro Battaglia in Genoa, Italy. Over the following years, invеntors such as John Ericsson and Frank Shuman developed concentrating solar-powered dеvices for irrigation, refrigеration, in 1913 Shuman finished a 55 HP parabolic solar thermal energy station in Maadi, Egypt for irrigation. Professor Giovanni Francia designed and built the first concentrated-solar plant, which entered operation in SantIlario, near Genoa. This plant had the architecture of todays concentrated-solar plants with a receiver in the center of a field of solar collectors
Concentrating solar power
–
The
PS10 solar power plant concentrates sunlight from a field of
heliostats onto a central solar power tower.
Concentrating solar power
–
Part of the 354 MW
SEGS solar complex in northern
San Bernardino County, California.
Concentrating solar power
–
Parabolic trough at a plant near Harper Lake, California
Concentrating solar power
–
A dish Stirling
13.
Photovoltaics
–
A typical photovoltaic system employs solar panels, each comprising a number of solar cells, which generate electrical power. PV installations may be ground-mounted, rooftop mounted or wall mounted, the mount may be fixed, or use a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky. Dust, clouds, and other things in the atmosphere also diminish the power output, another main issue is the concentration of the production in the hours corresponding to main insolation, which dont usually match the peaks in demand in human activity cycles. Unless current societal patterns of consumption and electrical networks mutually adjust to this scenario, electricity still need to be made up by other power sources, Photovoltaic systems have long been used in specialized applications, and standalone and grid-connected PV systems have been in use since the 1990s. They were first mass-produced in 2000, when German environmentalists and the Eurosolar organization got government funding for a ten thousand roof program, advances in technology and increased manufacturing scale have in any case reduced the cost, increased the reliability, and increased the efficiency of photovoltaic installations. Net metering and financial incentives, such as preferential feed-in tariffs for solar-generated electricity, have supported solar PV installations in many countries, more than 100 countries now use solar PV. After hydro and wind powers, PV is the renewable energy source in terms of globally capacity. In 2014, worldwide installed PV capacity increased to 177 gigawatts, with current technology, photovoltaics recoups the energy needed to manufacture them in 1.5 years in Southern Europe and 2.5 years in Northern Europe. The term photo-voltaic has been in use in English since 1849, photovoltaics are best known as a method for generating electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into a flow of electrons by the photovoltaic effect. Solar cells produce direct current electricity from sunlight which can be used to power equipment or to recharge a battery, the first practical application of photovoltaics was to power orbiting satellites and other spacecraft, but today the majority of photovoltaic modules are used for grid connected power generation. In this case an inverter is required to convert the DC to AC, there is a smaller market for off-grid power for remote dwellings, boats, recreational vehicles, electric cars, roadside emergency telephones, remote sensing, and cathodic protection of pipelines. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of cells containing a photovoltaic material. Copper solar cables connect modules, arrays, and sub-fields, because of the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the manufacturing of solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced considerably in recent years. Solar photovoltaic power generation has long seen as a clean energy technology which draws upon the planet’s most plentiful. Cells require protection from the environment and are usually packaged tightly in solar panels, Photovoltaic power capacity is measured as maximum power output under standardized test conditions in Wp. Solar photovoltaic array capacity factors are typically under 25%, which is lower than other industrial sources of electricity. For best performance, terrestrial PV systems aim to maximize the time they face the sun, Solar trackers achieve this by moving PV panels to follow the sun. The increase can be by as much as 20% in winter, static mounted systems can be optimized by analysis of the sun path
Photovoltaics
–
The
Solar Settlement, a sustainable housing community project in
Freiburg, Germany.
Photovoltaics
–
Solar cells generate
electricity directly from
sunlight
Photovoltaics
–
Photovoltaic SUDI shade is an autonomous and mobile station in France that provides energy for electric vehicles using solar energy.
Photovoltaics
–
Solar panels on the
International Space Station
14.
Wind power
–
Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power. The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of power sources. Wind farms consist of individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network. Onshore wind is a source of electric power, competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants. Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land, and offshore farms have less visual impact, small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations. Wind power gives variable power which is consistent from year to year. It is therefore used in conjunction with other power sources to give a reliable supply. As the proportion of power in a region increases, a need to upgrade the grid. In addition, weather forecasting permits the power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur. As of 2015, Denmark generates 40% of its power from wind. In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16% to 369,553 MW, yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4% of worldwide electric power usage,11. 4% in the EU. Wind power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind, for more than two millennia wind-powered machines have ground grain and pumped water. Wind power was available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands, and in regions such as the American mid-west or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided water for live stock. The first windmill used for the production of power was built in Scotland in July 1887 by Prof James Blyth of Andersons College. Blyth offered the surplus power to the people of Marykirk for lighting the main street, however. The Brush wind turbine had a rotor 17 metres in diameter and was mounted on an 18 metres tower, although large by todays standards, the machine was only rated at 12 kW. The connected dynamo was used either to charge a bank of batteries or to operate up to 100 incandescent light bulbs, with the development of electric power, wind power found new applications in lighting buildings remote from centrally-generated power
Wind power
–
Wind power stations in Xinjiang, China
Wind power
–
Charles Brush's windmill of 1888, used for generating electricity.
Wind power
–
The world's second full-scale
floating wind turbine (and first to be installed without the use of heavy-lift vessels), WindFloat, operating at rated capacity (2 MW) approximately 5 km offshore of
Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal
15.
Solar power
–
Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics, or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam, Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect. Most solar installations would be in China and India, Solar PV is rapidly becoming an inexpensive, low-carbon technology to harness renewable energy from the Sun. The current largest photovoltaic power station in the world is the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, in Qinghai, commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in the 1980s. The 392 MW Ivanpah installation is the largest concentrating solar power plant in the world, long distance transmission allows remote renewable energy resources to displace fossil fuel consumption. Solar power plants use one of two technologies, Photovoltaic systems use solar panels, either on rooftops or in ground-mounted solar farms, concentrated solar power plants use solar thermal energy to make steam, that is thereafter converted into electricity by a turbine. A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is a device that converts light into electric current using the photovoltaic effect, the first solar cell was constructed by Charles Fritts in the 1880s. The German industrialist Ernst Werner von Siemens was among those who recognized the importance of this discovery, following the work of Russell Ohl in the 1940s, researchers Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin created the silicon solar cell in 1954. These early solar cells cost 286 USD/watt and reached efficiencies of 4. 5–6%, the array of a photovoltaic power system, or PV system, produces direct current power which fluctuates with the sunlights intensity. For practical use this usually requires conversion to certain desired voltages or alternating current, multiple solar cells are connected inside modules. Modules are wired together to form arrays, then tied to an inverter, which produces power at the voltage, and for AC. Many residential PV systems are connected to the grid wherever available, in these grid-connected PV systems, use of energy storage is optional. In certain applications such as satellites, lighthouses, or in developing countries, batteries or additional power generators are often added as back-ups, such stand-alone power systems permit operations at night and at other times of limited sunlight. Concentrated solar power, also called concentrated solar thermal, uses lenses or mirrors, contrary to photovoltaics – which converts light directly into electricity – CSP uses the heat of the suns radiation to generate electricity from conventional steam-driven turbines. A wide range of concentrating technologies exists, among the best known are the trough, the compact linear Fresnel reflector, the Stirling dish. Various techniques are used to track the sun and focus light, in all of these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage. Thermal storage efficiently allows up to 24-hour electricity generation, a parabolic trough consists of a linear parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned along the reflectors focal line. The receiver is a tube positioned right above the middle of the mirror and is filled with a working fluid
Solar power
–
A
solar PV array on a rooftop in
Hong Kong
Solar power
–
The first three
concentrated solar power (CSP) units of Spain's
Solnova Solar Power Station in the foreground, with the
PS10 and
PS20 solar power towers in the background
Solar power
–
CPV modules on dual axis
solar trackers in Golmud, China
Solar power
–
Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System with all three towers under load during February 2014, with the
Clark Mountain Range seen in the distance
16.
Hydropower
–
Hydropower or water power is power derived from the energy of falling water or fast running water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. A trompe, which compressed air from falling water, is sometimes used to power other machinery at a distance. In the late 19th century, hydropower became a source for generating electricity, cragside in Northumberland was the first house powered by hydroelectricity in 1878 and the first commercial hydroelectric power plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1879. In 1881, street lamps in the city of Niagara Falls were powered by hydropower, since the early 20th century, the term has been used almost exclusively in conjunction with the modern development of hydroelectric power. In China and the rest of the Far East, hydraulically operated pot wheel pumps raised water into crop or irrigation canals, the power of a wave of water released from a tank was used for extraction of metal ores in a method known as hushing. The method was first used at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines in Wales from 75 AD onwards, hushing was also widely used in Britain in the Medieval and later periods to extract lead and tin ores. It later evolved into hydraulic mining when used during the California Gold Rush and these include an endless belt with jugs attached, a cow-powered shadoof, and a reciprocating device with hinged valves. In 1753, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical-, the growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, water was the source of power for new inventions such as Richard Arkwrights water frame. In the 1830s, at the peak in US canal-building, hydropower provided the energy to transport barge traffic up. Technological advances had moved the water wheel into an enclosed turbine or water motor. Francis, while working as engineer of Lowells Locks and Canals company. He applied scientific principles and testing methods to the problem of turbine design and his mathematical and graphical calculation methods allowed confident design of high efficiency turbines to exactly match a sites specific flow conditions. The Francis reaction turbine is still in use today. Hydraulic power networks used pipes to carrying pressurized water and transmit power from the source to end users. The power source was normally a head of water, which could also be assisted by a pump and these were extensive in Victorian cities in the United Kingdom. A hydraulic power network was developed in Geneva, Switzerland. The world-famous Jet dEau was originally designed as the relief valve for the network
Hydropower
–
The
Three Gorges Dam in China; the hydroelectric dam is the world's largest power station by
installed capacity.
