A History of Energy Use by Humans

and the Environmental Impact from it

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 Before the 19th Century…
How did a traditional village get energy?
-People used local resources first,
then they go further and further
away to get resources.

-If resources are plentiful and

populations are small, this might be
sustainable

Sustainability: using
resources at the same, or
lower, rate than they are
being produced.
Rate in ≤ Rate out
Example: rate of oil (petroleum) use
= 100 million barrels per day.
Recommended Reading:
Rate at which new fossil fuel is Collapse, by Jared Diamond
naturally produced = 100 barrels/ (or anything else he
day. writes!)
 What happened in 1769?
James Watt created a more efficient and powerful steam powered engine

Now humans had another energy source - chemical energy. And boy did we use it!
Mtoe - millions of tons of oil equivalent
 Fossil Fuels and Wood are Hydrocarbons
Burning Hydrocarbons in the presence of oxygen (combustion) produces Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Carbon Dioxide absorbs heat energy in the atmosphere.
More Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more energy in the atmosphere.
Rate CO2 in ≠ Rate CO2 out (i.e. not sustainable)
Chemist Svante Arrhenius first published about the effect of CO2 on
atmospheric heat absorption in 1898.
In the early 20th Century some people started to take
notice that sustainability was not humans’ (especially
in the U.S.) bag, baby.
President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir in Yosemite in 1903.
John Muir convinced the
President to camp in Yosemite
while in office.
Roosevelt enacted the
“Antiquities Act,” a precursor
to the National Park Service
John Muir petitioned Congress
for the National Parks Act,
which led to the establishment
of Yosemite and Sequoia
National Parks.

He also had an epic beard

Perhaps the Government could make a case to save some things?

THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act
creating the National Park Service, a new federal bureau in the
Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35
national parks and monuments then managed by the
department and those yet to be established.
And We All Lived Happily Ever After, Right?
 Hey, Remember Oil? 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill
Santa Barbara and Carpinteria, CA
 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill

Unocal Oil derrick given a waiver to not

follow government regulations. What’s
the worst that could happen?
Oh, 1000 gallons of oil spilled a day for a
month.
Link to this story
 Let’s not forget petroleum products and industrial waste
Cuyahoga River Fires:
This polluted river in Cleveland, OH caught fire many times. The image is from a 1952 fire. Another fire in 1969
was widely reported. Pollution was caused by industry along the river. Eventually, years later, this
led to the EPA Clean Water Act of 1972

Pollution of the river in 1967

Amazingly, government regulation and

human effort helped to reverse this. Check
out this video. It will make you feel better.
 Earthrise Image 1968, Apollo 8 mission
-Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders

Borman: Oh my God! Look at

that picture over there!
Here's the Earth coming up.
Wow, is that pretty.

Anders: Hey, don't take that,

it's not scheduled.

Borman: (laughing) You got a

color film, Jim?

Anders: Hand me that roll of

color quick, will you...

Lovell: Oh man, that's great!

 Early 1970’s
(under Republican President Richard Nixon and a Democratic Congress)
What would you expect to happen under a Republican president?

Environmental deregulation?

Amazingly, the opposite!

-Clean Air Act

-Clean Water Act

-Leaded Gas phased out (watch “The Clean

Room in videos—questions will be on the quiz”) Who knows how much longer?

-Catalytic Converters Required in all cars

-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) founded

And We All Lived Happily Ever After, Right?

 Is Environmental Progress taking a step back?
Environmental Rollbacks under Trump administration: (source: New York times)

Federal judge blocks Biden administration from completing the largest oil
lease ever in the Gulf of Mexico for not taking into account environmental
damage
 Anyway, back to everybody’s favorite topic: Oil!

-1973- Arab Oil Embargo causes huge lines for gasoline.

-In the old days, oil was used as a way to manipulate governments.
-Did we ever move away from our dependence on oil to change that?
-NO! ‘Murica!
 Well, for about 4 years we tried. Late 1970’s

(under Democratic President Jimmy Carter and a Democratic Congress)

-Small, fuel efficient cars became popular for a time
-A brief surge in solar energy usage

-President Carter had

solar panels installed
on the White House
Roof.
1980’s
(under Republican President Ronald
Reagan and a Democratic Congress)

-President Reagan ordered the solar panels removed.

