1. Key Issue # 1: Why are resources being depleted?
Environment
Key Issue # 1: Why are resources being depleted?

2. Animate Power

3. Inanimate Power Generated from machines
3 of the earth substances provide 5/6 of the world’s energy: oil, natural gas, and coal
Fossil fuels
Biomass fuel

4. Coal to Natural Gas Industrial Revolution –
Petroleum was first pumped in 1859, but was not an important resource until the diffusion of automobiles
Natural gas was originally burned off as a waste product of oil, but now it heats millions of homes

5. Energy is used in three places
Businesses – U.S. businesses primarily use coal
Homes – heating of the living space and water is primarily done with natural gas
Transportation – almost all transportation systems operate on petroleum products

6. Two Major Concerns
Supply
Uneven Distribution

7. Remaining Supply of Fossil Fuels
Proven Reserve – the amount of energy remaining in deposits that have been discovered
Potential reserve – the energy in undiscovered deposits that are thought to exist

8. Expanding Production
Extracting proven reserves will grow to be more difficult
Unconventional sources

9. Location of Reserves
Coal – forms in tropical locations, in lush, swampy areas rich in reserves
Today’s supply of coal is found in mid-latitudes
Oil and Natural Gas – formed millions of years ago from sediments on the sea floor
Five Middle Eastern countries have 2/3 of the world’s reserve – Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and U.A.E.
Venezuela and Mexico

11. Consumption of Fossil Fuels
PEDs, with ¼ of the world’s population, consume about ¾ of the world’s energy
Two Geographic Consequences for the future:
PINGs will consume more energy in the future; world consumption will rise
Because PEDs consume more than they produce, they must import fossil fuels, especially petroleum, from PINGs.
* Since PINGs will need more energy, PEDs will face more competition in the future for obtaining the remaining reserves of fossil fuels

12. OPEC Policies During the 1970s
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (1960)
Gas Crisis of the 1970s
Internal conflicts weakened OPEC in the 1980s and 1990s

13. Changing Supply and Demand
Conservation
Low prices in the 1990s
Rise in prices in the 21st century
Petroleum will not run out during the 21st century, but the cost of extracting it will rise, and alternative energy sources will rise

14. Natural Gas Cheaper to burn and less polluting than petroleum and coal
World natural gas consumption increased 4% per year during the 1980s, and is currently increasing about 3% each year
The two major sources of reserves
Iran
Russia

15. Air Pollution
Burning coal creates several pollutants: sulfur oxides, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, and particulates (soot)
The U.S. Clean Air Act now requires utilities to use better-quality coal or to install “scrubbers” on the smokestacks

16. Mine Safety Mining is an extremely dangerous occupation
Miners are also prone to “black lung” disease
Strictly enforced mine safety laws, improved mine ventilation, intensive safety programs, automation of mining, and a smaller workforce have made the American mining industry much safer

17. Subsidence and Erosion
Underground mining may release acidic groundwater into streams
Sinking of the ground could damage buildings
Erosion – the removal of trees in order to mine for coal could cause erosion

18. Economics
Coal must be shipped a long ways because factories tend to be a long ways from the coalfields
The principal methods of transporting coal – barge, train, or truck, all require petroleum
A lot of energy is expended so that coal can be used

19. Nuclear Energy
The Big Advantage = the large amount of energy that is released from a small amount of material
Nuclear power supplies about 1/6 of the electricity in the world
Europe – heavily dependent upon nuclear
In the U.S. -

20. Potential Accidents Fission Radioactive waste
Elaborate safety precautions
Chernobyl (1986)

21. Radioactive Waste Plutonium
No one has developed permanent storage for nuclear waste
The U.S., has not found a safe place underground because of worry about groundwater

22. Bomb Material
Nuclear power has been used in warfare twice, in August 1945 when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki
The Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, China and India have all tested nuclear weapons

23. Limited Uranium Reserves
Proven uranium reserves are limited – about 60 years
Breeder reactor – turns uranium into a renewable resource by generating plutonium, also a nuclear fuel
Plutonium is more lethal than uranium

24. Cost Nuclear power plants cost billions of dollars to build
The complexities of safe uranium transportation add cost

25. Earth’s Crust
92 natural elements, but 99% of the earth’s crust is composed of eight elements – oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium
Oxygen accounts for nearly ½, and silicon nearly ¼
The eight most common elements combine with more rare ones to make about 3000 different minerals

26. Minerals as Resources
Each mineral is potentially a resource if people find a use for it
The definition of which minerals constitute resources evolves as technology and economies change

27. Deposits
Mineral deposits are not uniformly distributed across the world
Most of the world’s supply of particular minerals is found in a handful of countries