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1 Name _______________________ ENVSCI 120 Final-Critical Thinking Part 1 Individual Part (75 points) Due before the Final, Tuesday, December 19, 2023, 11:30 am You must use TurnItIn under Exams in Blackboard to submit this exam. 1) Make sure your NAME is your Title and in the document when you submit so your score will be assigned to you. Also include your name at the top of your uploaded document. 2) Please delete the instructions, questions, and images from your document before you submit. Only submit your responses to the questions. This will make your files smaller (more manageable) and lower your similarity scores. 3) Upload a PDF file with your name in the title to Exams/Final in Blackboard (TurnItIn) before 11:30 am on December 19 th . 4) You should keep a copy of your exam to use for your Group Work-Part 3. Instructions: A.) You may use any source of information except human resources ( you are to complete Part I of the exam without consulting any other person or artificial intelligence program ). To be clear, you may not text, email, or otherwise communicate with a person; you may not use Chat GPT; you may not use social media to communicate with another person regarding this test. B.) You may use your Textbook, web sources (with the exceptions below), library sources, etc. are fine. C.) DO NOT COPY & PASTE from any source. Place in quotes any words that are directly from other sources including websites . You MUST attribute ideas, lists, and paraphrased information to the source where you found them. You should cite your sources in the text of your answer (e.g. Chen, 2017). Please list all complete sources that you have used at the end of each question. D..) You may NOT use any blogs, homework sites, tutor websites (e.g. www.chegg.com , etc.), or social media where any person has posted an answer to an exam question. Use of these sites is strictly prohibited and will result in disciplinary sanctions. E.) Please type your responses. Please remove the exam questions before submitting to Turnitin. This will reduce your similarity score. Feel free to write in figures, drawings, and equations if necessary by hand. These do not need to be submitted to Turnitin. F.) As a rule of thumb, you are not expected to spend more than 1.5 hours per question. This means that you might spend ~1 hour researching the question and 30 minutes writing your answers. G.) Please provide detailed support for any of your statements or an swers. In other words, a simple “yes” or “no”, “agree” or “disagree”, or “I think it is clean”, is not a complete answer and will not receive credit. A complete answer takes the form of “Yes, because … and therefore...” or “I think it is clean because …. “. H.) You will be graded on your ability to think and write critically in addressing these environmental issues. Simply writing facts that you find on the internet is not enough. More detailed, supportive responses will be more valued than generalizations. Once you have completed the exam, Please sign the following statement : “I have not consulted any other person in completing this INDIVIDUAL Part I of the exam”: ___________________________ For information purposes only (this will not affect your grade), how much time (hours) did you spend on this exam? ______________

2 1.) SEMI-CLOSED SYSTEMS Systems are characterized by many connected parts, boundaries, feedbacks, thresholds, and emergent properties. Consider your home. a) Describe the sources of energy into your home. Describe how that same amount of energy leaves your home? (3 points). b) Please describe one (1) positive feedback system and one (1) negative feedback system regarding energy in your home? (4 points) c) Please describe one threshold in your home. In other words, is there a condition in your home at which you can imagine an energy system breaks down? (3 points)

4 3.) ENERGY Fossil fuel combustion produces excess greenhouse gases and leads to climate change. As is being discussed at COP 28 in Dubai, global society will need to shift to carbon-free energy by 2050 if not sooner to avoid some of the largest impacts of climate change. a.) How do electric heat pumps work? (4 points) b.) How can electrifying heating and cooling systems and transportation (cars) help reduce CO 2 emissions? (3 points) c.) What are some of the benefits of using offshore wind power to generate electricity? What are some of the limitations? Please be specific. (3 points)

5 4.) AIR POLLUTION Air pollution affects the health of millions of people, especially those living in big cities. a.) Why does urban ozone (O 3 ) concentration (red line) peak in the afternoon in Figure A? (2 pts) b.) Why does nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) (black line) peak in the morning (Figure A)? (2 pts) c.) How might these patterns be different on the weekends? What would happen to these concentration on a rainy day?? (3 pts) d.) Please explain the decreasing trend of NO 2 concentrations in major cities during the onset of COVID in 2020 (Figure B). (3 pts) A) B)

7 6.) CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXTREME WEATHER Extreme weather is becoming more common due to climate change. a.) So far, there have been 25 confirmed weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion in the US in 2023. How might we reduce the number and/or severity of these in the future? Please give at least two specific strategies. (4 points) b.) How did climate change affect wildfires in Canada in 2023? Please explain. (3 points) c.) 2023 will be the hottest year ever recorded being 1.46C above pre-industrial. Describe three threats to human health associated with this record-breaking global annual average temperature, (3 points)

8 7.) WATER Discharge is the volume of water moving down a stream or river per unit of time, commonly expressed in cubic feet per second. In general, river discharge is computed by multiplying the area of water in a channel cross section by the average velocity of the water in that cross section. a.) Explain the data in the top graph. How do you explain so many sharp peaks? (2 points) b.) Explain the data in bottom graph. Why are there fewer sharp peaks? (2 points) c.) How is the data of the two rivers consistent? They are located less than 10 miles apart. What do they say about the rainfall in summer and fall of 2023? (3 pts) d.) How are the characteristics of these two watersheds different? Which one is more likely to have floods? (3 points) A B