Chapter 4 - Economic Activity & Energy

Question 1

Economic Activities and Sectors - 4.1

Primary Sector, Secondary Sector, Tertiary Sector, Quaternary Sector

Answer 1

Primary Sector - these involve the extraction of raw materials to be supplied to other industries (farming, forestry, fishing, mining).

Secondary Sector - these are where raw materials are assembled or manufactured to be produce finished goods (food processing, manufacturing, assembling, building).

Tertiary Sector - these are jobs which involve providing goods and services for the public (transport, retail, medicine, catering).

Quaternary Sector - these include people who provide specialist information and expertise to all the above sectors (research, design engineering, computer programming, financial management).

Question 2

Economic activities and energy – 4.1

LIC and HIC Depend?

Answer 2

LICs highly depend on the primary sector

HICs depend most on the tertiary sector.

Question 3

Economic Activities and Energy – 4.1

Measurements

Answer 3

1. The first measurement is employment, the sectors are compared in terms of the percentage of the total workforce that they employ. A pie chart usually shows this data.
2. The second measurement is how much each sector contributes to the overall economic output of the country – their percentage of either gross domestic product (GPD) or gross national income (GNI). Again, a pie chart is used to show this data.

Question 4

Changes over time and space – 4.2

Industrialization – Pre-Industrial Phase, Industrial Phase, Post-Industrial Phase

Answer 4

Pre-Industrial Phase – The primary sector leads the economy and may employ more than two-thirds of the working population. Agriculture is by far the most important activity.

Industrial Phase – The secondary and tertiary increase in productivity. As they do so, the primary sector declines in relative importance. The secondary sector peaks during this phase, but rarely provides jobs for more than half of the workforce.

Post-industrial Phase – the tertiary sector is clearly the most important sector. The primary & secondary sectors continue their relative decline. The quaternary sector begins to appear.

Question 5

Changes over space and time – 4.2

LICs (low-income countries), MICs (lower/high middle income countries), HICs (high-income countries)

Answer 5

LIC - occur largely in Central Africa and in South and Southeast Asia

MICs - these two groups are most common in South America, North and South Africa, parts of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia.

HICs - found mainly in North America, Western Europe and Australasia.

Question 6

Informal Employment – 4.3

Causes of the informal sector

Answer 6

Causes of informal sector:

• people migrating from rural areas to urban areas.
• the search for labor and a regular wage.
• more people of working age moving into urban areas than there are jobs available.
• surplus labor means that there is underemployment & underemployment

Question 7

Informal Employment – 4.3

Characteristics of informal sector

Answer 7

• economy activities fall mainly within the tertiary sector.

- informal employment is closely associated with shanty towns

Question 8

Informal Employment – 4.3

Para-Transit

Answer 8

• arise because of the inadequate official transport in LIC towns and cities.
• they flourish because they are meeting the demand for cheap urban transport.
• they frequently add to the problems of congestion on already busy, overloaded streets.

Question 9

Informal Employment – 4.3

Informal Activities

Answer 9

Benefits:

• provide a wide range of cheap goods and services
• provide the poor with a means of survival.

Cons:

• as the earnings are so low, informal activities do nothing to break the cycle of poverty in LIC urban areas.
• no health care or unemployment benefits
• a high exposure to work-related risks
• uncertain legal status
• children in economic activity rather than formal education.

Question 10

The growth and location of tertiary and quaternary activities – 4.4

Growth

Answer 10

• These 2 sectors involve the provision of a wide range of services.
• The tertiary sector grows in importance with economic development –it gains much employment and economic wealth.
• The quaternary sector is only found in the most economically-advanced countries – it is largely about information and communication and makes use of the latest technology.

