Recourse Consumption and Security Flashcards
What is Biocapacity
Land and water to supply resources for humanity
What is ecological footprint
The amount of land required by a group/person to full fill all their resources and assimilate their waste.
What is energy security?
Having access to clean,reliable and affordable energy for cooking, heating, lighting etc.
What is water security?
Having access to clean and safe drinking water and sanitation
What is food security?
Having access to safe and nutritious food, meatiness the dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
What is nexus
The interactions/connections between food, water and energy
What is virtual/ embedded water
Transferring water from one country to anotehr via exports
What is the issue with a growin population and population of rich people?
An increase in consumption of recourses
What does eating meat do to an ecological footprint?
Increase it, different from only relying on vegetables
How can the ecological footprint be reduced?
- vegetarian diets
- recycling/ reusing resources
- reducing amount of pollution
- transporting waste to other countries’
- reducing amounts of recources
How is the ecological footprint increased?
- meat diets
- large consumption per household
- Relying on fossil fuels
- high levels of imported products
Why do HIC’s have a greater ecological footprint than LIC’s?
- Greater infrastructure
- can afford more food
- eat more meat
How is water distributed around the world?
unevenly
What is teh relationship between water availability and consumption
Increased consumption means an increase in water scarcity. There are no major differences of how water is used in HICs and LIC’s
All of what factors increase pressure on water?
- tourism (water parks eg)
- urbanisation (invest in sanitation for water)
- growing middle class (showers, gardening)
- climate change(droughts, floods)
How to increase crop yield
- using genetically modified dna from other organisms
- irrigation
- more land for crops
How does urbanisation strain food consumption?
Strain on meat due to fast food
Which type of countries need more energy?
NIC’s as they are currently industrialising
Difference between renewable and non- renewable energy
Renewable energy doesnt reduce any natural capital while non-renewable does.
Renewable (hydroelectric, wind, solar)
Non-renewable (fossil fuels
Why is mostly non-renewable energy used?
It is cheaper, no need for refining, technology is already developed.
Advantages of nuclear power
- doesnt emit CO2, doesnt contribute to global warming
- technology is developed and available
- creates large amounts of energy in small plant
- very efficient compared to fossil fuels
Disadvantages of nuclear power
- creates radioactive waste, harmful
- dangerous, never 100% sure of irs reliability
- the more nuclear powers, the higher risk of failure: explosion
- targets for terrorists
- energy source is uranium which is scarce
- takes 20-30 years to build
Chernobyl eg.
Disadvantages for renewable energy
Location site is minimised/ availability minimal
- not visually appealing
Advantages of renewable energy
- they will NOT run out
- do not contribute to climate change/ acid rain
WHat is Hydroelectiv power
Turbines switched on and off in dams, producing energy
Advantages and disadvantages for HEP
A:
- cheap to run
- fit by dams
- can be turned on and off
DA:
- cause flooding downstream
-Accelerate river velocity
- cause increased erosion in river
- dams restrict transport of sediments
What is biofuel energy
Burning of biomass-> ethanol-> fuel
How do wind turbines work?
They are driven by occurring winds (turbines)
Rotational energy is put into a generator -> electricity
IF there is no wind, no energy is produced
Why is recycling important?
Saves scarce materials, reduces pollution
What is the issue with E-waste
It gets illegally shipped to developing countries
Explain how E- waste effects the area it is shipped to
Once in a landfill, assimilated Ewaste containing toxic substances such as lead and emrcury seep into the environment (land, water etc) and contaminate them. The workers suffer from illnesses and infection- short life expectancy.
Why is an increase in E-waste occurring ?
There is so much innovation and improvement of technology
What is overpopulation
When the population exceeds the amount of recources available
What is underpopulation?
The the amount of recources aren’t able to be used up by the population
Formula for standard of living
(Natural resources x technology)
/ population
What is recources stewardship
A concept suggesting that we can use recources in a way to be available for future generations aswell
SOCIAL EQUITY over the recources
What is a circular economy?
- preserving natural capital by balancing recources flows
- optimize resource yields by circulating products (recycling)
- eliminating pollution and climate change
