ENST 0842 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Keystone Pipeline, Northern Alberta, Renewable Energy

• School: Temple University
• Department: Environmental Studies
• Course: ENST 0842
• Professor: Kolson Schlosser

Document Summary

The capacity to do work (abstract concept) Energy becomes decreasingly organized and less useful for work. When an organism consumes another, only 10% is converted into usable energy. First law of thermodynamics : the total amount of energy in a system remains the same, though it changes form. Second law of thermodynamics : as energy in a system changes form, the amount available for work decreases. The lower down on a food chain we eat, the more efficient it is. Fossil fuels - coal, petroleum, natural gas (solar energy stored in buried plant material for 100-500 million years) High but falling for most fossil fuels. Oilsands/tarsands - sand/clay deposits with up to 20% bitumen. 3 barrels polluted wastewater for 1 barrel oil. Canadian oil sands are the single biggest industrial source of carbon emissions. Covid-19 may have affected how this course was taught.