Question 11

The growth and location of tertiary and quaternary activities – 4.4

Growth - 2

Answer 11

As a country moves along the development pathway, several things happen:

• it is able to afford more and better social services, such as schools, medical centers, hospitals and libraries.
• People can earn more money and have money to spend in the shops on ‘basic’ things, such as food and clothing.
• After they have bought the ‘basics’, people have more money left (disposable income) to spend on ‘luxuries’, such as entertainment, holidays, eating out and recreation.
• People’s tastes change and this impacts on the tertiary sector. For example, cinemas have closed because many people now prefer to watch DVDs at home.
• New technology creates and makes possible new services. Think of all those new services connected with ICT – broadband service providers, website designers, mobile phone networks, software programmers and the servicing of PCs and laptops.

Question 12

The growth and location of tertiary and quaternary activities – 4.4

Cycle of growth in tertiary sector

Answer 12

Services –> more and better jobs –> more personal income –> more personal spending –> more demand for goods and services –> tertiary sector growth –> repeat cycle

Question 13

The growth and location of tertiary and quaternary activities – 4.4

Location

Answer 13

Location factors – the ‘needs’ of the activity.

A common ‘need’ is to be readily accessible for customers. After all, if there are no customers, there would be few services.

Question 14

The growth and location of tertiary and quaternary activities – 4.4

Location - 2

Answer 14

Central Business District (CBD) - many services found concentrated in the central areas of towns and cities.

Sphere of influence: CBD –> Inner Urban ring –> suburban ring–> urban fringe (room for expansion,attractive environment, little pollution, good accessibility, workers & work available close by, cheap land, plenty of car-parking space)

Question 15

The growth and location of tertiary and quaternary activities – 4.4

Appearance in the urban fringe

Answer 15

Superstores and retail parks – large areas with adjacent car parks occupied by either one huge hypermarket or a number of retailing companies in separate buildings. These developments often serve customers drawn from more than one town or city

Industrial estate – areas of modern light and service industries with a planned layout and purpose-built road network.

Business park – areas created by property developers in order to attract firms needing offices and retail accommodation rather than industrial units. They often include leisure activities such as bowling alleys, ice rinks, and cinemas.

Science parks – usually located close to a university or research center with the aim of encouraging and developing high-tech industries and quaternary activities.

Question 16

The changing location of manufacturing – 4.5

Manufacturing developments

Answer 16

Transnational corporations (TNCs) – the emergence of huge companies that control much of the world’s manufacturing. These companies are locating their factories in the cheapest and therefore most profitable locations.

Transport – now much faster and cheaper. Therefore distance, say from raw materials or markets, is no longer as significant as it used to be.

Communications – because of the speed and efficiency of modern communications, a manufacturing company can keep in immediate touch with factories scattered in different countries.

Energy – much modern manufacturing relies on electricity as its main source of energy. Due to national grid systems, this form of energy can be made available almost everywhere.

Governments – these are increasingly influences the distribution of manufacturing. They are able to tempt industrialists to set up factories within their borders by various incentives, such as exemption from taxes or cheap ready-made factory buildings.

New branches of manufacturing – manufacturing is no longer just about making heavy goods such as steel, ships and chemicals. Manufacturing today is very much about making a widening range of consumer products such as electrical and electronic goods, clothes, and furniture. Because of the four previous developments, the location of the production of these kinds of products is described as ‘footloose’. In other words, their location is no longer tied by location factors such as the nearness of the raw materials & markets.

Question 17

Rising energy demand and the energy gap – 4.6

Energy Demand

Answer 17

Due to increase of population and by economic development, the demand goes up. Energy consumption activities like manufacturing, provision of services, and transport increase in scale and importance. The demand for energy will either be met by a country’s own energy source or importing from producer countries.

Question 18

Rising energy demand and the energy gap – 4.6

Energy Production

Answer 18

3/4’s of the worlds energy comes from oil, natural gases and coal, all non-renewable supplies. The major producers of energy are the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Russia, parts of the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand.

Question 19

Rising energy demand and the energy gap – 4.6

Energy Gap

Answer 19

The difference between a country’s rising demand for energy and its ability to produce that energy from its energy sources.

Question 20

The need for energy efficiency – 4.7

Global energy resources

Answer 20

• Energy MUST be used sparingly and with the utmost efficiency.
• The non-renewable sources of energy and finite and MUST be conserved. We simply cannot be afford to be wasteful; energy is a precious resource. Neither do we want the pollution caused by burning them.

