Unit 5 - Agriculture
Name 1 strategy/method that was part of the green revolution
list 3 fossil fuels
coal, oil, natural gas
What pollution control device is located on cars that reduces the number of harmful pollutants in a car's exhaust.
catalytic converter
This process occurs when excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) enter a body of water, triggering algal blooms and ultimately causing fish die-offs due to oxygen depletion.
eutrophication or eutrophic
What chemicals caused stratospheric ozone depletion?
CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons)
This farming method raises fish and other aquatic organisms in controlled environments, and while it increases food supply, it can cause water pollution and disease spread.
Aquaculture
List 3 forms of renewable energy
solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, biomass
Acid rain is primarily caused by emissions of these two gases, which react with water vapor in the atmosphere to form sulfuric and nitric acids.
SOx and NOx
Thermal pollution from a power plant will have the greatest impact on the concentration of what chemical in a body of water?
Dissolved oxygen
This international agreement, signed in 1987, called for the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances like CFCs and is considered one of the most successful environmental treaties in history.
The Montreal Protocol
This pest management strategy minimizes pesticide use by combining biological controls, habitat manipulation, and resistant crop varieties.
Integrated pest management
This is the process by which nuclear power plants generate electricity, splitting Uranium-235 atoms to release heat.
nuclear fission
This indoor air pollutant, a naturally occurring radioactive gas, seeps up from bedrock and soil through cracks in a home's foundation and is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S.
radon
These chemicals, which can interfere with the hormonal systems of animals, have been linked to birth defects, developmental disorders, and gender imbalances in fish.
Endocrine disruptors
Name 1 reason that global warming causes sea levels to rise
thermal expansion or LAND ice melting
How could a genetically modified crop lead to more pesticide use?
If the modification makes the plant resistant to herbicide, more herbicide can be used to kill weeds that would compete with the crop
Name the 3 types of coal from lowest to highest energy content
lignite, bituminous, anthracite
What law gave the EPA the power to regulate on 6 criteria air pollutants, including lead?
the clean air act
This disease, caused by untreated sewage in waterways, results in severe intestinal infection and is a leading cause of death in areas with poor sanitation.
dysentery
Name 2 greenhouse gases with a GWP greater than 1, and name the greenhouse gas with a GWP of 1.
Greater = methane, CFCs, N2O, HFCs
1 = CO2
Describe how soil salinization occurs
Water naturally has small amounts of minerals, like salt, dissolved in it. Repeated watering leaves that salt in the soil as the water gets absorbed or evaporates.
Describe the steps to turn coal into electricity
burn the coal, use the heat to boil water into steam, use the steam to turn a turbine attached to a generator
Describe a thermal inversion
A cool air mass gets trapped under a warmer air mass, trapping pollutants with it.
DDT & PCBs are both carbon-based synthetic compounds that don't break down easily. They are examples of:
POPs (persistant organic pollutants)
Polar regions are warming faster than other areas because rising temperatures melt ice and snow, reducing this property that normally reflects solar radiation back into space.
Albedo