Consuming resources

Asia Pacific - greatest increase in demand for oil e.g. China + India (NICs)

• Have increased need for oil in industry
• Large population = larger oil consumption (in China)

North America, Europe, Eurasia and Asia Pacific use the most oil (wealthy MEDCs)

• Will use a lot of oil due to more vehicles + industry + farming
• Have more money to turn oil into more useful materials e.g. plastics + in cosmetics 

South America, Africa and the Middle East use the least oil (mainly LEDCs)

• Not wealthy enough to use the oil
• Cannot import large amounts of oil as it is expensive
• Do not have many cars to use the oil

Dependence on oil can be reduced by walking, cycling, using renewable energy to provide electricity, using less electricity + using public transport.

If there is less oil, there will be problems for countries all over the world.

Problems for countries which rely on oil 

• Oil prices rise -> more expensive to drive
• Reduced standard of living
• More difficulty travelling
• Political issues
• Lack of fuel -> impact on products + industry

Problems for countries that were exporters of oil

• Oil is finite -> will eventually run out
• Reduction of income
• Over reliance on oil -> economy may crash
• Diversification required -> different industries
• Need to import oil
• May have to restrict oil sales
• Political issues 

Abu Dhabi is a major oil producer in the UAE. However, it is a desert country and has very little rainfall / land suitable for growing crops. The emirate relies on profits made from selling oil to import food.

There was a global food shortage in 2008, which led to the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) to search for a sustainable solution to obtain food

Sudan:

• A lot of water from the River Nile
• Large areas of land suitable for agriculture
• Crops = wheat, potatoes, beans + alfalfa (grown and exported to Abu Dhabi)

Result: 

• Develop 30k hectares of farmland in Sudan
• Govt. in Sudan agreed to lease land free of charge in exchange for technology to improve farming techniques

Malthus - 1798 ESSAY ON POPULATION:

He believed that pop. grows exponentially (doubles at each stage e.g. 1:2:4) + food production grows arithmetically (adding one unit at  each stage) So pop. would eventually outstrip food supply + there would be a pop. decrease due to starvation

1) Whenever pop. outstripped resource supply -> 'natural checks'
2) Pop. will decrease to a manageable level, then continue till next natural check

• 'Natural checks' on pop. growth are war, disease, mortality
• Example of a 'natural check': AIDS epidemic

Boserup - 1965 THE CONDITIONS OF AGRICULTURAL GROWTH:

 Opposes ideas of Malthus. She believed that food production doesn't limit/ control pop. growth. Instead...humans would invent solutions to the problem. 'Agricultural intensification' is the idea that farmers can grow more food from the same piece of land using better farming techniques + chemical fertilisers

•  Examples: hydrogen powered cars, GM crops + pesticides

There are three types of resources: renewable, sustainable + non-renewable.

Renewable

• Advantages = infinite, produces little / no waste, environmentally friendly
• Disadvantages = supply depends on weather (unreliable), not a lot of electricity made
• Example = wind power

Non-renewable 

• Advantages = widely available, affordable, provides a lot of energy
• Disadvantages = finite, hard to obtain, pollute the environment
• Example = Coal

Sustainable

• Advantages = waste products re-used, environmentally friendly, provides energy
• Disadvantages = may be unreliable
• Example = wood

Problems due to an increasing pop. are more migration, more CO2, more expensive food + fuel + water shortages. This will either lead to mass starvation (Malthus) or new technology to cope (Boserup). GM crops may be able to cope with food insecurity.

GM crops

ADVANTAGES

• May be capable of thriving in regions with poor soil/ adverse climates
• Stay ripe for longer -> can be shipped long distances 
• More environmentally friendly -> require less pesticides + herbicides
• Inbuilt resistance to pests, weeds + disease

DISADVANTAGES

• Everyone may grow same strain of crop with less resistance to disease
• Have not been proved safe
• Could cross-pollinate with non-GM plants -> ecological problems
• GM seeds must be bought from companies - expensive for poorer farmers

Most of the electricity generated comes from burning fossil fuels + thermal power stations (coal, gas). This is a problem as these resources can be expensive.

Muppandal Wind Farm

• Enough energy to power 1 million homes
• Wind turbines help produce electricity for companies -> they save on electricity use
• HOWEVER...the amount of power a turbine generates depends on the wind power

Firewood is used for cooking. Gathering wood can take a day. It produces a lot of smoke when burned, causing high numbers of eye infections + respiratory diseases.

Biogas plants are appropriate technology + support villages by producing methane to be used as a cooking fuel.

• Little / no smoke
• No firewood to collect- children have time for school
• No deforestation - more environmentally friendly
• Easy to build + local materials

Peak oil - the point at which oil production reaches its maximum level + then falls
NIC - Newly Industrialising Country

Resource - naturally occurring substance which can be used / made into something new
Renewable - will never run out and can be used over + over again, infinite resources
Sustainable - able to be maintained at a certain rate e.g. bio-fuels 
Non-renewable - being used up and can't be replaced, finite resources e.g. Coal

Food security - the ability to obtain sufficient food on a day-to-day basis 
Food insecurity - how difficult it is to obtain enough food 

Oil pessimists believe that the world has reached / is close to reaching peak oil
From now -> less oil to extract = possibility of recession / war
Evidence is high oil prices 

Oil optimists believe that peak oil is still decades away
DUE TO...more oil to be discovered