Hydropower
–
Saint Anthony Falls,
United States; hydropower was used here to mill flour.
Hydropower
–
Kaptai Dam located in
Bangladesh
Hydropower
–
Directly water-powered ore mill, late 19th century
17.
Environmental impact of aviation
–
The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat, noise, particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming. From 1992 to 2005, passenger kilometers increased 5. 2% per year, and in the European Union, greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87% between 1990 and 2006. These concerns are highlighted by the present volume of commercial aviation, globally, about 8.3 million people fly daily, twice the total in 1999. U. S. airlines alone burned about 16.2 billion gallons of fuel during the months between October 2013 and September 2014. Emissions weighting factor i. e. the factor by which aviation CO2 emissions should be multiplied to get the CO2-equivalent emissions for annual fleet average conditions is in the range 1. 3–2.9. In 1999 the contribution of civil aircraft-in-flight to global CO2 emissions was estimated to be around 2%, a 2007 report from Environmental Change Institute / Oxford University posits a range closer to 4 percent cumulative effect. The level and effects of CO2 emissions are currently believed to be broadly the same regardless of altitude, at the high altitudes flown by large jet airliners around the tropopause, emissions of NOx are particularly effective in forming ozone in the upper troposphere. High altitude NOx emissions result in greater concentrations of O3 than surface NOx emissions, the effect of O3 concentrations are regional and local. NOx emissions also reduce ambient levels of methane, another greenhouse gas, but this effect does not offset the O3 forming effect of NOx emissions. It is now believed that aircraft sulfur and water emissions in the stratosphere tend to deplete O3 and these effects have not been quantified. This problem does not apply to aircraft that fly lower in the troposphere, one of the products of burning hydrocarbons in oxygen is water vapour, a greenhouse gas. Water vapour produced by aircraft engines at high altitude, under certain conditions, condenses into droplets to form Condensation trails. Contrails are visible line clouds that form in cold, humid atmospheres and are thought to have a warming effect. Contrails are extremely rare from lower-altitude aircraft, or from aircraft or rotorcraft. Cirrus clouds have been observed to develop after the persistent formation of contrails and have found to have a global warming effect over-and-above that of contrail formation alone. However, a 2015 study found that artificial cloudiness caused by contrail outbreaks reduce the difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures, the former are decreased and the latter are increased, in comparison to temperatures the day before and the day after such outbreaks. On days with outbreaks the day/night temperature difference was diminished by about 6F° in the U. S, south and 5F° in the Midwest. Least significant is the release of soot and sulfate particles, soot absorbs heat and has a warming effect, sulfate particles reflect radiation and have a small cooling effect
Environmental impact of aviation
–
Contrails
Environmental impact of aviation
–
A
C-141 Starlifter leaves
contrails over
Antarctica.
Environmental impact of aviation
–
Cirrus cloud formation
18.
NEDC test cycle
–
The New European Driving Cycle is a driving cycle, last updated in 1997, designed to assess the emission levels of car engines and fuel economy in passenger cars. It is also referred to as MVEG cycle, the NEDC, which is supposed to represent the typical usage of a car in Europe, is repeatedly criticised for delivering economy-figures which are unachievable in reality. It consists of four repeated ECE-15 urban driving cycles and one Extra-Urban driving cycle and it is maintained by the UNECE World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, which also works on its successor, the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedures. Several measurements are performed along the cycle. The cycle must be performed on a vehicle at 20–30 °C. The cycles may be performed on a road, in the absence of wind. However, to improve repeatability, they are performed on a roller test bench. This type of bench is equipped with a machine to emulate resistance due to aerodynamic drag. For each vehicle configuration, a table is applied, each speed corresponds to a certain value of resistance. This arrangement enables the use of a single vehicle to test all vehicle body styles by simply changing the look-up table. A fan is coupled to the bench to provide the vehicle air intakes with an airflow matching the current speed. Many more tests can be performed during vehicle development with this arrangement than with road tests. The cycle has been designed to represent typical driving conditions of busy European cities, and is characterized by low engine load, low exhaust gas temperature, and a maximum speed of 50 km/h. At 49 s, the car accelerates to 32 km/h in 12 s, cruises for 24 s, slowly brakes to a full stop in 11 s. The cycle ends on 195 s after a distance of 994.03 meters. Total duration is 780 s over a distance of 3976.1 meters. The Extra-Urban Driving Cycle EUDC, introduced by ECE R101 in 1990, has designed to represent more aggressive. The maximum speed of the EUDC cycle is 120 km/h, low-powered vehicles are limited to 90 km/h, at 201 s, the car cruises at 70 km/h for 50 s, then slowly accelerates to 100 km/h in 35 s and cruises for 30 s
NEDC test cycle
–
The NEDC is composed of two parts: ECE-15 (Urban Driving Cycle), repeated 4 times, is plotted from 0 s to 780 s; EUDC cycle is plotted from 780 s to 1180 s
19.
Car
–
A car is a wheeled, self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation and a product of the automotive industry. The year 1886 is regarded as the year of the modern car. In that year, German inventor Karl Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, cars did not become widely available until the early 20th century. One of the first cars that was accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the United States of America, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, cars are equipped with controls used for driving, parking, passenger comfort and safety, and controlling a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, examples include rear reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in car entertainment. Most cars in use in the 2010s are propelled by a combustion engine. Both fuels cause air pollution and are blamed for contributing to climate change. Vehicles using alternative fuels such as ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles and natural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some countries, electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, began to become commercially available in 2008. There are costs and benefits to car use, the costs of car usage include the cost of, acquiring the vehicle, interest payments, repairs and auto maintenance, fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance. The costs to society of car use include, maintaining roads, land use, road congestion, air pollution, public health, health care, road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide. The benefits may include transportation, mobility, independence. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies and it was estimated in 2010 that the number of cars had risen to over 1 billion vehicles, up from the 500 million of 1986. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China, India, the word car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum, or the Middle English word carre. In turn, these originated from the Gaulish word karros, the Gaulish language was a branch of the Brythoic language which also used the word Karr, the Brythonig language evolved into Welsh where Car llusg and car rhyfel still survive. It originally referred to any wheeled vehicle, such as a cart, carriage. Motor car is attested from 1895, and is the formal name for cars in British English. Autocar is a variant that is attested from 1895
Car
–
Benz "Velo" model (1894) by German inventor
Carl Benz – entered into an
early automobile race as a
motocycle
Car
–
A modern car,
BMW E90
Car
–
Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the
Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris
Car
–
Karl Benz, the inventor of the modern car
20.
Hybrid-electric vehicles
–
A hybrid electric vehicle is a type of hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle that combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. The presence of the powertrain is intended to achieve either better fuel economy than a conventional vehicle or better performance. There are a variety of HEV types, and the degree to which functions as an electric vehicle varies as well. The most common form of HEV is the electric car, although hybrid electric trucks. Many HEVs reduce idle emissions by shutting down the ICE at idle and restarting it when needed, as of January 2017, over 12 million hybrid electric vehicles have been sold worldwide since their inception in 1997.5 million hybrids delivered since 2000. Japan also has the worlds highest hybrid market penetration, in 2016 the hybrid market share accounted for 38% of new standard passenger car sales, and 25. 7% of new passenger vehicle sales including kei cars. Norway ranks second with a market share of 6. 9% of new car sales in 2014, followed by the Netherlands with 3. 7%, France and Sweden. As of January 2017, worldwide sales are led by the Toyota Prius liftback. The Prius nameplate had sold more than 6 million hybrids up to January 2017, global Lexus hybrid sales achieved the 1 million unit milestone in March 2016. As of January 2017, the conventional Prius is the all-time bst-selling hybrid car in both Japan and the U. S. with sales of over 1.8 million in Japan and 1.75 million in the United States. The internal combustion engine of many parallel hybrids can also act as a generator for supplemental recharging, in series hybrids, only the electric motor drives the drivetrain, and a smaller ICE works as a generator to power the electric motor or to recharge the batteries. They also usually have a battery pack than parallel hybrids. Once the batteries are low, the combustion engine can generate power at its optimum settings at all times. Power-split hybrids have the benefits of a combination of series and parallel characteristics, examples of power-split hybrid powertrains include current models of Ford, General Motors, Lexus, Nissan, and Toyota. In each of the hybrids above it is common to use regenerative braking to recharge the batteries, full hybrid, sometimes also called a strong hybrid, is a vehicle that can run on just the engine, just the batteries, or a combination of both. Fords hybrid system, Toyotas Hybrid Synergy Drive and General Motors/Chryslers Two-Mode Hybrid technologies are full hybrid systems, the Toyota Prius, Ford Escape Hybrid, and Ford Fusion Hybrid are examples of full hybrids, as these cars can be moved forward on battery power alone. A large, high-capacity battery pack is needed for battery-only operation and these vehicles have a split power path allowing greater flexibility in the drivetrain by interconverting mechanical and electrical power, at some cost in complexity. Mild hybrid, is a vehicle that cannot be solely on its electric motor
Hybrid-electric vehicles
–
The
Toyota Prius is the world's best selling hybrid car, with cumulative global sales of over 3 million units through June 2013.
