UK Resources Overview

Three resources, three different gaps

The specification puts UK food, water and energy in one section, and it is tempting to learn them as three separate lists. They are better learned as one idea in three versions, because the shortfall in each is a different KIND of shortfall. Food is a gap in place between countries. A great deal of what is eaten here is grown somewhere else, partly because the climate will not produce it at all and partly because it cannot be produced here in every month or at the same cost. That is why food miles is a question in this topic in the first place, and why agribusiness, organic farming and seasonal eating all appear: each is a different response to the same fact, that the plate and the field are in different countries. Water is a gap in place inside the country. The UK as a whole is not short of rain. The difficulty is that most of it falls on the north and the west while most of the people, and the driest summers, are in the south and the east. That is not a national shortage at all, it is a mismatch, and it is precisely why water transfer within the UK exists as a topic rather than being a curiosity. Energy is a gap in time. Some sources are declining and others are growing, so the question is not where the energy is but what replaces what, and how fast. That is the argument behind fracking and behind the pace of the shift to renewables. The sibling module on the global picture supplies the vocabulary of supply, consumption, surplus and deficit, and this module takes it as read.

Six terms, one for each strand and three that get argued about

The first three are the UK vocabulary. The last three are contested, so each is given as the people who use it would use it, and you are not being told which side to take.

Why the UK moves water about

Six statements explain why transfer exists here at all. Put them in the order that builds the argument.

• Rainfall across the UK is uneven, and the wettest ground is in the north and the west
• Population and industry are concentrated in the south and the east
• Those same drier regions also have the hottest, driest summers, so demand peaks when local supply is lowest
• The country therefore has enough water in total and not enough of it in the right places
• Water is moved from surplus regions to deficit ones through rivers, reservoirs and aqueducts
• That raises a different argument, about cost, the energy used to pump it and what the donor region gives up

Why are the three grouped together?

Food, water and energy are taught as one section of the specification. Which reasoning explains the grouping best?

• Because each shows a shortfall of a different kind, so the three together teach the idea rather than three separate facts. Food is a gap between this country and others, closed by trade; water is a gap between regions inside the country, closed by moving it; and energy is a gap over time, closed by one source replacing another. The same question is being asked three ways.
• Because the UK is short of all three and needs to import them.
• Because all three are essential to modern life.
• Because the government manages all three in the same way.

One idea, three strands

Read down a column for the strand and across the rows for the idea. The third row of each column is the response the strand generates, which is the part the specification actually names.

Match each response to the gap it answers

Compulsory, and contested

Two things to carry into the exam, and the first one is about revision planning rather than geography. The sibling module has already warned you that nobody is exempt from this overview; what it could not say is what that means for this half. It means that a candidate who studied water in depth is still examined on UK food and UK energy, and one who studied energy is still examined on UK food and UK water. The UK section is the part most often assumed to belong to the choice, and it does not. The second is about how to write on contested ground. Fracking, the pace of the energy shift and organic farming are all argued over by people who have looked at the same evidence, and an answer that simply asserts one side reads as an opinion piece. Set the positions out as their holders would state them, at similar length, and then, if the question asks you to judge, judge with a reason attached. "Supporters argue that, critics argue that, and on the criterion of X the stronger case is Y" is a structure that works on any of the three. That is also why food miles deserves care. It is a real measure and a poor proxy, so the sophisticated move is to say what it captures, distance, and what it misses, how something was grown and how it travelled, rather than to treat it as a verdict. Finally, keep quantity and quality apart in the water strand, and keep the three kinds of gap apart across the section. Most of the marks on this topic come from knowing which kind of problem you are looking at.

Complete the UK overview framework

The three strands of this section are shortfalls of different kinds. UK food is a gap in place between _____, closed by importing, which is what makes the distance food travels something people count at all. UK water is a gap in place within the country, since the rain falls mostly in the north and west while the people and the driest summers are in the south and east, so the answer is _____ rather than producing more. UK energy is a gap in _____, because some sources are declining while others grow and the argument is about what replaces what and how fast. A fourth point sits alongside the water strand and is separate from it: _____, since pollution shrinks the usable supply while leaving the volume unchanged. And because this overview is _____, every candidate is examined on all three strands whichever resource they studied in depth.

