O1 Notepacket Ethanol Powered Cars

Name ______Date ______Hour ______

Issue Investigation: There are numerous ways to investigate scientific issues … we focus on Environmental Issues. The following issue investigation technique is ONE way to handle your decision making.

Step 1: ______• What is the ______that is at risk in this scenario? • Try to put this in a ______form if possible to ______bias.

Step 2: ______• Players are ______• Animals and plants ______• Positions – Where does each ______stand on the ______.

Step 3: ______• Each person comes with their ______which influences their ______. • Common values that we use include:

o ______= o ______= o ______= o ______= o ______= o ______= o ______= o ______= o ______=

Step 4: ______• Come up with ______this issue as you can … be creative! • List at least ______possible ways to solve it.

Step 5: ______

• Pretend that you rule the world.

• How would YOU ______and ______?

O1 Notepacket Ethanol Powered Cars

While gasoline/electric hybrid cars have been on the road for awhile now, a more recent car choice facing consumers today is to drive a car based on ethanol fuels. Again, you have to do decide if it is a good option for the consumer or not based on the information we currently have on this technology. Ethanol is a wheat-based fuel additive, based on corn, barley or wheat that has been around for many years. E85 is the most popular "brand" of ethanol; it is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

Sam Hollen is a local farmer in Southern Wisconsin and he believes that ethanol production should be expanded. He offers the following reasons for his opinion--The benefit of this fuel is that it increases the octane in your fuel and reduces emissions. E85 also costs less for the consumer than traditional gasoline. Because the fuel is crop-based, many American farmers support ethanol and want to grow corn to fuel the country's escalating fuel needs. Ethanol is a good thing: it's domestically produced, crop-based and puts out reduced emissions.

Evaline Mutos believes that Ethanol based fuel is a good thing if for one reason and that reason is to, “reduce our dependence on foreign oil”. She also mentioned that she owns a flex-fuel vehicle and so far she’s been happy with its performance. A flex fuel vehicle is one that can run on the E85 or the more traditional blend E10. This reduces the need for special fueling stations for people who own the Ethanol powered vehicles. Evaline works at the GM plant in Janesville, WI which produces many of the Flex-fuel vehicles for GM Motors.

Connie Brider feels these cars are too limited yet. “We shouldn’t allow WI to jump on the bandwagon of ethanol production until the science has been proven to be effective.” She worries that we will learn that the Ethanol isn’t providing us the emissions reductions we thought and that many companies based on ethanol production will not survive if we build too many, too soon. She is an economist for the state of WI.

2 Practice Issue Investigation—Ethanol Powered Cars: Read the article and then try to complete the 5-step issue investigation process. Issue: (Write as a question in a sentence.)

Background: (Write a paragraph summarizing the history and events leading up to the issue. What is its current status?)

Player: (Describe the player. Position: (Describe the position of the Values: (Describe the values you think are Players may be individuals or player. How would they respond to the issue held by the player. Explain why you think the organizations.) question?) player has those values.)

Possible Solutions: (Explain how the issue could be addressed. These solutions might be provided by a player or you may create them on your own. You need at least 4-5 possible solutions.)

Your Opinion: (How would you personally answer the issue? Explain why you feel that way.)

3 Practice Issue Investigation—Great Lakes Compact: Read the article and then try to complete the 5-step issue investigation process. Issue: (Write as a question in a sentence.)

Background: (Write a paragraph summarizing the history and events leading up to the issue. What is its current status?)

Possible Solutions: (Explain how the issue could be addressed. These solutions might be provided by a player or you may create them on your own. You need at least 4-5 possible solutions.)

Your Opinion: (How would you personally answer the issue? Explain why you feel that way.)

4 Easter Island–Lessons learned

Where?

What happened? Who?

What have we learned about sustainability?

How did it end? When?

5 Living Planet Report:

Graphing Analysis:

Directions: Use the graphs to answer the related questions. Most questions must be answered in complete sentences. The exception to answering in complete sentences is for questions where a line is provided.

Use Figure 22 to answer these questions.

1. What is the title of the graph? ______

2. What type of graph is used to display the data? ______

3. What is the x-axis showing? ______

4. What is the y-axis showing? ______

5. Why is the bar shown in multiple colors? What do the multiple colors indicate?

6. What does the green line that runs across all the bars represent?

7. What information is provided by this graph? [In other words, what can you learn by reading this graph?]

8. What was the criterion for including a country on the list? [Hint: Look at the description of the figure.]

9. Which two countries have the highest carbon footprint?

a. ______

b. ______

10. Which country has the largest use of grazing land per person? ______

11. Describe one significant difference in the pattern of countries with the highest ecological footprint per person with the countries with the lowest ecological footprint per person. [Consider the different factors influencing the footprint.]