Hybrid-electric vehicles
–
The
Toyota Highlander Hybrid has a
series-parallel drivetrain.
Hybrid-electric vehicles
–
The
Saturn Vue Green Line is a
mild hybrid.
Hybrid-electric vehicles
–
The 2005-06
Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid is a
mild hybrid using the electric motor mainly to power the accessories.
21.
Light commercial vehicles
–
Qualifying light commercial vehicles include pickup trucks, vans and three-wheelers all commercially based goods or passenger carrier. All of the light commercial vehicles are sold through dealer networks. Usually a car dealer will have a franchise for the sale of a manufacturers cars, isuzu Truck market commercial vehicles up to 18 tonnes GVW and Iveco market their heavy truck range with their Daily van to complement this. Many franchised dealers also retail used LCVs, with the poorer quality examples sent to specialist auctions for sale, there is a large network of independent used commercial vehicle retailers who retail thousands of used commercial vehicles every month. LCV dealers are using the Internet to help sell their vehicles in addition to the traditional print media. Enhanced environmentally friendly vehicle Light Haulage
Light commercial vehicles
–
2006
Renault Trafic, also rebadged as Opel/Vauxhall
Light commercial vehicles
–
2007 Ford Transit
22.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
23.
US Environmental Protection Agency
–
The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2,1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House, the agency is led by its Administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by Congress. The current administrator is Scott Pruitt, the EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given cabinet rank. The EPA has its headquarters in Washington, D. C. regional offices for each of the ten regions. The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education and it has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. It delegates some permitting, monitoring, and enforcement responsibility to U. S. states, EPA enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures. The agency also works with industries and all levels of government in a variety of voluntary pollution prevention programs. In 2016, the agency had 15,376 full-time employees, more than half of EPAs employees are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists, other employees include legal, public affairs, financial, and information technologists. Beginning in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, Congress reacted to increasing concern about the impact that human activity could have on the environment. Senator James E. Murray introduced a bill, the Resources and Conservation Act of 1959, the 1962 publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson alerted the public about the detrimental effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. In the years following, similar bills were introduced and hearings were held to discuss the state of the environment, in the colloquium, some members of Congress expressed a continuing concern over federal agency actions affecting the environment. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 was modeled on RCA, President Nixon signed NEPA into law on January 1,1970. The law created the Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President, NEPA required that a detailed statement of environmental impacts be prepared for all major federal actions significantly affecting the environment. The detailed statement would ultimately be referred to as an impact statement. On July 9,1970, Nixon proposed a reorganization that consolidated many environmental responsibilities of the federal government under one agency. After conducting hearings during that summer, the House and Senate approved the proposal, the agency’s first administrator, William Ruckelshaus, took the oath of office on December 4,1970. In May 2013, Congress renamed the EPA headquarters as the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, the EPA is led by an Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As of 2017 Scott Pruitt is the 14th administrator, each EPA regional office is responsible within its states for implementing the Agencys programs, except those programs that have been specifically delegated to states
US Environmental Protection Agency
–
Stacks emitting smoke from burning discarded automobile batteries, photo taken in Houston in 1972 by Marc St. Gil (cs), official photographer of recently founded EPA
US Environmental Protection Agency
–
Seal of the Environmental Protection Agency
US Environmental Protection Agency
–
Same smokestacks in 1975 after the plant was closed in a push for greater environmental protection
US Environmental Protection Agency
–
Ruckelshaus sworn in as first EPA Administrator.
24.
EPA Federal Test Procedure
–
The testing was mandated by the Energy Tax Act of 1978 in order to determine the rate of the guzzler tax that applies for the sales of new cars. The current procedure has been updated in 2008 and includes four tests, city driving, highway driving, aggressive driving, the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule is a mandated dynamometer test on tailpipe emissions of a car that represents city driving conditions. It is defined in 40 C. F. R and it is also known as FTP-72 or LA-4, and it is also used in Sweden as the A10 or CVS cycle and in Australia as the ADR27 cycle. The cycle simulates an urban route of 12.07 km with frequent stops, the maximum speed is 91.2 km/h and the average speed is 31.5 km/h. The cycle has two phases, a cold phase of 505 seconds over a projected distance of 5.78 km at 41.2 km/h average speed. The city driving program of the EPA Federal Test Procedure is identical to the UDDS plus the first 505 seconds of an additional UDDS cycle, the average speed is thus different but the maximum speed remains the same as in the UDDS. The weighting factors are 0.43 for the cold start, the highway program or Highway Fuel Economy Driving Schedule is defined in 40 C. F. R. It uses an engine and makes no stops, averaging 48 mph with a top speed of 60 mph over a 10-mile distance. In 2007, the EPA added three new Supplemental Federal Test Procedure tests that combine the current city and highway cycles to reflect real world economy more accurately. Estimates are available for back to the 1985 model year. SFTP US06 is a high speed/quick acceleration loop that lasts 10 minutes, covers 8 miles, averages 48 mph, four stops are included, and brisk acceleration maximizes at a rate of 8.46 mph per second. The engine begins warm and air conditioning is not used, ambient temperature varies between 68 °F to 86 °F. The cycle represents an 8.01 mile route with an speed of 48.4 miles/h, maximum speed 80.3 miles/h. SFTO SC03 is the air conditioning test, which raises ambient temperatures to 95 °F, lasting 9.9 minutes, the 3. 6-mile loop averages 22 mph and maximizes at a rate of 54.8 mph. Five stops are included, idling occurs 19 percent of the time, the cycle represents a 3.6 mile route with an average speed of 21.6 miles/h, maximum speed 54.8 miles/h, and a duration of 596 seconds. A200 W electrical load can produce a 0.4 km/L reduction in efficiency on the FTP75 cycle test
EPA Federal Test Procedure
–
2008
Monroney sticker highlights fuel economy.
EPA Federal Test Procedure
–
EPA FTP-75 driving cycle
25.
Trucks
–
A truck is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, smaller varieties may be similar to some automobiles. Commercial trucks can be large and powerful, and may be configured to mount specialized equipment, such as in the case of fire trucks and concrete mixers. Modern trucks are powered by diesel engines, although small to medium size trucks with gasoline engines exist in the US. In the European Union, vehicles with a gross mass of up to 3.5 t are known as light commercial vehicles. Trucks and cars have an ancestor, the steam-powered fardier Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built in 1769. However, steam wagons were not common until the mid-1800s, the roads of the time, built for horse and carriages, limited these vehicles to very short hauls, usually from a factory to the nearest railway station. The first semi-trailer appeared in 1881, towed by a tractor manufactured by De Dion-Bouton. In 1895 Karl Benz designed and built the first truck in history using the internal combustion engine, later that year some of Benzs trucks were modified to become the first bus by the Netphener, the first motorbus company in history. A year later, in 1896, another internal combustion engine truck was built by Gottlieb Daimler, other companies, such as Peugeot, Renault and Büssing, also built their own versions. The first truck in the United States was built by Autocar in 1899 and was available with optional 5 or 8 horsepower motors, trucks of the era mostly used two-cylinder engines and had a carrying capacity of 3,300 to 4,400 lb. In 1904,700 heavy trucks were built in the United States,1000 in 1907,6000 in 1910, after World War I, several advances were made, pneumatic tires replaced the previously common full rubber versions. Electric starters, power brakes,4,6, and 8 cylinder engines, closed cabs, the first modern semi-trailer trucks also appeared. Touring car builders such as Ford and Renault entered the heavy truck market, although it had been invented in 1890, the diesel engine was not common in trucks in Europe until the 1930s. In the United States, it took longer for diesel engines to be accepted. The word truck might come from a back-formation of truckle, meaning small wheel or pulley, from Middle English trokell, another possible source is the Latin trochus, meaning iron hoop. In turn, both sources emanate from the Greek trokhos, meaning wheel, from trekhein, the first known usage of truck was in 1611, when it referred to the small strong wheels on ships cannon carriages. In its extended usage it came to refer to carts for carrying heavy loads and its expanded application to motor-powered load carrier has been in usage since 1930, shortened from motor truck, which dates back to 1901
Trucks
–
1898 "
NW First Truck "
Trucks
–
Truck carrying a large load in India
Trucks
–
Jingle trucks on
Karakoram Highway in Pakistan
Trucks
–
A truck on
Grand Trunk Road, Gakkhar, Pakistan
26.
Knot (unit)
–
The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. The ISO Standard symbol for the knot is kn, the same symbol is preferred by the IEEE, kt is also common. The knot is a unit that is accepted for use with the SI. Etymologically, the term derives from counting the number of knots in the line that unspooled from the reel of a log in a specific time. 1 international knot =1 nautical mile per hour,1.852 kilometres per hour,0.514 metres per second,1.151 miles per hour,20.254 inches per second,1852 m is the length of the internationally agreed nautical mile. The US adopted the definition in 1954, having previously used the US nautical mile. The UK adopted the international nautical mile definition in 1970, having used the UK Admiralty nautical mile. The speeds of vessels relative to the fluids in which they travel are measured in knots, for consistency, the speeds of navigational fluids are also measured in knots. Thus, speed over the ground and rate of progress towards a distant point are given in knots. Until the mid-19th century, vessel speed at sea was measured using a chip log, the chip log was cast over the stern of the moving vessel and the line allowed to pay out. Knots placed at a distance of 8 fathoms -47 feet 3 inches from each other, passed through a sailors fingers, the knot count would be reported and used in the sailing masters dead reckoning and navigation. This method gives a value for the knot of 20.25 in/s, the difference from the modern definition is less than 0. 02%. On a chart of the North Atlantic, the scale varies by a factor of two from Florida to Greenland, a single graphic scale, of the sort on many maps, would therefore be useless on such a chart. Recent British Admiralty charts have a latitude scale down the middle to make this even easier, speed is sometimes incorrectly expressed as knots per hour, which is in fact a measure of acceleration. Prior to 1969, airworthiness standards for aircraft in the United States Federal Aviation Regulations specified that distances were to be in statute miles. In 1969, these standards were amended to specify that distances were to be in nautical miles. At 11000 m, an airspeed of 300 kn may correspond to a true airspeed of 500 kn in standard conditions. Beaufort scale Hull speed, which deals with theoretical estimates of maximum speed of displacement hulls Knot count Knotted cord Metre per second Orders of magnitude Rope Kemp
Knot (unit)
–
Graphic scale from a Mercator projection world map, showing the change with latitude
27.
