ENGL 23 1 8 2020 - Lecture notes from January 8th, 2020, professor Ken Hiltner PDF

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Lecture notes from January 8th, 2020, professor Ken Hiltner ...

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Wednesday January 8 Where does wood come from? Acord + Earth, Water, Air, Fire Earth  Nitrogen in soil Water  Drought-tolerant plants (ex. Sage) Air Fire (energy)  Solar energy – photosynthesis  Why growers use opaque plastic for weed control CO2, Plants & Carbs Carbon + Hydrogen + Oxygen = C6H12O6 Atmospheric CO2 is principle cause of climate change Plants take CO2 & water & solar radiation  photosynthesis CO2 converts to oxygen (O2) by PLANTS! Sugars/Carbohydrates (what plants produce) are essential foods for all animals Life on Earth is carbon-based Fossil Fuels Wood made up of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin When plant dies & decays, the carbon that it contains recombines with oxygen to become atmospheric CO2 Spring  pulls CO2 from atmosphere Fall  releases CO2 back into atmosphere Few hundred million yrs ago…  Earth more swampy  Plant decays in water & CO2 trapped in water, not in the atmosphere  As more stuff decays, it gets pushed down & fossilized Gas  Methane CH4 Oil  Gasoline CnH2nO2 Coal  Anthracite C240H90O4NS - Dig up & burn, carbon recombines with oxygen and becomes CO2, the most common greenhouse gas Methane is a dangerous greenhouse gas even without being burned  Responsible for more than 1/6th of global greenhouse gas emissions  1/3 fracking, 1/3 beef industry, 1/3 everything else (coal mining, landfills) Atmospheric CO2: 415PPM  Reasons: o Humans digging up fossil fuels & burning them at alarming & increasing rate Scientist solution = need to keep 80% of unextracted fossil fuels in the ground Search “Ken Hiltner Climate Change Prezi” on Google for Prezi slides Greenhouse Gases

Wednesday January 8 Greenhouse Effect: trapping solar radiation, referencing how earth’s atmosphere (& certain gases in particular) allow solar radiation to heat our planet in a consistent way Greenhouse gases: CO2, methane, etc.  Not completely bad bc without them, the earth would be too cold to be habitable  But its keeping the earth too warm Global warming  Climate change...