Consuming Resources

Question 1

What are the four main types of resources?

Answer 1

1) Physical
2) Energy
3) Mineral
4) Biological

Question 2

What are the three main types of resource defined by their availability?

Answer 2

1) Non-renewable resources - cannot be remade because they take millions of years to form again, e.g. coal and oil.
2) Sustainable resources - Can deliberately renewed so that it can last into the future e.g. planting trees.
3) Renewable resources - renew themselves so do not need to be managed, e.g. solar and wind power.

Question 3

Give two benefits and three costs of non-renewable resources e.g. tar

Answer 3

Benefits:
1) Extraction would bring further money to oil companies.
2) Could avoid the costs of switching to other fuels such as hydrogen.
Costs:
1) Extraction uses large amounts of water and energy.
2) Only 50 year supply
3) Acquiring oil sometimes requires deforestation.

Question 4

Give two benefits and two costs of sustainable e.g. biofuels.

Answer 4

Benefits:
1) Carbon neutral
2) Engines don’t need to be changed to use biofuels.
Costs:
1) Land used to grow crops could be used to grow food to solve food shortages.
2) Reduces biodiversity as it may lead to habitat destruction.

Question 5

Give two benefits and three costs of renewable energy e.g. solar energy.

Answer 5

Benefits:
1) Unlimited
2) Limited carbon emissions, so environmentally friendly
Costs:
1) Intermittent as new ways of storing electricity are needed.
2) Current production is small-scale.
3) Relatively expensive

Question 6

Where is current production of oil focused?

Why has there now been a fall in oil production?

Answer 6

Current oil production is focused in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia.
Many of these countries have reached ‘peak oil’, which means production of relatively cheaply obtained oil has reached its maximum so there is now a fall in production.

Question 7

What is the oil consumption of a country largely related to?

What is 70% of the world’s oil used for?

Answer 7

The oil consumption of a country is largely related to the wealth of the country and its reliance on cars which is dependent on its development.
70% of the world’s oil is used for the transportation of goods and people within and between countries.

Question 8

What percentage is the USA of the global population, how much of the world’s oil does the USA consume and why(3)?

Answer 8

The USA has less than 5% of the global population but uses 25% of the oil mainly due to:

1) Lack of public transport systems
2) Low-density urban settlements so need long journey’s to get to work, etc
3) History of low petrol prices.

Question 9

What is Malthusian Theory? (3)

What were other natural checks?

Answer 9

1) Malthusian theory states that population grows exponentially but food production grows arithmetically, this means that population will eventually outstrip food production.
2) At this point the population would decrease through starvation, Malthus called this a natural check on population growth.
3) According to malthusian theory whenever population outstripped food supply ‘natural checks’ would reduce the population to a more manageable level and would then continue to grow again till the next natural check.
Other natural checks were war, disease and morality.

Question 10

What was the name of Boserup’s theory of resource consumption? What was the theory?

Answer 10

Necessity is the mother of invention.

1) Boserup did not believe population growth was limited by food production.
2) She said population growth controls farming methods, she believed people would try not to give in to famine or disease.
3) Instead they would invent solutions to the problem she used the term ‘agricultural intensification’ to explain how farmers can produce more food from the same piece of land using better farming techniques and chemical fertilisers.

Question 11

What is a finite resource?

Answer 11

A finite resource is one that is limited or restricted.

Question 12

Give four main uses of oil.

Answer 12

1) To fuel cars
2) To heat buildings
3) To make plastics that we use in everything from milk containers to computers.
4) To provide electricity

Question 13

What is peak oil?

What are the possible impacts of this?

Answer 13

Peak oil is the point at which oil production reaches its maximum level and then declines.
This could lead to recession or war as countries that import oil try to get access to the oil reserves.

Question 14

Which two countries are expected to see the biggest rise in energy consumption?

Answer 14

China and India

Question 15

What is energy security?

Answer 15

Energy security means access to reliable and affordable sources of energy. Countries with enough or surplus energy are said to be energy secure while those without enough are said to be energy insecure.

Question 16

By 2035, how is the global demand for energy expected to increase?

Answer 16

The global demand for energy is expected to grow by a third by 2035 with daily oil demand increasing to 100 million barrels a day.

Question 17

What is the main problem for the USA with regard to energy consumption?

Answer 17

The USA is the world’s largest consumer of energy, yet it has to half its oil so it is energy insecure. Even the loss of one source can create shortages and drive up global oil prices, so a continuous supply is essential.

Question 18

What has the USA done in order to ensure the supply of energy is stable?
Example.

Answer 18

The USA has attempted to stabilise areas of human conflict where oil supplies could be cut off.
E.g. The invasion and occupation of Iraq was critical to the future of US oil supplies because Iraq has the world’s third largest oil reserves.

Question 19

How and why has China’s demand for energy changing?

What percentage of the world’s total energy consumption is China expected to account for?

Answer 19

By 2013 China was the world’s second largest consumer of energy, the Chinese demand for energy has increased by 86% since 2000, and it now accounts for a sixth of all the energy produced globally.
It needs this energy for industry and also to meet the demands of growing Chinese car ownership.
40%

Question 20

Why could renewable resources become so important in the future?

Answer 20

Renewable resources could help to fill a potential energy gap created as demand for energy increases and ‘peak oil’ is reached.

Question 21

Give two advantages and four disadvantages of hybrid cars.

Answer 21

Advantages:
1) Low CO2 emissions 
2) Use a lots less fuel
Disadvanatges:
1) Expensive to build and run
2) Not very fast
3) Can only be used for short journeys

Question 22

Renewable energy case study.

