Urban Heat Island Pilot Project

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Urban Heat IslandPilotProject
Figure 4.23
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Solar Cooking Solution
Figure FS 4.1.1
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Solar Energy
Figure FS 4.1.2
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Coal Energy

• But also, we're advancing clean-coal
  technologies. The goal is to have a zero-emission
  coal-fired plant. President George W Bush

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Coal Energy

• One trillion tons of recoverable coal in the
  world, by far the largest reserve of fossil fuel
  left on the planet
• The United States has over 25 of the worlds
  recoverable coal reserves
• Figure quoted by the coal industry is 250 years
  of reserves
• Coal liquefaction expensive, uses lots of water,
  produces double the carbon dioxide when compared
  to regular petroleum use and produces diesel when
  the vast majority of the U.S. car fleet runs on
  gasoline

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Coal Energy

• Our use of coal leads to ravaged mountains, air
  pollution from acidic and toxic emissions and
  fouled water supplies
• Coal mining is massively more invasive than oil
  or gas drilling
• Coal burning power plants account for more than
  two-thirds of sulfur dioxide, 22 of nitrogen
  oxides, nearly 40 of carbon dioxide and a third
  of all mercury emissions in the United States

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Coal Energy

• Each year coal plants produce about 130 million
  tons of solid waste, about three times more than
  all the municipal garbage in the U.S.
• The American Lung Association calculates that
  around 24,000 people a year die prematurely from
  the effects of coal fired power plant pollution.

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Carbon Sequestration

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  (IPCC) estimated in 2005 that it is highly likely
  that geologic locations worldwide are capable of
  sequestering at least two trillion metric tons of
  CO2 - more than is likely to be produced by
  fossil fuel consuming power plants this century

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Carbon Sequestration

• Carbon sequestration is not without risk. The two
  main risks are sudden escape and gradual leakage
  of carbon dioxide.
• In 1986 at Lake Nyos in Cameroon, Africa carbon
  dioxide originating from a volcano killed over
  1,700 people
• However according to IPCC this is unlikely for
  engineered CO2 storage in carefully selected,
  deep porous geologic rock formations. In regard
  to gradual leakage the IPCC estimated in 2005
  that in excess of 99 of carbon sequestered is
  very likely to remain in place for at least one
  hundred years.

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Nuclear Energy

• Well, if you're really interested in global
  warming and climate change, then it seems like to
  me that we ought to promote technologies to
  advance the development of safe nuclear power.
  It's a renewable source of energy, and at the
  same time has no emissions to it. President GWB

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Nuclear Energy

• Nuclear power produced by the reaction of uranium
  inside a nuclear reactor. The reactor uses
  uranium rods, the atoms of which are split in the
  process of fission, releasing a large amount of
  energy. The process continues as a chain reaction
  with other nuclei takes place. The heat released
  heats water to create steam, which spins a
  turbine, producing electricity.

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Nuclear Energy

• The process of nuclear fission allows for the
  production of tremendous amounts of energy from a
  small amount of fuel.
• The cost of making nuclear power is about the
  same as coal, which is considered very
  inexpensive
• Nuclear power does not produce any air pollution
  or release carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide into
  the atmosphere. Therefore, it does not contribute
  to global warming or acid rain

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Nuclear Energy

• Waste produced from nuclear fission of uranium is
  poisonous, and highly radioactive, requiring
  maintenance and monitoring at the storage sites.
• There can be connections between nuclear power
  and nuclear weapon proliferation, since both
  require large-scale uranium enrichment
  facilities.
• The operation of an uncontained nuclear reactor
  near human settlements can be catastrophic, as
  shown by the Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine
  (former USSR), where large areas of land were
  affected by nuclear fallout.

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Ethanol

• And then, in the State of the Union, I talked
  about another aspect of economic security and
  environmental quality, and that is changing the
  habits or changing how we power our cars. And I
  want more people driving automobiles with, you
  know, ethanol, for example, or biodiesel.
  President GWB

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Ethanol

• Ethanol is an alcohol-based alternative fuel
  produced by fermenting and distilling starch
  crops that have been converted into simple
  sugars.
• Ethanol is most commonly used to increase octane
  and improve the emissions quality of gasoline

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Ethanol

• Direct combustion without emissions filtering
  generally leads to air pollution similar to that
  from fossil fuels.
• Producing liquid fuels from biomass is generally
  less cost effective than from petroleum, since
  the production of biomass and its subsequent
  conversion to alcohols is particularly expensive.
• Some researchers claim that, when biomass crops
  are the product of intensive farming, ethanol
  fuel production results in a net loss of energy
  after one accounts for the fuel costs of
  fertilizer production, farm equipment, and the
  distillation process.

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Wind Energy

• Wind power produces no water or air pollution
  that can contaminate the environment, because
  there are no chemical processes involved in wind
  power generation. Hence, there are no waste
  by-products, such as carbon dioxide.
• Wind generation is a renewable source of energy,
  which means that we will never run out of it.

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Wind Energy

• "When you look at a wind turbine, you can find
  the bird carcasses and count them. With a
  coal-fired power plant, you can't count the
  carcasses, but it's going to kill a lot more
  birds."-- John Flicker, National Audubon
  Society, president

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Wind Energy

• This type of energy harnesses the power of the
  wind to propel the blades of wind turbines. These
  turbines cause the rotation of magnets, which
  creates electricity. Wind towers are usually
  built together on wind farms
• For every 10,000 birds killed by human
  activities, less than one death is caused by a
  wind turbine

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Wind Energy

• Wind is unreliable
• Wind farms are ugly
• Bats
• Ground-nesting birds