Publicly Available Specification
–
A Publicly Available Specification or PAS is a standardization document that closely resembles a formal standard in structure and format but which has a different development model. The objective of a Publicly Available Specification is to speed up standardization, pASs are often produced in response to an urgent market need. BSI Group pioneered the PAS format, the timescale for the development of a PAS can be shorter, typically around 8 months, and is why it is sometimes referred to as a fast-track standard. The development of a PAS cannot conflict with, or contradict, existing or draft work within the formal standards arena and must complement, not conflict with, any legislation in the subject area. It is also written in accordance with BS drafting rules, which means that the content must be technically robust and it is written unambiguously and with objectively verifiable requirements or recommendations. According to a BSI document Principles of PAS standardization The term PAS was originally an acronym derived from “publicly available specification”, however, not all PAS documents are structured as specifications and the term is now sufficiently well established not to require any further amplification. However, early examples of PAS were actually titled Product Approval Specification as illustrated in the photograph showing part of PAS003
Publicly Available Specification
–
Contents
28.
Cement
–
A cement is a binder, a substance used in construction that sets, hardens and adheres to other materials, binding them together. Cement is seldom used solely, but is used to bind sand, Cement is used with fine aggregate to produce mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel aggregates to produce concrete. Non-hydraulic cement will not set in wet conditions or underwater, rather, it sets as it dries and it is resistant to attack by chemicals after setting. Hydraulic cements set and become adhesive due to a reaction between the dry ingredients and water. The chemical reaction results in mineral hydrates that are not very water-soluble and so are quite durable in water and this allows setting in wet condition or underwater and further protects the hardened material from chemical attack. The chemical process for hydraulic cement found by ancient Romans used volcanic ash with added lime, the word cement can be traced back to the Roman term opus caementicium, used to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed rock with burnt lime as binder. The volcanic ash and pulverized brick supplements that were added to the burnt lime, to obtain a hydraulic binder, were referred to as cementum, cimentum, cäment. In modern times, organic polymers are used as cements in concrete. Non-hydraulic cement, such as slaked lime, hardens by carbonation in the presence of carbon dioxide which is present in the air. The carbonation reaction requires the dry cement to be exposed to air and this whole process is called the lime cycle. Conversely, hydraulic cement hardens by hydration when water is added, Hydraulic cements are made of a mixture of silicates and oxides, the four main components being, Belite, Alite, Tricalcium aluminate, Brownmillerite. The chemistry of the above listed reactions is not completely clear and is still the object of research, Cement, chemically speaking, is a product that includes lime as the primary curing ingredient, but is far from the first material used for cementation. The Babylonians and Assyrians used bitumen to bind together burnt brick or alabaster slabs, in Egypt stone blocks were cemented together with a mortar made of sand and roughly burnt gypsum, which often contained calcium carbonate. Lime was used on Crete and by the ancient Greeks, there is evidence that the Minoans of Crete used crushed potshards as an artificial pozzolan for hydraulic cement. A kind of powder which from natural causes produces astonishing results and it is found in the neighborhood of Baiae and in the country belonging to the towns round about Mt. Vesuvius. This substance when mixed with lime and rubble not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, the Greeks used volcanic tuff from the island of Thera as their pozzolan and the Romans used crushed volcanic ash with lime. This mixture was able to set under water increasing its resistance, the material was called pozzolana from the town of Pozzuoli, west of Naples where volcanic ash was extracted. In the absence of ash, the Romans used powdered brick or pottery as a substitute
Cement
–
Cement is usually a grey powder before being mixed with other materials and water. Typically, cement powder causes allergic reactions at skin contact and is irritating to skin, eyes, and lungs, so handlers should wear a
dust mask,
goggles, and protective
gloves
Cement
–
The National Cement Share Company of
Ethiopia 's new plant in
Dire Dawa.
29.
Carbon offset
–
A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere. One carbon offset represents the reduction of one ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases. There are two markets for carbon offsets, in the larger, compliance market, companies, governments, or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit. This market exists in order to achieve compliance with obligations of Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol, in 2006, about $5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market, representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions. For example, an individual might purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the gas emissions caused by personal air travel. Many companies offer carbon offsets as an up-sell during the process so that customers can mitigate the emissions related with their product or service purchase. In 2008, about $705 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market, some fuel suppliers in the UK offer fuel which has been carbon offset such as Fuel dyes. Offsets are typically achieved through financial support of projects that reduce the emission of gases in the short- or long-term. The most common type is renewable energy, such as wind farms, biomass energy. Others include energy efficiency projects, the destruction of pollutants or agricultural byproducts, destruction of landfill methane. Some of the most popular carbon offset projects from a corporate perspective are energy efficiency, the Kyoto Protocol has sanctioned offsets as a way for governments and private companies to earn carbon credits that can be traded on a marketplace. Organizations that are unable to meet their emissions quota can offset their emissions by buying CDM-approved Certified Emissions Reductions, Emissions from burning fuel, such as red diesel, has pushed one UK fuel supplier to create a carbon offset fuel named Carbon Offset Red Diesel. Offsets may be cheaper or more convenient alternatives to reducing ones own fossil-fuel consumption, however, some critics object to carbon offsets, and question the benefits of certain types of offsets. Offsets are viewed as an important policy tool to maintain stable economies, Carbon offsets have several common features, Vintage. The vintage is the year in which the carbon takes place. The source refers to the project or technology used in offsetting the carbon emissions, projects can include land-use, methane, biomass, renewable energy and industrial energy efficiency. Projects may also have secondary benefits, for example, projects that reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions may improve water quality by reducing fertilizer usage. The certification regime describes the systems and procedures that are used to certify, different methodologies are used for measuring and verifying emissions reductions, depending on project type, size and location
Carbon offset
–
Wind turbines near
Aalborg,
Denmark.
Renewable energy projects are the most common source of carbon offsets.
Carbon offset
–
Chicago Climate Justice activists protesting cap and trade legislation in front of
Chicago Climate Exchange building in Chicago Loop
30.
Kyoto Protocol
–
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. There are currently 192 parties to the Protocol, the Protocols first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into force the Amendment with second round targets. Japan, New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyotos first-round but have not taken on new targets in the commitment period. Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada and the United States, as of July 2016,66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment, while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states. Of the 37 countries with binding commitments,7 have ratified, negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020. This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement, which is an instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol. The view that human activities are responsible for most of the observed increase in global mean temperature since the mid-20th century is an accurate reflection of current scientific thinking. Human-induced warming of the climate is expected to continue throughout the 21st century, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have produced a range of projections of what the future increase in global mean temperature might be. The IPCCs projections are baseline projections, meaning that they assume no future efforts are made to reduce gas emissions. The IPCC projections cover the period from the beginning of the 21st century to the end of the 21st century. The likely range is a increase in global mean temperature over the 21st century of between 1.1 and 6.4 °C. The range in temperature projections partly reflects different projections of greenhouse gas emissions. Different projections contain different assumptions of social and economic development. The range also reflects uncertainty in the response of the system to past. 1992 The UN Conference on the Environment and Development is held in Rio de Janeiro and it results in the Framework Convention on Climate Change among other agreements. 1995 Parties to the UNFCCC meet in Berlin to outline specific targets on emissions,1997 In December the parties conclude the Kyoto Protocol in Kyoto, Japan, in which they agree to the broad outlines of emissions targets. 2002 Russia and Canada ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC bringing the treaty into effect on 16 February 2005,2011 Canada became the first signatory to announce its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
–
China (party, no binding targets)
Kyoto Protocol
–
Annex B parties with binding targets in the second period
31.
Certified Emission Reduction
–
CERs can be held by governmental and private entities on electronic accounts with the UN. CERs can be purchased from the market or secondary market. At present, most of the approved CERs are recorded in CDM Registry accounts only and it is only when the CER is actually sitting in an operators trading account that its value can be monetized through being traded. Temporary CERs and Long CERs are special types of CERs issued for forestry projects and they are two ways of accounting for non-permanence in forestry CDM project activities. Long-term CER or lCER is a CER issued for an afforestation or reforestation project activity which expires at the end of its crediting period, in August 2008 prices for CERS were $20 a tonne. By September 2012, prices for CERS had collapsed to below $5 and this was in response to the Eurozone debt crisis reducing industrial activity and the over-allocation of emission allowances under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. The Economist described the Clean Development Mechanism as a disaster in the making. The Guardian also reported the prolonged downward trend in the price of CERs, in October 2012, CER prices fell to a new low of 1.36 euros a tonne on the London ICE Futures Europe exchange. Point Carbon predicted that CER prices would to drop from €2 to 50 cents, on 12 December 2012 CER prices reached another record low of 31 cents. Clean Development Mechanism Carbon Emission Reduction Target Emission Reduction Unit Assigned Amount Units CDM Gold Standard Voluntary Emissions Reduction
Certified Emission Reduction
–
Certified emission reduction units (CERs) by country of origin October 2012
32.