-Why?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/01/29/reagan-decontrols-gasoline-crude-in-deregulation-debut/
fa3134b7-f70a-4bdd-92be-3c92f43e6112/
 Love Canal: Um, pollution is bad, m’kay?
-a housing development not far from Niagra falls.
From 1976-1978, residents started reporting weird smells,
sludge oozing from the ground, and health problems.
Turns out, the site had started as a canal, started by William T. Love in 1892.
-The project was a failure and was sold to Hooker Chemical, part of Occidental Petroleum
-It was the site of a chemical plant and toxic waste was dumped from 1920-1953.
-It was covered with dirt for many years until a housing development
and elementary school were built.
-Residents were deceived at first, but later organized and the state eventually
bought their houses and relocated the residents.
-It was so expensive to clean up, the Superfund program was started by the
Federal Government to pay for Cleanup over many years.
 Please don’t hog the spotlight, Oil, remember your old pal Coal?
Smog, acid rain from coal fired power plants
Coal contains:
Carbon
Nitrogen
Sulfur
Anything nearby when it was formed
Reaction of these substances
with Oxygen (a.k.a. burning it)
produces:
Carbon oxides
Nitroxides
Sulfoxides

These substances, combined

with water, produce:
carbonic acid
nitric acid
sulfuric acid
SMOG IN BEIJING 1989
Acids kill living things and
.• _.._ --... _•• 1.-11 ...... ,1 . ....

1193 coal fired power plants in 1989 degrade non-living things

Late 1980’s (Regan and Bush Sr.)
 Late 1980’s (Regan and Bush Sr.)

1987 – Montreal Protocol Signed

Banned Chlorofluorocarbons
197 Countries Ratified. The most successful
treaty in United Nations history.

And We All Lived Happily Ever After, Right?

The Beginning of the Modern Era of Blood for Money Wars

Why did we go to war to save Kuwait (1990)?

700 oil wells
250 million gallons of oil burned
per day
40 billion gallons of oil in total
2006, Al Gore’s movie --warning about climate change
2007 – California Takes the lead passing:
AB 32 Setting goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
And “A Million Solar Homes” incentive program.
And We All Lived Happily Ever After, Right?
 2010….
Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Largest spill of all time:

5 million barrels of oil
(a bit more than one hour world
supply)

July 25, 2020

1000 tons of Fuel oil spill
on the Reef off the coast of
Mauritius main island.
People there are angry!
Source: New York Times
 August 2016: California Passes a new Climate Law

California passed SB 32 –mandates a 40% emission cut by 2030

Jan 1, 2020 California mandates Solar panels (Title 24 of California

Building Code) must be installed on all new homes

But….Developers are successfully circumventing the law

 ENERGY ! (SUSTAINABILITY) ! ENVIRONMENT

Environmental studies is a program that focuses on environment-related

issues using scientific, social scientific, or humanistic approaches or a
combination.

Extracting and using energy involves human interaction with and impact
on the environment.

Sustainability efforts focus on:

Developing renewable sources of energy that have a potential to be more
sustainable compared to non- renewable sources. Also, developing land
use policies that meet the needs of current and future generations of
humans and the natural world.

Mitigating negative environmental impacts conserve resources and maintain

the ecosystem (e.g. depletion of resources, destruction of habitats,
modification of geology and ecology, emission of pollutants and modification
of the material composition of land, air, and water, etc.)
Review Time!
1. In 1769 James Watt developed a more efficient steam engine using ______ energy.
2. What was the source of that energy?
3. Using this energy lead to improvements in the lives of many humans. So much so that the
human population of the Earth ______ between 1800 - 1920.
4. A major product of fossil fuel combustion is a gas termed ________, which scientist
(name)______ _____ determined absorbs heat and has an affect on the temperature of
the ground in the year _____.
5. What oil company would go on to investigate climate change from fossil fuel use, then
deny the results then found, actively seek to discredit climate change evidence, then run
the Exxon Valdez, one of their largest tankers aground off of a pristine coast of Alaska in
1989 to produce what, until the Deepwater Horizon debacle in 2010, was the largest oil
spill in history?
6. Describe at 4 instances that the Federal government acted to positively affect the
environment.
7. Give at least 1 example of environmental regulation positively affecting GDP