Chapter 7: Air, Water, and Energy
Lesson 5: Earth’s Resources
Objectives:
 Explore evidence of air pollution.
 Identify air as a resource we need to survive.
 Identify ways to clean up the air.
renewable
resource
ozone layer
fossil fuel
nonrenewable
resource
smog
MAIN IDEA: Earth’s atmosphere supports life on Earth.
acid rain
1. Why do living things need the Atmosphere?
a. The atmosphere supports life on earth in many ways.
b. Air is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, other traces of gases, and water
vapor.
i. Oxygen – living things take in oxygen for respiration.
Respiration is the process when oxygen is used to break down
food so that energy can be gotten from it.
1. What results is wastes, and the release of carbon
dioxide.
2. Oxygen is a renewable resource.
ii. Why doesn’t the atmosphere fill up with carbon dioxide?
1. Plants and other producers use the substance
chlorophyll to take in CO2.
a. This process is called photosynthesis.
b. Producers could be one-celled algae to any plant.
c. Protection – the atmosphere shields us from the Sun’s harmful UV
(ultraviolet) rays.
i. The ozone layer screens out 95-99% of harmful UV rays.
ii. Shields earth from rocks, or ‘shooting stars’
iii. The atmosphere protects earth from extremes of temperature.
1. Clouds block sunlight during the day
2. At night clouds keep heat from escaping into space.
3. Whenever one part of the atmosphere gets hotter than
another, the air moves.
4. Nitrogen is an important ingredient in food.
a. 78% of air is Nitrogen
What does the atmosphere provide for living things?
The atmosphere provides important gases, oxygen, and nitrogen, and
protects us from the Sun’s ray, space rocks, and extreme temperatures.
2. What causes Pollution?
a. Burning fossil fules
i. Fossil fuels were formed from the decay of ancient forms of
life – Coal, Oil, and Natural gas
ii. Fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource.
b. Burning trash adds smoke to the air.
c. Dust from plowed fields, or construction sites.
d. Factories add chemical wastes to the air.
e. Volcanoes erupting shoot gases into the air.
f. Forest fires spread smoke great distances.
1. All of these events produce smog
a. A mixture of smoke and fog.
2. Sometimes ozone can form in smog.
What are five sources of air pollution?
Burning fossil fuels, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, dust from plowed fields,
chemical wastes from factories, burning trash.
3. What is Acid Rain?
a. Wastes that come from buring fossil fuels travel into the air.
b. In the air the wastes mix with moisture.
c. They can form chemicals called acids.
d. The moisture with acids can eventually fall to the Earth as acid rain.
i. All forms of precipitation – rain, sleet, snow, hail
e. Acid rain can destroy buildings, forests, animals and plants in lakes.
Why is acid rain harmful?
Acid rain is harmful because it can destroy water and soil supplies, kill living
things, and weather statues and buildings, buildings, cars, causing them to
crumble.