Give three facts.

Answer 22

Wind power in the USA

1) Wind turbines convert the power of the wind into electricity.
2) There are now more than 13,000 wind turbines in California, and hundreds of homes and farms across the state are also using smaller wind turbines.
3) In 2012 wind energy provided 5% of California’s total energy requirements.

Question 23

Non-renewable energy case study.

Give five facts.

Answer 23

Natural gas in Europe

1) Natural gas is used for electricity production, heating and cooking.
2) In Britain much of the gas is collected from under the North Sea, however much of the gas has been used up.
3) In 2006, the UK imported 50% of its gas supplies and this is expected to increase to 80% by 2020.
4) Britain is now dependent on gas supplied from Eastern Europe and Russia.
5) It is expected that after 2030, global gas supplies will fall and other energy sources will need to be found after this date.

Question 24

In what three main ways can governments locally and nationally attempt to manage resource consumption?

Answer 24

1) Education
2) Recycling
3) Conservation

Question 25

Why is education important for managing resource consumption?
How can people be educated?
Give an example of things we need to educate people about.

Answer 25

Education is important to change people’s behaviour, this can be done through advertising, schools and public awareness.
Examples:
1) Reducing use on non-renewables and using them more efficiently, e.g. walking instead of driving.

Question 26

Why is conservation important for managing resource consumption?
In what ways can governments encourage conservation? (4)

Answer 26

Conservation involves maintaining the health of the natural world and becoming more sustainable, this can be controlled and encourage by governments in a number of ways.

1) Grants and subsidies, e.g for renewable energy.
2) Reducing car tax for less polluting cars.
3) Grants for solar panels and insulating homes.
4) Quotas on fishing

Question 27

Renewable energy source case study.
Why might this be important in the future?
How has solar power production increased and where?

Answer 27

Solar energy, this could help to fill the gap as demand for energy increases and peak oil is reached.
Solar power generation increased by 86% in 2011 most growth took place in Germany and Italy but China is also developing its own scheme.

Question 28

What will be the reasons for rapid renewable energy growth in the future? (3)

Answer 28

1) Falling costs, e.g. of producing solar panels.
2) The rising prices of fossil fuels
3) Government subsidies to support renewable energy projects.

Question 29

Where does solar energy have the most potential and why?

Answer 29

Solar energy has huge potential, especially for developing countries in tropical areas e.g. Ghana where the cost of developing solar power could be less than extending conventional electricity grids and power lines into rural areas.

Question 30

What are the advantages for countries in producing their own energy from renewable resources? (4)

Answer 30

1) Increased energy security - with less dependence on imported energy.
2) Protection against changes in international relations.
3) ‘Future-proofing’ their energy supplies by making use of energy sources that will not run out.
4) Production of energy need for industrial growth.

Question 31

Whose theory of food production has so far in the last 40 years been proven correct?
What is the evidence that this is the case? (5)
What made the huge growth in food output possible?

Answer 31

Boserup’s theory that necessity is the mother of invention has proven correct:
1) The population has doubled in the last 40 years
2) World cereal production has doubled since 1970
3) Meat production has tripled since 1961
4) The number of fish caught grew more than six times between 1950 and 1997
5) People are consuming more calories than 40 years ago
However the huge growth in food output was only possible by giving nature a helping hand through the use of fertilisers, irrigation systems and pesticides.

Question 32

Why is recycling important? (4)

Answer 32

Recycling is important as a way of managing resource consumption because:

1) It saves limited resources used in the making process of materials and products; such as fossil fuels which may be burned for energy.
2) A wide range of materials can be recycled from glass bottles to plastic bags.
3) Recycling water bottles saves the oil used to make them.
4) Plastic bags and bottles can be recycled to make polyester fibres which are useful in filling pillows and clothing.

Question 33

What are the advantages of using hydrogen as a fuel? (7)

Answer 33

1) It provides an alternative option to oil which is a limited resource.
2) Hydrogen fuel cells are more efficient than traditional vehicle engines.
3) It’s cheap to produce and has a variety of sources.
4) it has many uses, e.g. power generation, transport, and low-carbon heating.
5) It’s safe and is already used in chemical industries.
6) Its only by-product is water.
7) Refuelling vehicles is very quick, and a full tank of hydrogen gives a range of several hundred miles.

Question 34

What are the disadvantages of using hydrogen as a fuel? (3)

Answer 34

1) Energy used in extracting hydrogen from natural gas, biomass or converting water requires energy.
2) Although hydrogen itself is free of CO2 emissions, the energy used to separate it is not.
3) A hydrogen fuel cell car averages emissions of about 80 grams of CO2 per kilometre.

Question 35

How could hydrogen emissions be made zero?

Answer 35

Hydrogen emission levels could be zero if the hydrogen is separated using renewable electricity sources, such as nuclear or solar.

Question 36

What is a physical resource?

Answer 36

Physical resources are natural materials found at or below the earth’s surface, such as soil and rock, many rocks are used as energy sources or contain minerals. They are essential for human activity and making products.

Question 37

What is a biological resource?

Answer 37

These are resources of biological origin that have developed through growth and development e.g. trees, or resources grown for human use e.g. crops.

Question 38

What is a mineral resource?

Answer 38

Mineral resources are materials that are normally mined or quarried from the ground in raw form and then heated and purified to make materials that are used.

Question 39

What is an energy resource?

Answer 39

Energy resources used specifically for heating. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas can be burned for heat or to produce steam to generate electricity.