Clean Development Mechanism
–
Annex I parties are the countries listed in Annex I of the treaty, the industrialized countries. Non-Annex I parties are developing countries, both the projects and the issue of CERs units are subject to approval to ensure that these emission reductions are real and additional. The CDM is supervised by the CDM Executive Board under the guidance of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the CDM allows industrialized countries to buy CERs and to invest in emission reductions where it is cheapest globally. Between 2001, which was the first year CDM projects could be registered and 7 September 2012, as of 1 June 2013, 57% of all CERs had been issued for projects based on destroying either HFC-23 or N2O. Carbon capture and storage was included in the CDM carbon offsetting scheme in December 2011, however, a number of weaknesses of the CDM have been identified. Several of these issues were addressed by the new Program of Activities, in 2012, the report Climate Change, Carbon Markets and the CDM, A Call to Action said governments urgently needed to address the future of the CDM. It suggested the CDM was in danger of collapse because of the low price of carbon, therefore we must do everything in our hands to keep it working, she said. The clean development mechanism is one of the flexibility mechanisms defined in the Kyoto Protocol, the flexibility mechanisms were designed to allow Annex B countries to meet their emission reduction commitments with reduced impact on their economies. The flexibility mechanisms were introduced into the Kyoto Protocol by the US government, developing countries were highly skeptical and fiercely opposed to the flexibility mechanisms. However, the negotiations over the follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol agreed that the mechanisms will continue. The purpose of the CDM is to promote development in developing countries. The CDM is one of the Protocols project-based mechanisms, in that the CDM is designed to promote projects that reduce emissions, the CDM is based on the idea of emission reduction production. These reductions are produced and then subtracted against a baseline of emissions. The baseline emissions are the emissions that are predicted to occur in the absence of a particular CDM project, CDM projects are credited against this baseline, in the sense that developing countries gain credit for producing these emission cuts. The economic basis for including developing countries in efforts to reduce emissions is that emission cuts are thought to be expensive in developing countries than developed countries. For example, in developing countries, environmental regulation is generally weaker than it is in developed countries, thus, it is widely thought that there is greater potential for developing countries to reduce their emissions than developed countries. Emissions from developing countries are projected to increase substantially over this century, infrastructure decisions made in developing countries could therefore have a very large influence on future efforts to limit total global emissions. The CDM is designed to start developing countries off on a path towards less pollution, there were two main concerns about the CDM
Clean Development Mechanism
–
Certified emission reduction units (CERs) monthly spot prices 2012
33.
Emissions trading
–
Emissions trading or cap and trade is a government-mandated, market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. Various countries, states and groups of companies have adopted such trading systems, a central authority allocates or sells a limited number of permits to discharge specific quantities of a specific pollutant per time period. Polluters are required to hold permits in amount equal to their emissions, polluters that want to increase their emissions must buy permits from others willing to sell them. Financial derivatives of permits can also be traded on secondary markets, in theory, polluters who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the emission reduction at the lowest cost to society. Cap and trade is meant to provide the private sector with the flexibility required to reduce emissions while stimulating technological innovation, there are active trading programs in several air pollutants. For greenhouse gases, which climate change, permit units are often called carbon credits. The United States has a market to reduce acid rain. Pollution is the example of a market externality. An externality is an effect of some activity on an entity that is not party to a market related to that activity. Emissions trading is an approach, among others, to address pollution. The overall goal of an emissions trading plan is to minimize the cost of meeting a set emissions target. In an emissions trading system, the government sets a limit on emissions. The government may sell the permits, but in many existing schemes, the baseline is determined by reference to the participants historical emissions. To demonstrate compliance, a participant must hold permits at least equal to the quantity of pollution it actually emitted during the time period, if every participant complies, the total pollution emitted will be at most equal to the sum of individual limits. In effect, the buyer pays a charge for polluting, while the seller gains a reward for having reduced emissions, in many schemes, organizations which do not pollute may also trade permits and financial derivatives of permits. In some schemes, participants can bank allowances to use in future periods, in some schemes, a proportion of all traded permits must be retired periodically, causing a net reduction in emissions over time. Thus, environmental groups may buy and retire permits, driving up the price of the remaining permits according to the law of demand, in most schemes, permit owners can donate permits to a nonprofit entity and receive a tax deduction. Usually, the government lowers the overall limit over time, with an aim towards an emissions reduction target
Emissions trading
Emissions trading
–
A coal power plant in Germany. Due to emissions trading,
coal may become a less competitive fuel than other options.
Emissions trading
–
Example MACs for two different countries
Emissions trading
–
Chicago Climate Justice activists protesting cap and trade legislation in front of
Chicago Climate Exchange building in Chicago Loop
34.
Emissions Trading
–
Emissions trading or cap and trade is a government-mandated, market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. Various countries, states and groups of companies have adopted such trading systems, a central authority allocates or sells a limited number of permits to discharge specific quantities of a specific pollutant per time period. Polluters are required to hold permits in amount equal to their emissions, polluters that want to increase their emissions must buy permits from others willing to sell them. Financial derivatives of permits can also be traded on secondary markets, in theory, polluters who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the emission reduction at the lowest cost to society. Cap and trade is meant to provide the private sector with the flexibility required to reduce emissions while stimulating technological innovation, there are active trading programs in several air pollutants. For greenhouse gases, which climate change, permit units are often called carbon credits. The United States has a market to reduce acid rain. Pollution is the example of a market externality. An externality is an effect of some activity on an entity that is not party to a market related to that activity. Emissions trading is an approach, among others, to address pollution. The overall goal of an emissions trading plan is to minimize the cost of meeting a set emissions target. In an emissions trading system, the government sets a limit on emissions. The government may sell the permits, but in many existing schemes, the baseline is determined by reference to the participants historical emissions. To demonstrate compliance, a participant must hold permits at least equal to the quantity of pollution it actually emitted during the time period, if every participant complies, the total pollution emitted will be at most equal to the sum of individual limits. In effect, the buyer pays a charge for polluting, while the seller gains a reward for having reduced emissions, in many schemes, organizations which do not pollute may also trade permits and financial derivatives of permits. In some schemes, participants can bank allowances to use in future periods, in some schemes, a proportion of all traded permits must be retired periodically, causing a net reduction in emissions over time. Thus, environmental groups may buy and retire permits, driving up the price of the remaining permits according to the law of demand, in most schemes, permit owners can donate permits to a nonprofit entity and receive a tax deduction. Usually, the government lowers the overall limit over time, with an aim towards an emissions reduction target
Emissions Trading
Emissions Trading
–
A coal power plant in Germany. Due to emissions trading,
coal may become a less competitive fuel than other options.
Emissions Trading
–
Example MACs for two different countries
Emissions Trading
–
Chicago Climate Justice activists protesting cap and trade legislation in front of
Chicago Climate Exchange building in Chicago Loop
35.
Certified Emissions Reduction
–
CERs can be held by governmental and private entities on electronic accounts with the UN. CERs can be purchased from the market or secondary market. At present, most of the approved CERs are recorded in CDM Registry accounts only and it is only when the CER is actually sitting in an operators trading account that its value can be monetized through being traded. Temporary CERs and Long CERs are special types of CERs issued for forestry projects and they are two ways of accounting for non-permanence in forestry CDM project activities. Long-term CER or lCER is a CER issued for an afforestation or reforestation project activity which expires at the end of its crediting period, in August 2008 prices for CERS were $20 a tonne. By September 2012, prices for CERS had collapsed to below $5 and this was in response to the Eurozone debt crisis reducing industrial activity and the over-allocation of emission allowances under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. The Economist described the Clean Development Mechanism as a disaster in the making. The Guardian also reported the prolonged downward trend in the price of CERs, in October 2012, CER prices fell to a new low of 1.36 euros a tonne on the London ICE Futures Europe exchange. Point Carbon predicted that CER prices would to drop from €2 to 50 cents, on 12 December 2012 CER prices reached another record low of 31 cents. Clean Development Mechanism Carbon Emission Reduction Target Emission Reduction Unit Assigned Amount Units CDM Gold Standard Voluntary Emissions Reduction
Certified Emissions Reduction
–
Certified emission reduction units (CERs) by country of origin October 2012
36.
Chicago Climate Exchange
–
The Chicago Climate Exchange was North America’s only voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil. CCX employed independent verification, included six greenhouse gases, and traded greenhouse gas emission allowances from 2003 to 2010, the companies joining the exchange committed to reducing their aggregate emissions by 6% by 2010. CCX had an aggregate baseline of 680 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, CCX ceased trading carbon credits at the end of 2010 due to inactivity in the U. S. carbon markets, although carbon exchanges were intended to still be facilitated. Until July 2010, CCX was operated by the public company Climate Exchange PLC, richard Sandor, creator of the Sustainable Performance Group, founded the exchange and has been a spokesman for it. The exchange traded in emissions of six gases, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, perfluorocarbons, CCX started trading in October 2003, prior to the commencement of trading in the European Union through the ETS system. That acquisition was completed in July 2010 and was followed by an announcement that half of the companys Chicago-based workforce would be laid off due to inactivity in the U. S. carbon markets. In November 2010, the Climate Exchange stated that it would cease trading carbon credits at the end of 2010, Trading reached zero monthly volume in February 2010 and remained at zero for the next 9 months when the decision to close the exchange was announced. The Carbon Sequestration Atlas of the United States and Canada detailed some of CCXs activity in regions of North America. The Trading System had the three parts. The Trading Platform was a marketplace for executing trades among Registry Account Holders, farmers Union had earned approval from the Chicago Climate Exchange to aggregate carbon credits. Farmers Union was enrolling producer areas of carbon into blocks of credits that were traded on the Exchange, the Clearing and Settlement Platform processed all transaction information. The Registry was the database for Carbon Financial Instruments owned by Registry Account Holders. European Climate Exchange International Petroleum Exchange List of futures exchanges The Climate Registry Dow Jones Indexes Official website Related article in Dow Jones Insights magazine
Chicago Climate Exchange
–
Historic price fluctuations in 2004 vintage carbon credits on CCX
37.