Use Figure 23 to answer these questions.

12. What is the title of the graph? ______

13. What is the x-axis showing? ______

14. What is the y-axis showing? ______

15. What information is provided by this graph? [In other words, what can you learn by reading this graph?]

16. Which two components have changed the least during the past 40 years?

a. ______

b. ______

17. Which component has changed the most during the past 40 years? ______

Use Figure 25 to answer these questions.

18. What is the title of the graph? ______

19. What is the x-axis showing? ______

20. What is the y-axis showing? ______

21. What does the solid line intersecting the bars indicate? ______

22. Compare the US footprint to its biocapacity. (Hint, use the legend to help you) ______

Use Figure 26 to answer these questions.

23. What is the title of the graph? ______

24. What is the x-axis showing? ______

25. What is the y-axis showing? ______

26. What does the dotted red line on each bar show? ______

27. What does the number on each bar mean? Why are some numbers positive and some negative?

28. What information is provided by this graph? [In other words, what can you learn by reading this graph?]

29. Which region has the smallest population? ______

30. What is the population of the region with the smallest population? ______

31. Which region has the smallest ecological footprint? ______

32. Approximately what is the national ecological footprint of the European Union (Europe EU)? ______

33. Approximately what is the biocapacity of Latin America and the Caribbean? ______

Use Figure 28 to answer these questions.

34. What is the title of the graph? ______

35. What is the x-axis showing? ______

36. What is the y-axis showing? ______

37. What is the difference between internal and external water?

38. Which three countries have the largest internal water footprint?

39. Which three countries have the largest external water footprint?

40. Select two countries with data that surprised you. Why did you choose these countries?

Use Figures 38 and 39 to answer the following questions.

41. What information do these graphs tell you?

42. What is the difference between the two graphs?

43. Which region has changed the most between 1961 and 2005? Explain your answer.

44. Which region has changed the least between 1961 and 2005? Explain your answer.

8 Ecological Footprint Analysis:

Directions: Use the class discussions, previous course work and the reading and graphs/maps in the Living Planet Report to help you answer these questions. Remember that questions must be answered in complete sentences unless noted.

45. Typical Daily Activities: (Just list them!) Developing Countries: Developed Countries:

46. What characteristics separate developing countries from developed countries?

47. What are resources?

48. What are renewable resources?

List a few examples:

49. What are nonrenewable resources?

List a few examples:

50. What does resource depletion mean?

51. It is possible for both renewable and nonrenewable resources to become depleted. Explain how that is possible.

9 Living Planet Report Analysis Questions: 52. What is an ecological footprint?

53. What was the GLOBAL ecological footprint in 2005? ______How does that compare with the amount replenished every year?

54. What is ecological overshoot?

55. How long has the Earth been in ecological overshoot? ______

56. How is it possible for us to maintain our current levels of resource use even though the Earth is in ecological overshoot? (How can we use more resources each year than are being replaced each year? Think!)

57. What is biocapacity?

58. What types of things do you think are included as built-up land?

59. How does the ecological footprint of the U.S. compare to Italy? (Quantify.)

60. How does the ecological footprint of the U.S. compare to Mongolia? (Quantify.)

61. How does the ecological footprint of the U.S. compare to Rwanda? (Quantify.)

62. Which country’s ecological footprint most surprised you? WHY?

10 63. Which regions of the world are using FEWER resources than are available in their region? (In other words, which countries have excess biocapacity?)

64. Create two lists of these regions – one showing greatest to least ecological footprint per capita and the other showing greatest to least population.

Ecological Footprint: Population:

• How does the population of a region compare to the consumption of a region?

65. How has the population in developing countries changed during the past 40 years?

66. How has the population in developed countries changed during the past 40 years?

67. Consider Water footprints. What are three water intensive products? Why are they considered water intensive?

68. How could global trade impact resource availability and resource use worldwide?

69. How is an ecological footprint related to sustainability?

70. How would a sustainable society look in terms of biocapacity and resource use?

11 Global Population:

From: http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/images/exponential.gif: History of Global Population Growth:

Global population is ______increasing. This means that …

Some factors that led to an increasing world population:

1. ______

a. In the early 1800s, soap use greatly increased.

b. By the mid to late 1800s, ______were much more common.

c. Improved sanitation results in …

2. ______

a. Improving sanitation practices in the medical community

b. New medicines – particularly ______and

______. c. These improvements have resulted in ______infant and children deaths

as well as a ______average lifespan in much of the world.

