Botkin Environmental Science Earth as Living Planet 8th txtbk

314 CHAPTER 15 Fossil Fuels and the Environment
Many Alaskans want the drilling to proceed and
point out that oil drilling for 30 years on the North
Slope of Alaska (Prudhoe Bay) has not harmed animals
or the environment.
Arguments against Drilling in the ANWR
Advances in technology are irrelevant to the question of
whether or not the ANWR should be drilled. Some wilderness
should remain wilderness! Drilling will forever
change the pristine environment of the North Slope.
Even with the best technology, oil exploration and
development will impact the ANWR. Intensive activity,
even in winter on roads constructed of ice, will
probably disrupt wildlife.
Ice roads are constructed from water from the tundra
ponds. To build a road 1 km (0.63 mi) long requires
about 3,640 m 3 (1 million gallons) of water.
Heavy vehicles used in exploration permanently scar
the ground—even if the ground is frozen hard when
the vehicles travel across the open tundra.
Accidents may occur in even the best facilities.
Oil development is inherently damaging because it
involves a massive industrial complex of people, vehicles,
equipment, pipelines, and support facilities.
Our decision about drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife
Refuge will reflect both science and values at a basic level.
New technology will lessen the environmental impact of oil
drilling. How we value the need for energy from oil compared
with how we value preservation of a pristine wilderness area
will determine our action: to drill or not to drill. The debate is
not over yet. The oil crisis of 2008 that drove the price of gasoline
to nearly $5 per gallon placed ANWR oil development in
the spotlight again.
Air pollution is perhaps the most familiar and serious
environmental impact of burning oil. Combustion of gasoline
in automobiles produces pollutants that contribute to urban
smog. (The adverse effects of smog on vegetation and human
health are well documented and are discussed in detail in
Chapter 21.)
15.3 Coal
Partially decomposed vegetation, when buried in a sedimentary
environment, may be slowly transformed into the
solid, brittle, carbonaceous rock we call coal. This process
is shown in Figure 15.10. Coal is by far the world’s most
abundant fossil fuel, with a total recoverable resource of
about 825 billion metric tons (Figure 15.11). The annual
world consumption of coal is about 7 billion metric tons,
sufficient for about 120 years at the current rate of use. 7
There are about 18,500 coal mines in the United States
with combined reserves of 262 billion tons and 2008
production of 1.2 billion tons. At present rates of mining,
U.S. reserves will last nearly 250 years. 7, 17 If, however,
consumption of coal increases in the coming decades, the
resource will not last nearly as long. 18
Coal is classified, depending on its energy and sulfur
content, as anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous, or
lignite (see Table 15.2). The energy content is greatest in
anthracite coal and lowest in lignite coal. The distribution
of coal in the contiguous United States is shown in Figure
15.12.
The sulfur content of coal is important because
low-sulfur coal emits less sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and is
therefore more desirable as a fuel for power plants. Most
low-sulfur coal in the United States is the relatively lowgrade,
low-energy lignite and subbituminous coal found
west of the Mississippi River. Power plants on the East
Peat
Coal swamps form.
Buried peat
Rise in sea level buries swamps in sediment.
Coal
(thickness
exaggerated)
FIGURE 15.10 Processes by which buried plant debris (peat) is
transformed into coal.
Compression of peat forms coal.