Green-house effect, global warming, ozone depletion.
Ocean acidification.
Glaciers melting.
Sea-level rising.
Atmospheric circulation change.
Ecological footprint of human activities.
Critical materials.
Renewable energies
Energy from fossil and fissile sources.
Induced seismicity
Water desalination and sanitation.
Water from atmospheric humidity.
Life Cycle Assessment.
Circular economy.
Sharing and re-using.
REFERENCES
The following texts can be downloaded for free from the corresponding URLs listed below:
1) IPCC, (2014) Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp.
ISBN 978-92-9169-143-2
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full_wcover.pdf
2) Raven J et al. (2005) Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide; The Royal Society
ISBN 0 85403 617 2
http://royalsociety.org/uploadedFiles/Royal_Society_Content/policy/publications/2005/9634.pdf
3) Jacobson M. Z., and M.A. Delucchi (2011). Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials. Energy Policy 39, 1154–1169.
doi: 16 /j.enpol.2010.11.040,
ISSN: 0301-4215.
https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/JDEnPolicyPt1.pdf
4) United Nations, Framework Convention on Climate Change, FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1 (2015) ADOPTION OF THE PARIS AGREEMENT.
http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf
5) WHO (2011)
Guidelines for drinking-water quality - 4th ed.
ISBN 978 92 4 154815 1 http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44584/9789241548151_eng.pdf?sequence=1&ua=1
The following texts and web-sites (referenced in the slides) are to be considered as supporting material:
6) Sweet WV, Kopp RE, Weaver CP, Obeysekera J, Horton RM, Thieler ER, Zervas C (2017) Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States; NOAA Technical Report NOS CO-OPS 083
ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOS/COOPS/TR/TR_NOS_COOPS_083.pdf
8) Sovacool B K (2008) Valuing the greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear power: A critical survey, Energy Policy, Vol. 36, p. 2950.
https://www.nirs.org/climate/background/sovacool_nuclear_ghg.pdf
9) Vujic J., R. M. Bergmann, R. Skoda, and M. Miletic (2012). Small modular reac-
tors: Simpler, safer, cheaper? Energy 45, 288 – 295.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054421200093X
10) M.A. Delucchi, and Jacobson M. Z. (2011). Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II: Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies. Energy Policy 39, 1170–1190.
doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2010.11.045.
https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/DJEnPolicyPt2.pdf
12) Energy, transport and environment indicators, 2015 edition, Statistical books
ISSN 2363-2372
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/7052812/KS-DK-15-001-EN-N.pdf/eb9dc93d-8abe-4049-a901-1c7958005f5b
13) Good J (2006) The Aesthetics of Wind Energy, in Human Ecology Forum, Human Ecology Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 Society for Human Ecology
http://trangwww.humanecologyreview.org/pastissues/her131/good.pdf
14) Cordell D (2010) The Story of Phosphorus Sustainability implications of global phosphorus scarcity for food security, Linköping Studies in Arts and Science No. 509 - Department of Water and Environmental Studies - Linköping University - Linköping
www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:291760/FULLTEXT01.pdf
15) 7.2) Main METALS, Aluminium, Iron, Copper, Steel
See the corresponding links in "The Essential Chemical Industry Online"
http://www.essentialchemicalindustry.org/metals.html
16) CRUDE OIL, Cracking and related refinery processes
http://www.essentialchemicalindustry.org/processes/cracking-isomerisation-and-reforming.html
17) European Commission, Annex to the Report on Critical Raw Materials for the EU
Report of the Ad hoc Working Group on defining critical raw materials
May 2014
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/eip-raw-materials/en/community/document/annex-v-report-ad-hoc-working-group-defining-critical-raw-materials
18) European Commission, REPORT ON CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS FOR THE EU
Report of the Ad hoc Working Group on defining critical raw materials
May 2014
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/specific-interest/critical_en
Learning Objectives
The keywords resources and environment, together with the particular and difficult historical period we are living through, can be considered a good starting point for a high-education action to increase today the knowledge and the environmental awareness of the decision makers, of the technicians and of the citizens of tomorrow.