Forestry
–
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, using, conserving, and repairing forests and associated resources to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human and environment benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands, the science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester, other terms are used a verderer and a silviculturalist being common ones. Silviculture is narrower than forestry, being concerned only with forest plants, Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the biosphere, and forestry has emerged as a vital applied science, craft, and technology. Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries, the preindustrial age has been dubbed by Werner Sombart and others as the wooden age, as timber and firewood were the basic resources for energy, construction and housing. The development of forestry is closely connected with the rise of capitalism, economy as a science and varying notions of land use. Roman Latifundiae, large estates, were quite successful in maintaining the large supply of wood that was necessary for the Roman Empire. Large deforestations came with respectively after the decline of the Romans, however already in the 5th century, monks in the then Byzantine Romagna on the Adriatic coast, were able to establish stone pine plantations to provide fuelwood and food. This was the beginning of the massive forest mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his 1308 poem Divine Comedy, the use and management of many forest resources has a long history in China as well, dating back to the Han Dynasty and taking place under the landowning gentry. A similar approach was used in Japan and it was also later written about by the Ming Dynasty Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi. In Europe, land rights in medieval and early modern times allowed different users to access forests. The notion of commons refers to the traditional legal term of common land. The idea of enclosed private property came about during modern times, however, most hunting rights were retained by members of the nobility which preserved the right of the nobility to access and use common land for recreation, like fox hunting. Systematic management of forests for a yield of timber is said to have begun in the German states in the 14th century, e. g. in Nuremberg. Typically, a forest was divided into sections and mapped. Large firs in the black forest were called „Holländer“, as they were traded to the Dutch ship yards, large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m in width and consisted of several thousand logs. The crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries, ovens, timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe and is still of importance in Finland. The notion of Nachhaltigkeit, sustainability in forestry, is connected to the work of Hans Carl von Carlowitz
Forestry
–
Forestry work in
Austria
Forestry
–
A deciduous
beech forest in
Slovenia
Forestry
–
Timber harvesting is a common component of forestry
Forestry
–
Hans Carl von Carlowitz
38.
Deforestation
–
Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. Examples of deforestationinclude conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use, the most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. About 30% of Earths land surface is covered by forests, Deforestation occurs for multiple reasons, trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and plantation. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and it has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also used in war to deprive the enemy of cover for its forces. Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, as of 2005, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland, disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation, both naturally occurring and human-induced, is an ongoing issue, Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the live in tropical forests. Between 2000 and 2012,2.3 million square kilometres of forests around the world were cut down, as a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million square kilometres of forest that formerly covered the Earth. Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation, some argue that poor people are more likely to clear forest because they have no alternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the materials and labour needed to clear forest. One study found that population increases due to fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in only 8% of cases. Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions, the distribution of wealth and power, population growth and overpopulation. Globalization is often viewed as another cause of deforestation, though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization have promoted localized forest recovery. The degradation of forest ecosystems has also traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation. Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years, Deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography. Deforestation is a contributor to global warming, and is cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect. Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change deforestation, mainly in tropical areas, could account for up to one-third of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions
Deforestation
–
Satellite photograph of deforestation in progress in the Tierras Bajas project in eastern
Bolivia.
Deforestation
–
The last batch of sawnwood from the
peat forest in Indragiri Hulu, Sumatra,
Indonesia. Deforestation for
oil palm plantation.
Deforestation
–
Illegal slash and burn practice in
Madagascar, 2010
Deforestation
–
Fires on Borneo and Sumatra, 2006. People use
slash-and-burn deforestation to clear land for agriculture.
39.
Carbon dioxide sink
–
A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period. The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration, public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset. There are also different strategies used to enhance this process, because growing vegetation takes in carbon dioxide, the Kyoto Protocol allows Annex I countries with large areas of growing forests to issue Removal Units to recognize the sequestration of carbon. The additional units make it easier for them to achieve their target emission levels and it is estimated that forests absorb between 10 and 20 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare each year, through photosynthetic conversion into starch, cellulose, lignin, and wooden biomass. While this has been documented for temperate forests and plantations. Some countries seek to trade rights in carbon emission markets. If overall limits on greenhouse gas emission are put into place, cap, there is as yet no carbon audit regime for all such markets globally, and none is specified in the Kyoto Protocol. In the Clean Development Mechanism, only afforestation and reforestation are eligible to produce certified emission reductions in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Forest conservation activities or activities avoiding deforestation, which would result in emission reduction through the conservation of existing stocks, are not eligible at this time. Also, agricultural carbon sequestration is not possible yet, soils represent a short to long-term carbon storage medium, and contains more carbon than all terrestrial vegetation and the atmosphere combined. Plant litter and other biomass including charcoal accumulates as organic matter in soils, more recalcitrant organic carbon polymers such as cellulose, hemi-cellulose, lignin, aliphatic compounds, waxes and terpenoids are collectively retained as humus. Organic matter tends to accumulate in litter and soils of colder regions such as the forests of North America. Leaf litter and humus are rapidly oxidized and poorly retained in sub-tropical and tropical climate due to high temperatures. Areas where shifting cultivation or slash and burn agriculture are practiced are generally only fertile for 2–3 years before they are abandoned. These tropical jungles are similar to coral reefs in that they are efficient at conserving and circulating necessary nutrients. Much organic carbon retained in many areas worldwide has been severely depleted due to intensive farming practices. Grasslands contribute to organic matter, stored mainly in their extensive fibrous root mats. Due in part to the conditions of these regions, these soils can accumulate significant quantities of organic matter
Carbon dioxide sink
–
Air-sea exchange of CO 2
40.
Efficient energy use
–
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve, installing fluorescent lights, LED lights or natural skylights reduces the amount of energy required to attain the same level of illumination compared with using traditional incandescent light bulbs. Improvements in energy efficiency are generally achieved by adopting an efficient technology or production process or by application of commonly accepted methods to reduce energy losses. There are many motivations to improve energy efficiency, reducing energy use reduces energy costs and may result in a financial cost saving to consumers if the energy savings offset any additional costs of implementing an energy efficient technology. Reducing energy use is seen as a solution to the problem of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are said to be the pillars of sustainable energy policy and are high priorities in the sustainable energy hierarchy. Energy efficiency has proved to be a strategy for building economies without necessarily increasing energy consumption. For example, the state of California began implementing energy-efficiency measures in the mid-1970s, including building code, during the following years, Californias energy consumption has remained approximately flat on a per capita basis while national US consumption doubled. In general, up to 75% of the electricity used in the US today could be saved with efficiency measures that cost less than the electricity itself. The same holds true for this is home and there is 78% of electricity uses D in your home-owners, in fact, researchers at the US Department of Energy and their consortium, Residential Energy Efficient Distribution Systems have found that duct efficiency may be as low as 50–70%. The US Department of Energy has stated there is potential for energy saving in the magnitude of 90 Billion kWh by increasing home energy efficiency. Other studies have emphasized this.2 percent average growth anticipated through 2020 in a business-as-usual scenario, international standards ISO17743 and ISO17742 provide a documented methodology for calculating and reporting on energy savings and energy efficiency for countries and cities. Modern appliances, such as, freezers, ovens, stoves, dishwashers, installing a clothesline will significantly reduce ones energy consumption as their dryer will be used less. Current energy efficient refrigerators, for example, use 40 percent less energy than conventional models did in 2001, in the US, the corresponding figures would be 17 billion kWh of electricity and 27,000,000,000 lb CO2. According to a 2009 study from McKinsey & Company the replacement of old appliances is one of the most efficient global measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Modern power management systems also reduce energy usage by idle appliances by turning them off or putting them into a low-energy mode after a certain time, many countries identify energy-efficient appliances using energy input labeling. The impact of energy efficiency on peak demand depends on when the appliance is used, for example, an air conditioner uses more energy during the afternoon when it is hot. Therefore, an efficient air conditioner will have a larger impact on peak demand than off-peak demand
Efficient energy use
–
A spiral-type integrated
compact fluorescent lamp, which has been in popular use among North American consumers since its introduction in the mid-1990s.
Efficient energy use
–
Receiving a Gold rating for energy and environmental design in September 2011, the
Empire State Building is the tallest and largest LEED certified building in the United States and Western Hemisphere.
Efficient energy use
–
Toyota Prius used by
NYPD Traffic Enforcement
41.
