Warming to diverse tasks with energy - Education News - theage.com.au

Remember to address the particular scenario in the question.

ENVIRONMENTAL issues affect the long-term future of humanity and our world. We need an informed, balanced debate on environmental issues, leading to sound decisions that both safeguard our planet and provide a decent standard of living for all its inhabitants.

In environmental science, we attempt to understand the scientific and social basis for sound decision making in these areas. In unit 3, which is examined in the June examination, you will be studying two critical areas - energy and global warming, and the maintenance of diversity in the biosphere.

Energy and global warming

The media have recently highlighted two issues: the exponential growth in energy demand in the expanding economies of China and India, and the renewed debate over nuclear power as a non-polluting energy source, particularly for those two countries.

Their populations have a legitimate right to raise their standards of living to an acceptable level and to lower the huge gap between the standards of living in First and Third World countries. But this must be done in a sustainable way, and resource-rich countries such as Australia have an obligation to facilitate both these aims.

In this Area of Study, you are expected to be able to handle issues and scenarios relating to energy and global warming.

- Assessment of energy demand and ways to meet it:

You should understand the basic units of energy, different forms of energy, conservation of energy, and the measurement of energy efficiency. In your course work you should have studied one fossil and one non-fossil energy source in depth.

Remember to prepare the characteristics of these two energy sources including their advantages and disadvantages for different scenarios. If given a particular energy demand scenario, you need to be able to understand the needs, and then be able to suggest and evaluate various options for meeting these demands, giving the arguments for and against different energy sources or combinations of these.

Take care to address the particular scenario in the question, rather than just quoting the advantages and disadvantages you have prepared.

You should also have general knowledge of the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of the other energy sources mentioned in the Study Design - biomass, solar, hydro-electric, wind, coal, natural gas and nuclear - although your knowledge here does not have to be as extensive as for your in-depth sources.

- Greenhouse effect:

You should be able to distinguish between the natural and enhanced greenhouse effect. You need to be able to relate the contribution of different energy sources to global warming through the enhanced greenhouse effect. This will require an understanding of the mechanism of the greenhouse effect including the role of different types of radiation.

You should be familiar with major human interventions that contribute to the enhanced greenhouse effect and a range of options for reducing the problem.

Diversity in the biosphere

The second Area of Study is diversity in the biosphere. There are several areas you should focus on in your examination preparation.

First, there are a number of terms that you should be familiar with, particularly the conservation categories, threats to biodiversity such as genetic drift, genetic swamping, in-breeding and similar, and assessment of biodiversity and a range of management strategies.

Second, you should have studied one particular threatened species in depth, and be prepared to write in detail on this. In particular, you should be able to identify a particular population of the species, its habitat, the threats to it, and ways of managing these threats to protect the particular population of the species.

Also there are a number of treaties and regulatory frameworks listed in the Study Design that you should know the basic details of: CITES, Ramsar Convention and the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. You are only expected to know the general aims of these - not specific details about their terms or detailed operation.

- "Evaluate" questions:

As on previous examinations, there will be about 20 multiple choice questions in section A, and several questions that require short written answers in section B. In some questions in section B you may be asked to evaluate options or arguments.

The term "evaluate" has caused some difficulties in the past. Remember that evaluate indicates that you should express a judgement, backed up by some evidence either from within the question or from your studies during the semester. These questions will generally be marked on the support you give for your judgement rather than exclusively on whether they are "right" or "wrong".

Gerry Healy teaches at Xavier College and at the University of Melbourne. He is an assessor and panel chair of environmental science.