Environmental Studies

Energy Usage

100

In 2014, 83.3% of this country's energy came from fossil fuels.

What is the United States?

The 82.8% of the United Kingdom’s energy usage came from fossil fuels. In this set of data, fossil fuels are defined as coal, oil, petroleum, and natural gas products. Germany = 80%, France = 46.3%, Spain = 72.2%, Italy = 78.9%, Poland = 89.8%

Source: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.COMM.FO.ZS/countries/1W-US-GB-FR?display=default FOLLOW UP: What are practical alternatives to fossil fuels which you’ve read or heard about recently?

200

This large European country ranks number 3 in the world of countries using the most renewable energy.

What is Germany?

World rankings: 1=U.S. 65 million tonnes of oil equivalent, 2=China 53.1, 3=Germany 31.7, 4=Spain 16, 5=Brazil 15.40, 6=Italy 14.8, 7=India 13.9, 8=United Kingdom 13.2

**Wind and solar power are considered the most effective and affordable sources of renewable energy and renewable energy is most commonly used for electricity generation

Source: http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-15-countries-using-renewable-energy.html FOLLOW UP: What could be some of the consequences of implementing renewable energy strategies?

300

In 2012, this continent’s total primary energy consumption was 116.191 quadrillion BTU

What is North America?

The United States makes up 95.058 and Europe as a whole was 81.45

Source: https://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=44&pid=44&aid=2&cid=r1,r3,&syid=2008&eyid=2012&unit=QBTU FOLLOW UP: Do the United States and other developed countries have an obligation to compensate smaller developing nations who are more affected by environmental injustice?

400

In the recent past, global energy consumption grew most quickly because of what two industries.

What is transport sector and service sector?

Source: https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/Indicators_2008.pdf pg. 15 FOLLOW UP: What are some new, creative ways these sectors can incorporate renewable practices in their industries? Do you know of any projects on campus that are contributing to this?

500

This large North American country’s total energy consumption in 2014 was 2,224 Mtoe

What is the United States?

MTOE is the acronym for Million tonnes of Oil Equivalent. It is a unit to quantify the amount of energy which is released by the burning of a million tonnes of crude oil. Different fuels have different MTOE values. The OECD defines one tonne of energy equivalent for crude oil to be 11,630 kWh.

Source: https://yearbook.enerdata.net/ FOLLOW UP: In what ways can you personally limit your carbon footprint?

Emissions

100

In 2011, this large country produced 6 GtCO2e of total greenhouse gas emissions.

What is the United States?

(Gt-billions of tons) Equivalent CO2 (CO2e) is the concentration of CO2 that would cause the same level of radiative forcing as a given type and concentration of greenhouse gas. Examples of such greenhouse gases are methane, perfluorocarbons, and nitrous oxide. CO2e is expressed as parts per million by volume, ppmv

Source: http://www.wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world%E2%80%99s-top-10-emitters FOLLOW UP: How effective do you think the COP21 Paris Agreement will be over the next few decades to make sure we avoid a catastrophic rise in Earth's temperature?

200

True or false, in 2011, the European Union had more total greenhouse gas emissions excluding land use change and forestry compared to the United States.

What is false?

Source: http://www.wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world%E2%80%99s-top-10-emitters FOLLOW UP: Does it surprise you that the United States has 200 million less people than the European Union, but emits more greenhouse gasses? Why or why not?

300

In 2011, this European country had 9.19 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person, which is the highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption of energy of all the European countries besides Russia.

What is Germany?

This is probably in part due to the fact that Germany has a large population compared to other European countries besides Russia.

Source: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/each-countrys-share-of-co2.html#.VxefP5MrIdU FOLLOW UP: Do you think the efforts put forth by each individual country, specifically the parties subject to the Paris Agreement, is enough to curb the trend of global warming, such that our planet will survive longer than this century?

400

From 1990 to 2010, this large country carbon emissions have stayed fairly constant a little above 18 tons of CO2 per capita.

What is the United States?

Source: http://carbonfootprintofnations.com/ FOLLOW UP: How can you individually work to reduce your personal percentage of carbon emissions?

500

By 2050, the European Union aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by this percentage compared to 1990 levels.

What is 80-95%?

The United States should follow suit and reduce its emissions at least by 80% below 2000 levels by 2050 to avoid a potentially dangerous temperature increase (http://www.usclimatenetwork.org/resource-database/WEB%20emissions-target-fact-sheet.pdf )

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/citizens/eu/index_en.htm

Carbon footprint/emissions per capita for countries http://carbonfootprintofnations.com/ http://cotap.org/per-capita-carbon-co2-emissions-by-country/ FOLLOW UP: How do you think this drastic cut will impact the lives of everyday Europeans? Do you think the impact will extend beyond Europe?

Agriculture

100

This group of states has 941,210 acres of farmland,far more than the 316,913 acres of farmland found on the other group of states.

What is the United States?

http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/881052/wrs0404_002.pdf

Knowing that there is so much farmland in the United States, what do you suppose are ways in which farmers utilize these large areas of farmland?

Farmers use large land areas as places to grow monocultures, graze large herds of cattle, and expand farming practices (i.e. more production, processing, etc.)

200

This group of states has 6,766 farms, far more than the 2,158 farms found in the other group of states.

What is the European Union?

http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/881052/wrs0404_002.pdf

What do you suppose accounts for the fact that the European Union has over three times the number of farms than the United States?