Spot the three sound UK overview statements

Select the THREE statements that could stand as they are in an answer.

• The water position in the UK is a mismatch between regions rather than a national shortage, which is why moving water about is a topic here while producing more of it is not.
• Distance travelled captures one part of the impact of food and misses how it was grown and how it was carried, so it should be used as one measure among several rather than as a verdict.
• On extracting gas from shale, supporters point to domestic supply and jobs while critics point to prolonged fossil fuel use and local effects, and a judgement should say which criterion it rests on.
• The UK is short of water, which is why transfer schemes are needed.
• Food grown close to where it is eaten always has a lower environmental impact than food brought from further away.
• Someone whose depth study was water may safely leave the UK food and energy material out of their revision.

A 6-mark answer, no figures needed

Explain why the UK needs to move water between regions. [6 marks] The starting point is that this is not a shortage. The UK receives a large amount of rain, and if it fell evenly across the country there would be no transfer topic to study. What creates the problem is that rainfall and population are distributed differently: the wettest ground is in the north and the west, where the uplands force moist air to rise, while the largest concentrations of people and industry are in the south and the east. Those same drier regions have the warmest and driest summers, which makes the mismatch worse rather than better, because demand for water peaks in exactly the months when local rivers and reservoirs are at their lowest. So the gap is not only regional, it is seasonal as well, and the two reinforce one another. The response is therefore to move water rather than to produce more of it, using rivers, reservoirs, pipelines and aqueducts to carry it from regions with a surplus to regions with a deficit. That is a different kind of answer from the ones the food strand generates, because water is heavy and expensive to move, so the distances involved are national rather than international. It also creates its own argument. Building and running a transfer costs money and uses energy, particularly where water has to be pumped uphill, and the region the water is taken from gives something up, whether that is river flow, a flooded valley or a landscape changed by engineering. So a transfer question is rarely about whether the water exists and usually about who gives up what, and for whose benefit. What earned the marks: the problem correctly identified as regional rather than national; the physical and human distributions explained separately and then set against each other; the seasonal reinforcement added; and the response explained along with the objections it raises. There is not a figure in the answer, and the question did not need one.

Find the two that would cost marks

Five sentences from answers about UK resources. Two would lose credit, one for misreading the problem and one for asserting a contested position as settled. Tap those TWO.

• The UK does not receive enough rainfall for its population, which is why water has to be transferred between regions.
• The rain falls mostly on the north and west while the people and the driest summers are in the south and east, so the problem is a mismatch rather than a shortage.
• Extracting gas from shale is obviously wrong and no sensible country would allow it.
• Supporters of shale gas point to domestic supply and jobs, while critics point to local effects and to prolonging fossil fuel use.
• Distance travelled is one measure of the impact of food and does not capture how it was grown or how it was carried.

Build the neutral sentence

Assemble a sentence that sets out a contested question fairly before judging it.

Four judgements about UK resources

Each asks which kind of problem you are looking at, or how to handle an argument fairly.

• A region reports restrictions on water use during a hot summer while another part of the country has reservoirs close to full.
• A shopper is choosing between fruit grown in a distant country and the same fruit grown locally out of season under heat and artificial light.
• An exam question asks you to assess proposals to extract gas from shale in the UK.
• A student who studied energy in depth is planning revision for this paper and wants to drop the UK food and water material.

Explain the three strands

Explain the UK position on each of the three resources in this section, and why they are studied together. [9 marks]

• Open by saying that the three shortfalls are different in kind rather than different in size
• Take food as a gap between countries and say what follows from it, including what the distance measure does and does not capture
• Take water as a regional and seasonal mismatch inside the country, and keep quality separate from quantity
• Take energy as a gap in time, about what replaces what and how fast, and set out contested positions fairly before judging
• Argue in comparative terms throughout, since this topic can be answered fully without quoting a single figure