Carbon capture and storage
–
The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is a means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming. Although CO2 has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes, including enhanced oil recovery, the first commercial example was the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project in 2000. Other examples include SaskPowers Boundary Dam and Mississippi Powers Kemper Project, CCS can also be used to describe the scrubbing of CO2 from ambient air as a climate engineering technique. CCS applied to a conventional power plant could reduce CO2 emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80–90% compared to a plant without CCS. The IPCC estimates that the potential of CCS could be between 10% and 55% of the total carbon mitigation effort until year 2100. Carbon dioxide can be captured out of air or fossil fuel power plant flue gas using adsorption, membrane gas separation, amines are the leading carbon scrubbing technology. Capturing and compressing CO2 may increase the needs of a coal-fired CCS plant by 25–40%. These and other costs are estimated to increase the cost per watt energy produced by 21–91% for fossil fuel power plants. Applying the technology to existing plants would be expensive, especially if they are far from a sequestration site. Storage of the CO2 is envisaged either in deep geological formations, deep ocean storage is not currently considered feasible due to the associated effect of ocean acidification. Geological formations are considered the most promising sequestration sites. The National Energy Technology Laboratory reported that North America has enough capacity for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates. A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are difficult and uncertain. Extracting CO2 from air is possible, but not very practical because the CO2 is not concentrated. Organisms that produce ethanol by fermentation generate cool, essentially pure CO2 that can be pumped underground, fermentation produces slightly less CO2 than ethanol by weight. Flue gas from the combustion of coal in oxygen has a concentration of CO2. Therefore, it is energy and cost efficient to capture CO2 from coal-fired power plants
Carbon capture and storage
–
Lake Nyos as it appeared fewer than two weeks after the eruption; August 29, 1986.
Carbon capture and storage
–
Schematic showing both terrestrial and geological sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions from a coal-fired plant
42.
Climate change and agriculture
–
Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes, both of which take place on a global scale. Climate change is already affecting agriculture, with unevenly distributed across the world. Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries, Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups, such as the poor. Agriculture contributes to climate change by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, Agriculture, forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25% to global annual emissions in 2010. There are range of policies that can reduce the risk of climate change impacts on agriculture. The effect of climate on agriculture is related to variabilities in local rather than in global climate patterns. The Earths average surface temperature has increased by 1.5 °F since 1880, consequently, agronomists consider any assessment has to be individually consider each local area. The international aspect of trade and security in terms of food implies the need to consider the effects of climate change on a global scale. A2008 study published in Science suggested that, due to change, southern Africa could lose more than 30% of its main crop, maize. In South Asia losses of many regional staples, such as rice, millet, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has produced several reports that have assessed the scientific literature on climate change. Marine life and the industry will also be severely affected in some places. Climate change induced by increasing greenhouse gases is likely to affect crops differently from region to region, more favourable effects on yield tend to depend to a large extent on realization of the potentially beneficial effects of carbon dioxide on crop growth and increase of efficiency in water use. Decrease in potential yields is likely to be caused by shortening of the period, decrease in water availability. Adaptation, organisms may become more or less competitive, as well as humans may develop urgency to develop more competitive organisms, most agronomists believe that agricultural production will be mostly affected by the severity and pace of climate change, not so much by gradual trends in climate. If change is gradual, there may be time for biota adjustment. But much remains unknown exactly how climate change may affect farming and food security. In some cases, it seems that even minor droughts have big impacts on food security, changes in crop phenology provide important evidence of the response to recent regional climate change. Phenology is the study of phenomena that recur periodically, and how these phenomena relate to climate
Climate change and agriculture
–
Human greenhouse gas emissions by sector, in the year 2010. "AFOLU" stands for "agriculture, forestry, and other land use".
43.
Renewable energy
–
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas, electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, based on REN21s 2016 report, renewables contributed 19. 2% to humans global energy consumption and 23. 7% to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015, respectively. This energy consumption is divided as 8. 9% coming from biomass,4. 2% as heat energy,3. 9% hydro electricity and 2. 2% is electricity from wind, solar, geothermal. Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$286 billion in 2015, with countries like China, globally, there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries, with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer. As of 2015 worldwide, more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable, Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas, in contrast to other energy sources, which are concentrated in a limited number of countries. Rapid deployment of energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security, climate change mitigation. In international public opinion there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power. At the national level, at least 30 nations around the already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply. National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade, for example, in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply to 100% renewable energy by 2050. While many renewable energy projects are large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity. Renewable energy systems are becoming more efficient and cheaper. Their share of energy consumption is increasing. Growth in consumption of coal and oil could end by 2020 due to increased uptake of renewables, in its various forms, it derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and technological diversification of energy sources, would result in significant energy security and economic benefits. New government spending, regulation and policies helped the industry weather the financial crisis better than many other sectors. As of 2011, small solar PV systems provide electricity to a few million households, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity. At the national level, at least 30 nations around the already have renewable energy contributing more than 20% of energy supply. Some countries have much higher long-term policy targets of up to 100% renewables, outside Europe, a diverse group of 20 or more other countries target renewable energy shares in the 2020–2030 time frame that range from 10% to 50%
Renewable energy
–
Wind,
solar, and
biomass are three emerging renewable sources of energy.
Renewable energy
–
The 845 MW
Shepherds Flat Wind Farm near
Arlington, Oregon, USA
Renewable energy
–
The
Three Gorges Dam on the
Yangtze River in China
Renewable energy
–
Satellite image of the 550-megawatt
Topaz Solar Farm in California, USA
44.
Private brand
–
Store brands are a line of products strategically branded by a retailer within a single brand identity. They bear a similarity to the concept of brands, private label brands in the United States, own brands in the UK. They are distinct in that a brand is managed solely by the retailer for sale in only a specific chain of store. The retailer will design the manufacturing, packaging and marketing of the goods in order to build on the relationship between the products and the customer base. Store-brand goods are cheaper than national-brand goods, because the retailer can optimize the production to suit consumer demand. Goods sold under a store brand are subject to the regulatory oversight as goods sold under a national brand. Consumer demand for store brands might be related to characteristics such as demographics. A store brand is a way of relating to different customers, different types of store brands can relate to a customer through the choice of branding and building a relationship with the consumer. Store brands can relate to a consumer through various characteristics such as different demographics, the store brand is the only brand in which the retailer has the full responsibility of control such as development, sourcing, warehousing, merchandising and marketing. Whereas retailers make different decisions about national brands and leave it up to the manufacturer, with a store brand it is more important for the retailer as it plays a more definite role in the achievement or failure of its own label. This information is based on data from 34 food categories at 106 major supermarket chains, although national brands have long dominated the retail scene, retailers generally use their national brands to draw customers to their stores. Recently department stores, supermarkets, service stations, clothiers and chemists have started to more store brands. Studies show that consumers are buying more and more store brands, Store brands are generally cheaper than national brands, which, with consumers becoming more price-conscious and less brand conscious, has increased store brand sales. Some marketers have predicted that store brands will eventually knock out all the strongest national brands, Store brands have a tendency to generate higher margins than national brands. Retailers in the USA and Europe have made investments to launch store brands with the main object of securing significant financial benefits. Retailers have developed store brands in almost every category and their economic value is constantly increasing. Store image, store loyalty and store satisfaction have a impact on the acceptance of store brand extensions. Sometimes the retailer’s brand image depends on the images that the store brands set, although the store brands have positive impacts on the retailers image
Private brand
–
Wal-Hist, store-brand antihistamine medication from
Walgreens
45.
Waste hierarchy
–
The evaluation of processes that protect the environment alongside resource and energy consumption to most favourable to least favourable actions. The hierarchy establishes preferred program priorities based on sustainability, to be sustainable, waste management cannot be solved only with technical end-of-pipe solutions and an integrated approach is necessary. The waste management hierarchy indicates an order of preference for action to reduce and manage waste, the hierarchy captures the progression of a material or product through successive stages of waste management, and represents the latter part of the life-cycle for each product. The aim of the hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products. The proper application of the hierarchy can have several benefits. It can help prevent emissions of gases, reduces pollutants, save energy, conserves resources, create jobs. All products and services have environmental impacts, from the extraction of raw materials for production to manufacture, distribution, use, life cycle thinking and assessment can be used to support decision-making in the area of waste management and to identify the best environmental options. It can help policy makers understand the benefits and trade-offs they have to face when making decisions on waste management strategies, life-cycle assessment provides an approach to ensure that the best outcome for the environment can be identified and put in place. It involves looking at all stages of a life to find where improvements can be made to reduce environmental impacts. A key goal is to actions that shift negative impacts from one stage to another. Life cycle thinking can be applied to the five stages of the management hierarchy. This is because a washing machine’s greatest environmental impact is during its use phase, buying an energy-efficient machine and using low- temperature detergent reduce environmental impacts. The European Union Waste Framework Directive has introduced the concept of life-cycle thinking into waste policies and this duality approach gives a broader view of all environmental aspects and ensures any action has an overall benefit compared to other options. The actions to deal with waste along the hierarchy should be compatible with other environmental initiatives, relatively new activity, introduced for the first time in 2015 by IBCSD LAB Ltd. is the systematic industrial waste prevention. The process has been named INDUSTRIAL UPCYCLING IU and it is based on 6R principles, the 6R add 3 more steps, and build strong WASTE PREVENTION tool. The 6R is abrevation for RECOGNIZE - RECONSIDER - REALIZE - REDUCE - REUSE - RECYCLE, in 1975, The European Union’s Waste Framework Directive introduced for the first time the waste hierarchy concept into European waste policy. It emphasized the importance of waste minimization, and the protection of the environment and human health, following the 1975 Directive, European Union policy and legislation adapted to the principles of the waste hierarchy. Article 4 of the directive lays down a hierarchy of waste management options which must be applied by Member States in this priority order
Waste hierarchy
–
Major types
Waste hierarchy
–
The waste hierarchy
46.