The Unites States has a smaller number of large commercial farms, while the EU has a larger number of small farms.

300

This group of states has implemented far more agricultural megatariffs (140) than the other group of states (20).

What is the EU?

http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/881052/wrs0404_002.pdf

What could be some advantages of megatariffs?

Taxing imported agricultural projects encourages countries to grow more crops on their own, which is more appealing to societies than importing all of their food.

400

Nearly ¾ of all Genetically modified crops are produced in this group of states.

What is the US?

http://www.cfr.org/agricultural-policy/regulation-gmos-europe-united-states-case-study-contemporary-european-regulatory-politics/p8688

What do you think are some advantages of growing genetically modified crops (GMOs) as opposed to organic crops?

GMO crops are usually much more resistant to weeds, pests and other diseases. In addition, bigger yields can create more efficient use of land, less uses of herbicides and other pesticides, and food with a longer shelf life for easier shipping.

500

This is the number one concern of citizens of both the US and EU about genetically modified crops.

What is the belief that it is an “unnatural practice?”

Note: this is interesting because Europeans generally live closer to farms and face a higher risk of run-off issues, but are still focused on how it’s “unnatural.”

http://www.cfr.org/agricultural-policy/regulation-gmos-europe-united-states-case-study-contemporary-european-regulatory-politics/p8688

If there is a common belief that growing GMOs is an unnatural practice, why do you suppose that farms continually grow these crops?

Growing GMO crops is not only cheaper, but it can occur in areas where normal farming cannot occur. For example, soil salinity has become a major problem, however inserting the genes of salt tolerant plants into GMOs can allow for growing in salty soil areas.

Clean Energy

100

This country has 45% of its electricity grid supplied by renewable sources?

What is Portugal?

http://www.cleanhouston.org/energy/features/green_europe.htm

What is renewable energy and what are some sources of renewable energy?

Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that is collected from resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heating and cooling.

200

This group of states has significantly more natural gas available than the other group of states.

What is the US?

http://www.cleanhouston.org/energy/features/green_europe.htm

What do you think are some advantages to using natural gas as opposed to other energy sources such as coal?

Natural gas has advantages over other fuels that include containing fewer impurities, it is less chemically complex, and its combustion results in much lower levels of pollution.

300

An ambitious policy implemented by the countries of the EU sets a goal for all counties to increase the amount of their energy produced by renewable sources by this percent by the year 2020.

What is 20% (20-20-20 policy)?

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/13/3-eu-countries-already-hit-2020-renewable-energy-goals-youll-never-guess/

What are some ways in which countries in the European Union could increase the amount of energy produced by renewable sources?

Perhaps the government could provide incentive to purchasing renewable sources of energy for homes and businesses. In addition, the government could use alternate forms of energy in areas of the power grid, such as harvesting methane gas from landfills, using wind farms to supply energy to homes, etc.

400

These 3 European countries have already met their 20-20-20 goals.

What are Bulgaria, Estonia, and Sweden?

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/13/3-eu-countries-already-hit-2020-renewable-energy-goals-youll-never-guess/

Out of these countries, what percent of their total energy do you suppose comes from renewable sources?

Sweden leads the way for all EU members, with 51 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources of energy.

500

By 2017, the US anticipates having this percent of its energy produced by solar power.

What is 1.1%?

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/13/3-eu-countries-already-hit-2020-renewable-energy-goals-youll-never-guess/

What do you think are some advantages of using solar energy, and what can it be used for?

Solar energy is a resource that is not only sustainable for energy consumption, but it is also indefinitely renewable. Solar power can be used to generate electricity in homes and businesses and is also used in relatively simple technology to heat water (solar water heaters).

Sustainability

100

This country was declared most sustainable by sustainable investment company RobecoSAM rankings in 2015.

What is Sweden?

Sweden also recycles about 88% of all aluminum cans and PET bottles. There is a city called Växjö that aims to be the first city to be entirely fossil fuel free by 2030.

Sources: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2414952/sweden-retains-crown-as-worlds-most-sustainable-country https://sweden.se/nature/sustainable-living/ https://sweden.se/society/7-examples-of-sustainability-in-sweden/

200

This place has the potential to save water by 40% primarily by improving water efficiency during droughts and in areas of scarcity.

What is the European Union?

Main ways to save water include improving buildings and water efficiency, water using products, reducing leakages in water networks, and halting desertification through technologies and good practices.

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/quantity/water_efficiency.htm

300

This country has a goal by 2035 to increase food availability by 50% and reduce oil consumption by 50%.

What is the US?

Sustainable America is an organization that aims to educate the public on how to be more sustainable, and the organization uses business partnerships to research, analyze, and invest in early stage technology companies that have the potential to impact food and fuel sustainability at a large scale.

Source: http://www.sustainableamerica.org/

400

Around this many tonnes of food are wasted annually in the EU.

What is 100 million tonnes?

The EU and member states are committed to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in September 2015, including a target to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030, and reduce food losses along the food production and supply chains.

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/food_waste/eu_actions/index_en.htm

500

These are the six major categories of plastic packaging that can help to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions compared to packaging with other materials.

What are light-weighting (source reduction), reuse, recycling, landfills and biodegradability, and litter/marine litter?

In 2014, plastic bottle recycling grew 97 million pounds in the United States, increasing by 3.3 percent.

Source: http://www.plasticpackagingfacts.org/environment