This short graphic novel is the product of the creative work of Forrest Reilly and Sydney Tanner. This project has been made possible through generous grants from the Boettcher Foundation and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

We would also like to thank Marc Bekoff for coaching us through the process of creating an educational graphic novel about ecosystem science.

This book is entirely free of charge and can be downloaded at discardedgraphicnovel.com for classroom and personal use.

© 2012 sydney tanner and forrest reilly

introduction

This book is about two journeys: the first of a natural production process and the second of a human production process.

All processes require energy, and along these journeys you will see how energy is transferred and how energy is consumed. While reading, consider the costs of these processes and the wastes that are produced.

To begin, we must know that almost all energy of living things starts with the sun.

water

waste: oxygenproduct: sugar*

carbon dioxide solar energy ++

+*plants use sugar to store energy

vocabularyenergy: the usable power that enables something to do work

production: the creation of something that is to be used

consumption: the ultimate use of something

photosynthesis: the creation of stored energy in the form of carbohydrates using solar energy, carbon dioxide, and water

emissions: substances released into the air

climate change: any significant change in temperature, precipitation, and wind over an extended period

oil drilling: process of taking crude oil out of the earth’s crust

fractional distillation: process by which crude oil is separated into a variety of products by progressively raising it to different temperatures

waste: superfluous material resulting from production

15 million years ago

one year ago

crude oil

pressure, heat, time

*

photosynthesis*

crude oil truckingcrude oil trucking

1382 °F698 °F302 °F

gasolinegasoline fuel oilfuel oil polyethylenepolyethylene

crude oil

polyethylenepolyethylene

1. polyethylene pellet 2. bottle former + pressure 3. empty bottle

bottling plant

city water

bottling plant

bottling plant

meanwhile

carbon dioxide in atmosphere1

in 1700

carbon dioxide traps heat inside atmosphere, contributing to climate change

in 2006

39%

energy to produce 32 figs4

energy to produce 1 bottle of water2

= energy to power 1 house for 1 hour3

trash

xl-

xl-251

xl-251

fig seeds

sources1. Environmental Protection Agency (2011). Atmosphere Changes. Retrieved April 25, 2012 from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/recentac.html

2. Gleick, P. & Cooley, H. (2009, February 19). Energy Implications of Bottled Water. Environmental Research Letters. Institute of Physics. Retrieved April 24, 2012 from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/4/1/014009/pdf/erl9_1_014009.pdf

3. United States Energy Information Administration (2010). Electricity: Residential Average Monthly Bill by Census Division, and State. Retrieved April 25, 2012 from http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/esr/table5.html

4. Smith, Christopher (1972, September 23). The distribution of energy into sexual and reproduction in wild strawberries (fragaria virginiana). Kansas State University. Retrieved April 24, 2012 from http://images.library.wisc.edu/EcoNatRes/EFacs/NAPC/NAPC03/reference/econatres.napc03.csmith.pdf