How is climate change affecting recovery of oil from Alaska's North Slope?

Name: Problem 6, Chapter 20: Environmental Geology
Uploaded: 2021-06-22T18:31:58-08:00
Duration: 5 min 12 s
Channel: Mary Richards
Description: How is climate change affecting recovery of oil from Alaska's North Slope?

How is climate change affecting recovery of oil from...

Key Concepts

Climate Change

Climate change refers to the long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns in a region, driven in large part by human activities such as fossil fuel combustion. In the context of oil recovery in Arctic regions, rising temperatures can lead to shifts in environmental conditions that affect ground stability and infrastructure reliability, thereby directly impacting extraction operations.

Oil Recovery

Oil recovery is the process of extracting crude oil from underground reservoirs through methods like drilling and enhanced recovery techniques. Its efficiency and safety depend heavily on stable environmental conditions, and changes brought on by climate variations can alter reservoir characteristics and complicate extraction efforts.

Permafrost Thaw

Permafrost thaw is the process in which permanently frozen ground begins to melt due to rising temperatures. This is a critical concept in Arctic regions because thawing permafrost can lead to ground instability, affecting the foundations for oil extraction infrastructure such as drilling rigs and pipelines, and thereby influencing overall recovery performance.

Transcript

00:01 Okay, so in this problem, they want us to relate the burning of fossil fuels to acid deposition and global climate change.

00:10 So burning fossil fuels releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

00:22 So these are the two big chemicals, well, the ones that we're going to talk about right now.

00:26 Two of the big chemicals release when we burn fossil fuels.

00:29 And, of course, we burn fossil fuels.

00:31 When we drive our cars, we burn fossil fuels in power plants, coal factories, coal burning plants.

00:39 So when these compounds are burned, well, when we burn fossil fuels and these compounds are released, they react with water in the atmosphere, and they form sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

00:54 Okay.

00:54 And then when they fall to the earth, they are imbued with these acids, okay? this is what is called acid deposition.

01:03 So basically we burn the fossil fuels.

01:06 These chemicals are released.

01:07 They react with the water.

01:09 So they react with water.

01:12 That is a terrible water drop.

01:14 Let me try that again.

01:16 They react with rain, with precipitation.

01:21 They fall to the earth.

01:23 And that in itself, that is how we get the acid down onto the earth, okay? onto the ground and into bodies of water.

01:33 Okay.