Transcript Unit 2: People and the Planet

Unit 2: People and the Planet
Revision lesson 1 of 3
Learning objective
To revise
TOPIC 2: Consuming resources
KEY CONCEPT
Term
Non renewable
Definition
Example
Can’t be remade,
Oil, Coal,
being used up, once Diamonds
gone they are gone
Renewable,
sustainable
resources
These renew
themselves and
don’t need
managing
Can be renewed by
humans and
therefore will last
Sustainable
resources
Wave, Wind,
Solar
Wood, bio fuels
QUESTION TIME!
 Define
the term renewable resource
and give an example (2)
 Define
the term non-renewable
resource and give an example (2)
?
Governments have choices:
Imagine you live in a country with an estimated
amount of oil left for 50 years. Once this runs out
that is it! Which of the 3 options below is best?
1) Invest in alternative forms of energy for your country,
i.e. build more wind farms, more HEP, etc.
2) Buy resources from abroad, there are plenty of other
countries that have lots of resources that are willing to
sell and export the oil to you. Then in 50 years time you
will have loads of oil and other countries will start to run
out and come to you for oil.
3) Do nothing and just wait and see what happens; besides
you won’t be running the country when it all runs out!
Have to consider: cost, time, space, technology, motivation
Patterns of supply and demand


Current production of Oil is focused in the Middle East,
especially Saudi Arabia.
However many of these countries have reached ‘peak oil’
(production of relatively cheaply obtained oil has reached
its maximum so there is now a fall in production).
They will need to think
carefully and creatively
to find a new source of
income and source of
energy within the next
100 years
Patterns of supply and demand

Consumption is largely related to the wealth of a country
and its reliance on cars. 70% of the world’s oil is used
transporting goods and people within and between
countries.
The USA has less than 5% of
the population but uses 25%
of the oil mainly due to:
• Lack of public transport
systems
• Low density urban
settlements so need long
journeys to work, school etc
• History of low petrol prices
Pressure on oil




Countries round the world are getting richer and
richer.
As they do they will start to put more pressure on
valuable resources like oil
China and India are continuing to grow rapidly
with a combined population of 1,400 million using
71 million cars. In most cases as the population
grows the demand for cars will increase as the
hope to get ‘the American Dream’.
To achieve this Tata Motors based in
India has begun production a car
priced at £1500, this increasing the
demand for oil and adding to C02
emissions.
QUESTION TIME!
 Outline
how increasing car
ownership might cause an
increase in the demand for oil
(2)
?
Malthus vs Boserup
Famine and other resource issues
are inevitable if population is not
kept in check
Technology will allow us to fix
the issues that population
growth brings
Reducing resource demand

The aim is to achieve ‘SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT’:

‘This is development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their
own needs’
Strategies to reduce resource demand
Individual action:
 Changing habits e.g. using public transport and switching to
energy efficient light bulbs etc.
 Recycling and conservation of oil
 Buying food from local farm shops to reduce ‘food miles’
Corporate Action:
 Google Headquarters uses hydrogen cars which are renewable
and also provides a bus shuttle to pick up its employers to
reduce their car usage
Government Action:
 Invest money in developing alternative sources of energy. E.g.
Hydrogen
 Invest in public transport systems to encourage people to drive
cars less
Technological fix?
Technological fix is the idea that we can
resolve problems we might have by
inventing solutions to them.
 The problem of finding alternative fuels to
replace ‘cheap’ oil would need high
amounts of effort from governments,
corporations and researchers to cope with
the issue of ‘peak oil’.

Hydrogen: a good
‘alternative’ resource?
QUESTION TIME!
1.
Outline how technology might help
solve shortages of resources (4)
2.
Explain how developing sustainable
transport can lead to a reduction in
resource use (6)
?