Economic Activity and Energy Flashcards
Economic activity
the different types of jobs people do in order to make money within all levels of society
Economy sectors
Primary - extracting natural resources e.g. mining
Secondary - processing things such as food/minerals e.g. manufacturing
Tertiary - providing services e.g. entertainment
Quaternary - concerned with ICT and research and development
Subsistence farming
growing crops or raising livestock for personal consumption, without surplus for trade
Footloose industry
industry that can be located anywhere without needing to consider factors of production such as resources, land or labour
Optimum population
when the number of people working with all available resources produces the highest per capita economic return
Overpopulation
when there are too many people to maintain an adequate standard of living and exceeds the carrying capacity of the Earth
Underpopulation
when there are far more resources in an area e.g. food, energy, minerals that can be used by the number of people living there
Energy gap
The difference between a country’s rising demand for energy and its ability to produce energy from its own sources
Energy security
access to reliable and affordable sources of energy
Carbon footprint
the total amount of greenhouse gases produced as a result of human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tonnes of CO2
Ecological footprint
measures the demand on the supply of nature through the amount of natural resources used to support a person’s lifestyle
Malthus’s theory
Human population grows at an exponential rate if left unchecked. Food supply only increases at an arithmetic rate, so there will be a point of crisis where rise in population exceeds increases in food supply. An increase in population beyond this point will lead to war, famine and disease
Boserup’s theory
Food production can, and will, increase to match the population’s needs - the threat of starvation motivates people to improve their farming methods. People have the knowledge and tech to increase food supplies and overpopulation leads to innovation and higher productivity in use of land and labour.
Factors affecting location of economic sectors
- space/cheap land
- labour/employees
- access to market/customers via good transport links
- power supply
- raw materials
How raw materials affect employment sectors
- affects primary sector (people can no longer farm for resources if they are used up)
- increased mechanisation causes reduction in number of agricultural workers
- raw materials cheaper to be imported