AP Environmental Science — Resources and Pollution flashcards
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Units 6–9 of the AP Environmental Science course: fossil, nuclear and renewable energy, smog, acid rain and indoor air, water pollution and toxins, solid waste, ozone depletion, climate change and invasive species.
Learn deck · part of AP Environmental Science · written against: College Board AP Environmental Science Course and Exam Description (nine units). Updated 2026-10-10.
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Why is firewood classed as a renewable energy source while coal is not, even though both come from plants?Wood can be replenished on a human timescale by regrowing trees (if harvested no faster than it grows); coal formed from buried plant matter over millions of years, so we use it far faster than it forms.Energy Resources and Consumption › Fossil Fuels
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How do the four ranks of coal compare, from lowest to highest?Lignite → sub-bituminous → bituminous → anthracite. Heat and pressure over time raise the carbon content and energy per kilogram, so anthracite burns hottest; lignite has the most moisture and least energy.Energy Resources and Consumption › Fossil Fuels
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How does a coal-fired power plant turn coal into electricity, and why is it so inefficient?Burning coal boils water into steam, which spins a turbine connected to a generator. Only about a third of the coal's energy becomes electricity; most is lost as waste heat at each conversion step.Energy Resources and Consumption › Fossil Fuels
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How do primary and secondary air pollutants differ? Give an example of each.Primary pollutants are emitted directly from a source (CO, SO₂, NOx, soot). Secondary pollutants form in the atmosphere from reactions involving primary ones (tropospheric ozone, sulfuric acid).Atmospheric Pollution › Smog and Acid Deposition
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Which ingredients produce photochemical smog?Nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (often from vehicle exhaust) react in sunlight to form ground-level ozone and other irritants such as PANs.Atmospheric Pollution › Smog and Acid Deposition
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Why does ground-level ozone in a city usually peak in the afternoon rather than during the morning rush hour?Morning traffic releases NO, which oxidizes to NO₂ by mid-morning; sunlight then splits NO₂ to form ozone, which builds up through the sunniest hours of the afternoon.Atmospheric Pollution › Smog and Acid Deposition
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How does point-source pollution differ from nonpoint-source pollution? Give an example of each.A point source discharges from one identifiable location (a factory pipe, a sewage outfall). Nonpoint-source pollution comes from many diffuse sources (fertilizer runoff from farms, oil washing off city streets) and is much harder to regulate.Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution › Water Pollution
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Describe the chain of events by which fertilizer runoff produces a fish kill.Nitrate and phosphate cause an algal bloom (eutrophication); the algae die, and bacteria decomposing them use up dissolved oxygen, creating hypoxic water in which fish and other animals suffocate.Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution › Water Pollution
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How do CFCs destroy stratospheric ozone?Ultraviolet light breaks CFC molecules, releasing chlorine atoms. Each chlorine atom acts as a catalyst, destroying ozone in a chain of reactions and being regenerated, so one atom can destroy thousands of ozone molecules.Global Change › Ozone Depletion
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What did the Montreal Protocol (1987) do?It is an international treaty that phased out CFCs and other ozone-depleting substances; it is widely seen as the most successful environmental treaty, and the ozone layer is slowly recovering.Global Change › Ozone Depletion
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About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Topic outline follows the College Board AP Environmental Science Course and Exam Description (effective Fall 2026), Units 6–9 (outline only; no course or exam text reproduced).
- Pollution, regulatory and health facts checked against U.S. EPA public information pages (U.S. government works) (reference only; no text copied).
- OpenStax Chemistry 2e, consulted as a reference; no text copied.
- Energy, nuclear, ocean, ozone, wildlife, landfill and health facts checked against U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), NOAA, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey and National Cancer Institute public information pages and 40 CFR part 258 on eCFR (U.S. government works; public domain) (reference only; no text copied).
- Also checked against WHO fact sheets, the Met Office's account of the 1952 London smog (Open Government Licence v3.0), the WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2022, the IPBES media release on its 2019 Global Assessment, and the UN Treaty Collection's text of the Paris Agreement and status page for the Kyoto Protocol (reference only; no text copied).
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