Chapter 7 - Food & Agriculture
The loose mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids, and organisms that forms the upper layer of Earth’s surface, created over long periods by weathering and decomposition.
What is soil?
This is a group of six key pollutants regulated by the U.S. EPA due to their health impacts.
*50 bonus points for naming all 6 pollutants
What are the criteria pollutants?
*Particulate matters, lead, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and sulfur dioxide
This water-bearing underground layer can be tapped by wells for irrigation and drinking water.
What is an aquifer?
Any unwanted or discarded material in solid form, including packaging, food scraps, and yard trimmings.
What is solid waste?
This foundational U.S. law, passed in 1970, created the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air, water, and chemical safety.
What is the Clean Air Act?
This term refers to organisms whose genetic material has been altered using molecular techniques.
What are GMOs?
These are pollutants like ground-level ozone that form when primary pollutants react chemically in the atmosphere.
What are secondary pollutants?
The nutrient overenrichment of aquatic systems leading to algal blooms and oxygen depletion.
What is eutrophication?
The use of plants to absorb or break down contaminants in soil and water.
What is phytoremediation?
This 1972 U.S. law requires environmental impact statements for major federal actions affecting the environment.
What is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)?
The distinct layers of soil (O, A, B, C) that develop over time through physical and biological processes.
What are soil horizons?
The landmark 1987 agreement that phased out production of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to protect the stratospheric ozone layer.
What is the Montreal Protocol?
The advanced stage of wastewater treatment that often uses UV, chlorination, or membrane filtration to remove pathogens and nutrients.
What is tertiary treatment?
Discarded electronic devices (like phones and computers) that often contain hazardous metals and chemicals.
What is e-waste?
Examples include the Kyoto Protocol (1997), the Paris Agreement (2015), and the Convention on Biological Diversity—each aiming to address global environmental challenges.
What are international environmental treaties?
Large-scale livestock operations that confine thousands of animals in a small area, often criticized for pollution and animal welfare concerns.
What are CAFOs?
This meteorological phenomenon occurs when a layer of warm air traps cooler, polluted air near the ground, responsible for the deadly London Fog (Great Smog) of 1952.
What is a temperature inversion?
An identifiable origin of pollution, such as a factory discharge pipe into a river.
What is a point source?
A waste-to-energy process that burns trash to generate electricity or heat.
What is incineration (or waste-to-energy)?
These 17 targets, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, provide a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity, balancing social, economic, and environmental sustainability by 2030.
What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
Eating these is more energy-efficient, since they occupy lower trophic levels and require less input per calorie produced.
What are primary consumers (e.g., tilapia or grains)?
Draw and label the Earth's atmosphere
*50 bonus points for being able to name the primary gases and their concentrations in the atmosphere (note - you do not need to label which gases are in which part of the atmosphere)
:)
*Nitrogen (N₂): ≈ 78%
Oxygen (O₂): ≈ 21%
Argon (Ar): ≈ 0.93% Carbon Dioxide (CO₂): ≈ 0.04% (about 1% combined)
Trace Gases (combined): ~ 0.001 % each or less (Neon, Helium, Methane, Krypton, Hydrogen, Xenon, etc.)
Name, draw and properly label the cycle that shows the cyclical journey of water from the Earth's surface to the atmosphere and back
What is the hydrologic cycle?
The controlled aerobic decomposition of organic material into a nutrient-rich soil amendment.
What is composting?
What are some ways the common man (AKA, you and me) can get involved in protecting the environment?
Grassroots organizations, protests, writing to legislators, starting/joining relevant clubs/organizations, and even more!