ENV100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 50: Swampy, Woody Plant, Sedimentary Rock
mrialim and 39408 others unlocked
7
ENV100H1 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
7 documents
Document Summary
In a broad sense they are renewable, but not on a humanly-accessible timescale. Nuclear is the only truly non-renewable energy: once you split an atom that"s it. Mineral resources can be recycled, but energy resources cannot because of second law of thermodynamics. Fundamentally different in that sense in terms of how we manage them. A lot of energy available in the earth system. What is in question is availability of energy that is available, economically affordable, socially acceptable, enviro benign. Choices we can make to maximize energy future. Global consumption: nowhere near matching all energy still available. Industrialized nations use a lot more fossil fuel than any other form of energy. Developing nations: traditionally much more biomass energy, 9-10% of total energy sources worldwide small number of people responsible for most energy use. Canada uses a lot of energy because: it is cold, resource extraction-based economy, big country, need to transport things, wasteful energy use habits.