12 3. ______

a. Greatly increased ______from the mid 1940s to early 1980s.

b. Crop production is no longer ______because there are problems with soil, water and plant diseases from current farming practices.

c. Overall, many ______people are fed on ______pieces of farmland compared to 100 years ago.

For example, today the average acre of agriculture in the U.S. is producing ______more food than it did in 1940.

Worldwide, child mortality is much lower and life expectancy is much greater than in the past. However, not all parts of the world have low mortality or long life expectancy.

The World’s Population is ______distributed.

______countries are experiencing considerably ______population increases compared to ______countries.

Why is population distributed unevenly worldwide?

1. Developing countries have a …

2. In most developing countries, women are ______. a. Women do not have the same opportunities as men in:

i. ______

ii. ______

iii. ______

iv. ______

b. Women’s disadvantage begins immediately and continues throughout their lives: i. Boys get more food than girls. ii. Boys are many more times likely to get medical care than girls. iii. Boys have a much greater chance of attending school. iv. As a result, women must find security through marriage. v. Once married, women need at least one son (and, ideally more) to provide for future security.

c. Strong connection between ______and ______.

When women have ______and ______

opportunities, they have ______children.

13 From: http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/TLSF/theme_c/mod12/img/fig_femlit_sml.gif

3. Vastly differing access to ______options in the developed and developing world.

a. More than ______women die every year from pregnancy or childbirth.

From: http://www.ispub.com/xml/journals/ijh/vol3n2/reprod-fig1.jpg

i. Primarily occurs in ______countries.

ii. Often associated with ______and very little time between pregnancies.

b. Women (and couples) in developing countries often have no access to

______even when they want it.

14 Why is increasing world population such a concern?

1. Human suffering:

a. ______: 3 billion people worldwide live in extreme poverty (on less than $2/day).

b. ______: More than 1 billion people do not have access to clean and safe drinking water.

c. ______: Thousands of people die everyday from lack of food and poor nutrition.

d. ______: Many conflicts worldwide are directly or indirectly caused by too many people wanting a limited number of local resources. Millions of people are forced to become refuges every year.

2. ______:

a. ______: Areas under strain from higher populations often have poor land, water and air quality.

b. Few ______plans exist in developing countries.

3. High population does ______mean ______:

a. The majority of the world’s ______lives in

______countries.

b. However, the majority of the world’s ______are consumed

in ______countries.

c. As ______countries gain technology and industrialization,

their citizens will begin to use more ______.

The Current Population of the World is approximately ______.

15 Power of Population Pyramids:

Introduction: To help project population numbers for different countries, demographers look at the profile of the countries’ residents. What are the ages of the people? How many are men? How many are women? Taking this information, they construct “population pyramids.” These graphs depict the configuration of a country’s population as impacted by 70 to 80 years of economic, political, and natural events. Population pyramids represent a specific population, sorted by age and gender, with the youngest at the bottom and the oldest at the top. Each age level grouping is called a cohort. These graphs can also help predict future population trends.

World Population Pyramid:

Directions: 1. You will work to create a population pyramid for a specific country.

Your assigned country = ______

16 2. Use graph paper to construct a population pyramid. You should draw a line down the middle of the graph to separate the male and female populations. You will plot the percentage of the population for each cohort along the x-axis – the females to the right and males to the left of the center line. The age groups will be running up the y-axis with the youngest at the bottom and the oldest at the top. (Use the cohort separations shown on your world population sample pyramid.) After graphing your data, use colored pencils to shade in the two sides of the graph.

3. Remember to label your graph with the country!

Questions: 1. Where are you represented on the U.S. population pyramid? (In other words, what percentage of the U.S.’s population is in your age cohort?)

2. Are there more baby boys or more baby girls born in each country?

3. Are there more elderly women or men? Why might that be the case?

4. Can you tell from the graphs which country has the most people? Why or why not?

5. Of the countries selected, which graphs look most like pyramids? What does that indicate about their population growth rates? What factors would change the shape of the pyramids in the future?

6. Looking at the pyramids, which of these selected countries appears to have the slowest rates of population growth? How can you tell?

7. How would you expect the Mexican pyramid to look if you graphed it 40 years from now? Why do you think that?

17 18 19

As you viewed this movie, what were two things that stuck out to you as important, relevant pieces of information?

Does this production make you think about the United States in a different way? Why or why not?

Do you think this movie will impact you personally in any way? If not, why not? If yes, how?