Human Population, Fossil Fuels, and Energy Production
Resources:
What relationship between the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and global averaged temperature do you see in the data below?
Project Essential Question: In what ways can a transition to renewable energy sources save an exponentially growing human population from the byproducts of a problematic fossil fuel energy system?
Class Developed Foundation Questions:
- What are the more common forms of renewable energies for electrical production?
- What are the costs associated with transitioning to renewable energies?
- How much energy is used by the average person? (the U.S. vs rest of the world)
- What is the current world population and what are the trends?
- What are the problems associated with fossil fuel use for electricity?
- What are some pros and cons of using renewable energies for electricity?
- What are some pros and cons of using fossil fuels for electricity?
- Can renewable energy be used everywhere?
- What are the reasons some renewables are more prevalent in other parts of the world?
- What role do fossil fuels play in the production of greenhouse gases for the purpose of electricity?
Instructions for Research Guide:
Please Upload this document to your google docs, share it with those in your group, add your names, and then then share it with me.
Some Resources to get You Started:
Please Upload this document to your google docs, share it with those in your group, add your names, and then then share it with me.
Some Resources to get You Started:
- Climate Science - An Unbiased Look from NASA
- Climate Change 101. What do you know? What do you not know?
- Cant we just switch to renewable forms of energy?
- How does Electricity Work? Resource 1 , Resource 2, Resource 3,
- How do we determine Temperatures from the Past?
- Problematic Byproducts Example 1: Coal Ash
- Problematic Byproducts Example 2: Oil Sands and Pipelines
- Problematic Byproducts Example 2.5: Oils Sands and Pipelines
- Problematic Byproducts Example 3: Ocean Acidification
- Problematic Byproducts Example 4: Ocean Acidification
- The Science of Climate Change: How CO2 Raises Atmospheric Temperature
The Population Dilemma
A Possible Answer? At What Type of Costs?
So what about these things called oil sands?
This newer form of oil extraction promises to help the Unites States and North America become independent of the need for foreign imported oil. But, at what costs? Please do the following:
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- In what countries is overpopulation an issue?
- What are the problematic byproducts of the fossil fuel economy?
- How much more do alternative energy sources cost? If any?
- What current forms of energy are being used worldwide and what are their byproducts and costs?
- What are the pros and cons of alternative sources of energy?
- What other sources of energy are being used by other countries or in other parts of the world?
- Can alternative sources of energy match the demand of current standards or situations?
- What is a green economy?
- What is the rate of human population increase?
- How could we make the transition to a green economy?
- What are some reasons for the exponential growth of the human population?
- When will humans reach their carrying capacity and what factors would determine that capacity?