Resource Patterns Lab

Two different maps

The world's water, food and energy are not spread evenly, and neither is the demand for them. Almost every question in this topic comes down to holding two maps apart in your head:

What puts it there?

Per person, or in total?

Two sentences that sound the same and mean completely different things: "this country uses the most energy" and "people in this country use the most energy". Total demand is per-person demand multiplied by population. A country with an enormous population can top the world for total energy use while each of its citizens uses far less than the average person in a small, rich country. So read the question. If it says per person, or per capita, population size is not the answer. If it asks about total demand, population is half the story and wealth is the other half. Marks are lost here every single year, on a question candidates think they have understood.

Which uses more?

Country A has a very large population and uses more energy in total than any other country. Country B has a small population, but each person there uses several times as much energy as each person in Country A. Which country is the bigger consumer?

• It depends which measure is being asked for: A is bigger in total, B is bigger per person
• Country A, because total energy use is the measure that matters
• Country B, because per-person use is the measure that matters
• Country A, because a larger population always means higher use per person

Plot the pattern

Energy use per person tends to rise as a country develops and grows richer. One low-income country is plotted for you. Plot three more points showing energy use per person rising steadily as development increases.

What does it show?

Your graph shows energy use per person rising as development increases. Which is the most careful reading of it?

• The two rise together, which is a correlation. It does not on its own prove development causes the rise, and it says nothing about total use
• It proves that becoming richer causes people to use more energy
• It shows that developed countries use more energy in total than developing ones
• It shows that energy use per person will keep rising indefinitely

Surplus, deficit and per capita

Five terms carry most of the marks in this topic, and three of them are routinely used loosely in answers that then lose the mark:

The UK water divide

In the UK the rain does not fall where the people are, and that single mismatch is the whole of UK water geography. The north and west are wetter and higher: upland Scotland, the Lake District, Wales. Relief rainfall is heavy, populations are small, and there is a surplus, which is why so many of the reservoirs are there. The south and east are drier and far more crowded, London most of all. Demand outruns local supply and the region runs a deficit, or water stress. Note what causes it: not a shortage of rain by world standards, but a lot of people living where relatively little of it falls. That is why transfer schemes, moving water south and east through pipelines and canals, are argued about, and why they are expensive and unpopular at the giving end.

North and south

In the UK the water does not fall where the people are. The wetter _____ and west, including upland Scotland and Wales, run a water _____, and hold most of the reservoirs. The drier and far more crowded _____ and east, London included, run a water _____, which is why schemes to transfer water across the country keep being proposed.

Why demand climbs

Rising demand is a chain, not a single cause. Put these links in the order they follow one another.

• The population grows, so there are more people to feed, supply and power
• At the same time incomes rise, and each person buys and uses more than before
• Total demand therefore climbs faster than population growth alone would explain
• That demand presses on resources that are finite, or renew only slowly
• Countries are pushed into choices: use less, find more, or import the difference

What raises demand?

Select ALL THREE changes that would increase a country's TOTAL demand for energy, food and water.

• Its population grows by a fifth over twenty years
• Average incomes double, and more households buy cars, fridges and washing machines
• Its cities expand, with far more homes connected to mains water and power
• Its birth rate falls below the level needed to replace the population
• Households become more efficient, using less water and power per person
• It discovers a large new gas field within its borders

The UK energy mix is shifting

An energy mix is a set of shares, so it can only change by one part growing while another shrinks. The UK's has changed a great deal in a short time. Coal, which once generated most of the country's electricity, has fallen away sharply. Gas grew to replace much of it, and renewables have grown fast, wind above all, helped by the shallow, windy seas around the coast. The UK also still imports part of its energy, through interconnectors and as fuel, which is a reminder that a national mix is not the same thing as national self-sufficiency.

Why did coal fall?

Coal's share of UK electricity has fallen sharply while wind's share has grown. Which explanation fits best?

• Coal stations closed as carbon targets tightened and as gas and wind became cheaper to build and run
• The UK ran out of coal entirely
• Wind now generates more energy than every other source in the UK combined
• The UK stopped importing any energy from abroad

Resource-patterns frame

Resources are spread _____ across the world, and where they are found is a different map from where they are used. High-income countries consume _____ per person than low-income ones, although the country with the largest demand in total may be neither. In the UK the drier _____-east faces water shortages while the wetter north and west run a surplus. Global demand keeps climbing because of population growth together with economic _____.