Carpooling
–
Carpooling is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car. By having more people using one vehicle, carpooling reduces each persons travel costs such as costs, tolls. Authorities often encourage carpooling, especially during periods of high pollution or high fuel prices, in 2009, carpooling represented 43. 5% of all trips in the United States and 10% of commute trips. The majority of carpool commutes are fam-pools with family members, carpool commuting is more popular for people who work in places with more jobs nearby, and who live in places with higher residential densities. However, carpooling is significantly less likely among people who spend time at work, older workers. Drivers and passengers offer and search for journeys through one of the several mediums available, after finding a match they contact each other to arrange any details for the journey. Costs, meeting points and other details like space for luggage are agreed on and they then meet and carry out their shared car journey as planned. Carpooling is commonly implemented for commuting but is popular for longer one-off journeys. Carpooling is not always arranged for the length of a journey. Especially on long journeys, it is common for passengers to join for parts of the journey. This gives carpooling extra flexibility, and enables people to share journeys. Like other online marketplaces, they use community-based trust mechanisms, such as user-ratings, many companies and local authorities have introduced programs to promote carpooling. In an effort to reduce traffic and encourage carpooling, some governments have introduced high-occupancy vehicle lanes in which only vehicles with two or more passengers are allowed to drive, HOV lanes can create strong practical incentives for carpooling by reducing travel time and expense. In some countries it is common to find parking spaces reserved for carpoolers, in 2011, an organization called Greenxc created a campaign to encourage others to use this form of transportation in order to reduce their own carbon footprint. Several people were fined by undercover tax officers during a 2011 crackdown, Carpooling usually means to divide the travel expenses in equal parts between all the occupants of the vehicle. The driver doesn’t try to earn money, but to share with several people the cost of a trip he would do anyway, the expenses to be divided basically include the fuel and possible tolls. But if we include in the calculation the amortization of the purchase and maintenance, insurance and taxes paid by the driver. There are platforms that facilitate carpooling by connecting people seeking respectively passengers and drivers, usually there is a fare set up by the car driver and accepted by passengers, because they get an agreement before trip start
Carpooling
–
A sign encouraging carpooling during the gas shortage resulting from the 1973 oil crisis
Carpooling
–
Carpool pick-up place in the Netherlands
Carpooling
–
Typical
park-and-ride sign in the
United States, this one located at the interchange between
Interstate 79 and
Pennsylvania Route 488 in
Portersville, Pennsylvania north of
Pittsburgh. Such services are used to encourage carpooling.
Carpooling
–
A poster used to promote carpooling as a way to ration gasoline during
World War II
47.
Mass transportation
–
Public transport modes include city buses, trolleybuses, trams and passenger trains, rapid transit and ferries. Public transport between cities is dominated by airlines, coaches, and intercity rail, high-speed rail networks are being developed in many parts of the world. Most public transport runs to a timetable, with the most frequent services running to a headway. Share taxis offer services in many parts of the world. Paratransit is sometimes used in areas of low demand and for people who need a door-to-door service, there are distinct differences in urban public transit between Asia, North America, and Europe. In Asia, mass transit operations are run by profit-driven privately owned and publicly traded mass transit. In North America, mass transit operations are run by municipal transit authorities. In Europe, mass transit operations are run by both state-owned and private companies. Public transport services can be profit-driven by use of pay-by-the-distance fares or funded by government subsidies in which flat rate fares are charged to each passenger. Services can be profitable through high ridership numbers and high farebox recovery ratios, or can be regulated. Fully subsidized, zero-fare services operate in some towns and cities, for geographical, historical and economic reasons, there are differences internationally regarding use and extent of public transport. It has 3,400 members from 92 countries, conveyances designed for public hire are as old as the first ferries, and the earliest public transport was water transport, on land people walked or rode an animal. Ferries appear in Greek mythology—corpses in ancient Greece were buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay the ferryman Charon to take them to Hades, the omnibus was introduced to London in July 1829. The first passenger railway opened in 1806, it ran between Swansea and Mumbles in southwest Wales in the United Kingdom. In 1825 George Stephenson built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in northeast England, the usability of different types of public transport, and its overall appeal, can be measured by seven criteria, although they overlap somewhat. These are speed, comfort, safety, cost, proximity, speed is calculated from total journey time including transfers. Proximity means how far passengers have to walk or otherwise travel before they can begin the public transport leg of their journey, timeliness is how long they have to wait for the vehicle. Directness records how far a journey using public transport deviates from the shortest route, an airline provides scheduled service with aircraft between airports
Mass transportation
–
New York City Subway, the world's largest
rapid transit system by length of routes and by number of
stations
Mass transportation
–
The
Moscow Metro is one of the
busiest metro systems in the world and is the busiest in Europe.
Mass transportation
–
A hybrid-engine fully accessible
Toronto Transit Commission transit bus in Toronto
Mass transportation
–
Early trolley car in
Newton, Massachusetts
48.
Carbon
–
Carbon is a chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds, three isotopes occur naturally, 12C and 13C being stable, while 14C is a radioactive isotope, decaying with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity, Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the Earths crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. It is the second most abundant element in the body by mass after oxygen. The atoms of carbon can bond together in different ways, termed allotropes of carbon, the best known are graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon. The physical properties of carbon vary widely with the allotropic form, for example, graphite is opaque and black while diamond is highly transparent. Graphite is soft enough to form a streak on paper, while diamond is the hardest naturally occurring material known, graphite is a good electrical conductor while diamond has a low electrical conductivity. Under normal conditions, diamond, carbon nanotubes, and graphene have the highest thermal conductivities of all known materials, all carbon allotropes are solids under normal conditions, with graphite being the most thermodynamically stable form. They are chemically resistant and require high temperature to react even with oxygen, the most common oxidation state of carbon in inorganic compounds is +4, while +2 is found in carbon monoxide and transition metal carbonyl complexes. The largest sources of carbon are limestones, dolomites and carbon dioxide, but significant quantities occur in organic deposits of coal, peat, oil. For this reason, carbon has often referred to as the king of the elements. The allotropes of carbon graphite, one of the softest known substances, and diamond. It bonds readily with other small atoms including other carbon atoms, Carbon is known to form almost ten million different compounds, a large majority of all chemical compounds. Carbon also has the highest sublimation point of all elements, although thermodynamically prone to oxidation, carbon resists oxidation more effectively than elements such as iron and copper that are weaker reducing agents at room temperature. Carbon is the element, with a ground-state electron configuration of 1s22s22p2. Its first four ionisation energies,1086.5,2352.6,4620.5 and 6222.7 kJ/mol, are higher than those of the heavier group 14 elements. Carbons covalent radii are normally taken as 77.2 pm,66.7 pm and 60.3 pm, although these may vary depending on coordination number, in general, covalent radius decreases with lower coordination number and higher bond order. Carbon compounds form the basis of all life on Earth
Carbon
–
Graphite (left) and diamond (right), the two most well-known allotropes of carbon
Carbon
–
Spectral lines of carbon
Carbon
–
A large sample of glassy carbon.
Carbon
–
Graphite ore
49.
Caulking
–
Caulking is both the processes and material to seal joints or seams in various structures and some types of piping. The oldest form of caulking is used to make the seams in wooden boats or ships watertight, a related process was formerly employed to join sections of cast iron sewerage pipe. Caulking is also the term to describe the used to make riveted iron or steel ships. The same term also refers to the application of flexible sealing compounds to close up gaps in buildings and other structures against water, air, dust, insects, or as a component in firestopping. In the tunnelling industry, caulking refers to the sealing of joints in segmental precast concrete tunnels, traditional caulking on wooden vessels uses fibers of cotton and oakum. These fibers are driven into the seam between planks, with a caulking mallet and a broad chisel-like tool called a caulking iron. In riveted steel or iron ship construction, caulking was a process of rendering seams watertight by driving a thick and this had the effect of displacing the metal into a close fit with the adjoining piece. Originally done by hand much like wooden vessel caulking, pneumatic tools were later employed, with the advent of electric-arc welding for ship construction, steel ship caulking was rendered obsolete. Caulking of iron and steel, of the type described above for ships hulls, was also used by boilermakers in the era of riveted boilers to make the joints watertight and steamtight. Caulk can refer either to the substance or to the process of applying it. Caulking as a term has spread to the trade, meaning the activity of closing up joints. The function of caulking is to provide insulation, control water penetration. This is mostly done with ready-mixed construction chemicals sold as such as silicone, polyurethane, polysulfide, sylil-terminated-polyether or polyurethane. Unlike construction caulk, which is applied where no building movement is expected, one-component sealants are commonly sold in cartridges which are loaded into a pistol-like caulking gun or barrel gun for application. During the tool-working time, which varies by chemistry, the bead can be pressed into the joint so that it can bond with the materials on both sides, and also be smoothed. The time it takes for a chemical sealant to become a rubber is known as the time and varies by temperature. Silicone sealants form a durable, water-tight seal, but are not typically paintable, some silicone sealants are made to be paintable with certain types of paint such as water or oil-based paints. Backer rods can also be used to reduce consumption of the caulking by filling part of the joints, backer rod is often round and rope-like in shape but many special types and shaped such as square, rectangular and D-shapes are available
Caulking
–
Airman applying caulk to
baseboard
Caulking
–
Dried-out caulking on the
Severn trow Spry, now displayed on shore
Caulking
–
The tools of traditional wooden ship caulking: caulking mallet, caulker's seat, caulking irons, cotton and oakum
Caulking
–
A caulking mallet, tar pot and a piece of petrified tar found on board the 16th century
carrack Mary Rose
_per_passenger_mile_(USA_2008).png)
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