Question 21

The need for energy efficiency – 4.7

Ways to Save Energy

Answer 21

• walk or cycle to and from school rather than relying on your parents to drive you there and pick you up.
• homes in temperate latitudes lose an average of 50% of their heat through the walls and loft spaces. Insulation to necessary to stop this. It may seem costly but in the long run it is more energy efficient.
• pack the empty spaces in the freezer and the refrigerator either with ice trays or polystyrene. The more space that is taken up, the less energy it takes to cool or freeze.
• do not run the dishwasher or washing machine if they aren’t full.
• putting computers to ‘hibernate’ and even unplugging them for the night can save precious electricity. Instead of charging your mobile phone, do so when you are still awake and unplug them as soon as it is done.

Question 22

Renewable versus non-renewable sources of energy – 4.8

List of non-renewable energy

Answer 22

Coal –formed underground from decaying plant and animal matter. Pros: high world reserves, newer mines are highly mechanized. Cons: pollution CO2, major greenhouse gas responsible for global warming, main gas polluted causes acid rain.

Oil: formed underground from decaying plant and animal matter. Pros: fairly easy to transport, less pollution than coal. Cons: some air pollution, danger of spills or explosions.

Natural gas: formed underground from decaying animal and plant matter, often found in oil. Pros: efficient, clean, less pollution of the fossil fuels, easy to transport. Cons: explosions, some air pollution.

Question 23

Renewable versus non-renewable sources of energy – 4.8

Fuel wood and nuclear energy

Answer 23

Fuel wood: non-renewable/renewable, trees usually in natural environment but can be grown specifically for fuel. Pros: easily available, collected daily by local people, free, replanting possible. Cons: trees used up quickly, time-consuming, wood must be collected daily, deforestation leads to other problems, replanting can’t keep pace with consumption.

Nuclear Energy: classified by some as non-renewable because of reliance on uranium as a fuel, others regard it as renewable in that the nuclear fuel may be re-used. Heavy metal(uranium) element found naturally in rock deposits. Pros: clean, fewer greenhouse gases, efficient, uses very small amounts of raw materials, small amount of waste. Cons: dangers of radiation, high cost of building and decommissioning power stations, problems over disposal of waste, nuclear accidents like Chernobyl raised public fears.

Question 24

Renewable versus non-renewable sources of energy – 4.8

Renewable Sources

Answer 24

Hydro-electric power: good, regular supply of water needed, water held in a reservoir, channelled through pipes to a turbine. Pros: very clean, dams can also control flooding. Cons: large areas of land flooded, silt trapped behind dam, lake silts up, visual pollution from pylons and dam.

Geothermal: boreholes can be drilled below ground to use the earth’s natural heat, cold water is pumped down, hot water or steam channeled back. Pros: many potential sites, most are in volcanic areas. Cons: sulphuric gases, expensive to develop, very high temperature can create maintenance problems.

Wind: wind drives blades to turn turbines. Pros: very clean, no air pollution, small-scale and large-scale schemes possible, cheap to run. Cons: winds are unpredictable and not constant, visual and noise pollution is quiet, rural areas, many turbines needed to produce sufficient energy.

Tidal: tidal waves drives turbines. Pros: large schemes could produce a lot of energy, clean, barrage can protect coasts from erosion. Cons: very expensive to build, few suitable sites, disrupts coastal environment and shipping.

Solar: solar panels or photovoltaic cells using sunlight. Pros: could be used in most parts of the world, unlimited supplies, clean, can be build into new buildings, efficient. Cons: expensive, needs sunlight, cloud/night means solar energy is reduced, large amounts of energy require technological development and reduction in costs of PVs (photovoltaic cells).

Biofuel: fermented animal or plant waste or crops (e.g. Sugar cane), refuse incineration. Pros: widely available, especially in LICs, uses waste products, can be used at a local level. Cons: can be expensive to set up, can’t be recycled, some pollution.