Unit 3B - Human And Their Environment Flashcards
What is the two biggest causes of the rate of the world population growth and why?
Modern medicine and farming methods as it has reduced the number of people dying from disease and hunger
How is the worlds population growing?
Very quickly, exponentially
An increasing population causes what on the demands of the environment?
The demands increase
The effects of human activity used to be small and local, what are they like now?
They have a far more widespread effect
Why are we taking more resources from the environment?
Increasing population means we need more resources to survive but also we demand a higher standard of living which use more resources and energy
As well as increasing the demand on the environment what else does a rapidly increasing population cause?
Us to produce more waste
As we are producing more waste what does this effect and why?
The water, land and air because of harmful population
What effect does more waste have on the water?
Sewage and toxic chemicals from industry can pollute lake, rivers and oceans which affects the plant and animals which rely on them for survival and chemicals used on land like fertilisers can be washed I to water
What effect does more waste have on the land?
We bury nuclear waste unground and we dump a lot of household waste into landfills
What effect does more waste have on the air?
Smoke and gases released into the atmosphere can pollute the air
What are the four main human activities the reduce the amount of land and resources available to other animals and plants?
Building, farming, dumping waste, quarrying for metal ores
Why isn’t the greenhouse effect all bad?
We need it to keep the earth a suitable temperature for living on
How is carbon present in the atmosphere?
As carbon dioxide
What does too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cause?
Global warming and the greenhouse effect
What are the five places that naturally stores carbon dioxide?
Oceans, lakes, seas, peat bogs and green plants
What’s another way for saying carbon dioxide is locked up in natural stores?
It is sequestered in natural stored
Why are the natural stores of carbon dioxide really important?
It means that carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere
What is the temperature of the earth a balance between?
The heat it gets from the sun and the heat it radiates back out into space
What makes the gases in the atmosphere like an insulating layer?
They absorb most if the heat that would normally be radiated out into space and re radiate it in all directions
Why is it important that we have some gases in our atmosphere to act as an insulating layer?
If it didn’t happen they’d be nothing to keep the heat in at night and so we would get very cold
What are the gases called in the atmosphere which help keep the heat in?
Greenhouse gases
What are the two main greenhouse gases which levels are rising very quickly?
Carbon dioxide and methane
What is the main cause of global warming?
The increasing greenhouse gases
What is another type of climate change that global warming can cause?
Changing rainfall patterns