The conceptual tools the characterize who studies and works in Economy, Social Sciences, Politics and Laws may not include those knowledge contents, related to Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Ecology and Environmental Science and Technology that build up the core of this course and a great and lasting distance, because of communication problems and reciprocal misunderstanding, may arise between the economist, the policy and decision maker, the social and the human scientist and those who study the current environmental issues. The integration between these two worlds of knowledge, between Science and Humanities, is critically low although can be evaluated as instrumental and strategic to face a near future of environmental, demographic, social and economical crisis. For this reason the first aim of this course is to give a contribution to build up a set of operative knowledge and information to increase the evaluation capability of the attenders and their degree of critical reflectiveness and autonomy of judgement, to make more fruitful and bilateral the communication with the specialist, the engineer, the technician, the researcher and the scientist who work in those field that are becoming more and more strategic for the future of the humankind and his only home-planet.
Prerequisites
A good knowledge and understanding of written English.
An operative knowledge of a personal connected computer and of the usual software products for navigation, word processing, calculus and presentation.
Teaching Methods
Traditional classes, experimental lessons, workgroup for simulation, problem solving, discussion, guided research.
Further information
The experimenta lessons will be taken at the Mer.Qu.Ris. Lab. (Laboratory of commodity sciences and natural resources), D15 building, III floor.
Type of Assessment
The examination focuses on the following 5 macro-areas:
1) Climate change and its influence on human activities
2) Human activities and their influence on climate change
3) Macro and micro systems for access to drinking water, energy, and information
4) Critical resources for contemporaneity
5) Analytical tools and interpretative paradigms that can be summarized in the following keywords: "Life Cycle Assessment", "From Cradle to Grave", "From Cradle to Cradle," "Circular Economy"
The exam consists of three questions on three of the five issues, previously described, for a total duration of 20-30 '. Each question contributes one third to the final vote.
Attending students can replace one / two of the three topics with a power-point presentation of about 10 minutes.
Course program
The course presents issues which are and will be more and more important either for the citizen of today and of tomorrow, or for those who study or work in the field of Economy, Social Sciences, Politics, Law, in the framework of “a new vision of environmental awareness, cooperation and action (Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration)” and of the challenges that such professions have and will have to face.
5.1) Greenhouse effect and global warming (mechanism, negationism, reliable information sources); greenhouse gases (chemistry, physics, roles sourcesi). Ozone.
5.2) Trends of athmospheric CO2 concentration and of ocean water acidity.
5.3) Glacers melting and permafrost thawing (lubricating mechanism, metanhydrates, role of sea waves in polar ice reduction, forecastings, sea-level rise). Impact on human activities.
5.4) Change in athmospheric circulation (Polar jet stream, the USA case, the drought in California, the drought in Siria). Impact on human activities.
5.5) Greenhouse gases and ecological footprint of beef and dairy production, transportation, energy production from fossil sources, waste management: comparative analysis.
5.6) New materials and new technologies: opportunities and critical points. Critical materials. Phosphorus, lithium, lanthanides, Uranium.
5.7)Renewable energies: photovoltaic, thermosolar, concentration thermosolar, wind, hydro, biomass, tides, waves. LCA comparative analysis.
Design, feasibility, application; case studies for disadvantaged areas and developing countries. Strength and weakness points. Expected results.
5.8)Nuclear Energy. Safety. Biological effects of ionizing radiations. Environmental and agri-food products check on-the-field and in lab. LCA analysis.
5.9) Desalination and sanitation of water in advanced and in developing countries. Advanced experiences of water recycling. Water from atmospheric humidity.Design, feasibility, application; case studies for disadvantaged areas and developing countries. Strength and weakness points. Expected results.
5.10) The “Life Cycle Assessment” and the "From cradle to grave" way.
The “Circular economy” and the "From cradle to cradle" approach. The manufacturing sector approaches the traditional agricultural sector life-style. Products, byproducts, waste; critical and virtuous points . Critical points of the manufacturing sector; the externalization of environmental costs.
5.11) Sharing and reusing: the peculiar cases of information, information techology and software. Open Source systems. GNU. Linux.
LCA Analysis by open systems.
Open Hardware