Unit 2 People and the Planet

Revision Cards for People and the Planet

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  • Created by: isis
  • Created on: 31-03-12 17:33

Topic 1 Population Dynamics

How does world population increase in the last century compare with centuries before it?

  • Population in the twentieth century has been rapid in comparison to previous centuries.

  • This due to various things (lack of contraception; improvements in health care; better diets etc.)

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What does overpopulation mean?

  • Overpopulation describes a situation where there are not enough basic resources for a population to survive (e.g. space, food, shelters, etc.). This situation can result in famine, war, disease and significant reduction of a population’s size)

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

How is population change in developing and developed countries different?

  • Many developed (MEDC) countries populations are no longer growing (women have careers and contraception is understood better due to education)

  • The majority of developing (LEDC) countries populations are growing rapidly (lack of birth control and education, and sometimes it is culturally important to have more children – especially boys) 

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

Population change (increase or decrease) can be worked out by? (The difference between the following)

  • Birth rate: number of births per 1000 people per year in a population

  • Death rate: number of deaths per 1000 people per year in a population

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What are three reasons for countries having different birth and death rates?

  • A country’s level of development: LEDCs have high birth and high death rates; MEDCs the opposite

  • Peoples’ religious views

  • Government policies (China: Once Child Policy)

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What additional factors can change a country’s population?

  • Inward and outward migration can change a population

  • Natural disasters can cause a sudden increase in death rate

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

Why do some countries, such as Japan (MEDC), have large elderly populations?

  • Improved standards of living: better diet (rice and fresh fish), healthcare (Japan can afford the very best as they are a developed country), education and exercise facilities (large numbers of Japanese people take part in daily exercise routines at school and work)

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What are some of the impacts of an increasingly elderly population?

  • Pensions are more expensive and more people need them; nursing homes will struggle to cope with the increased numbers; healthcare will become more expensive as greater demand from the elderly pressurises the system

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

Why do some countries such as Mexico (LEDC) have rapidly growing populations?

  • Low death rate (improved standards of living)

  • Lots of young people having babies (high birth rate)

  • Lack of contraception (a religious country where contraception can be frowned upon)

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What are some of the impacts of a rapidly growing population?

  • Lack of worthwhile employment for people to support large families

  • Increased numbers of children requiring schooling and services

  • On the positive side: growing manufacturing industry needs lots of workers

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What is an example of an anti-natalist population policy?

  • China’s one child policy forces people to only have one child – this is in an effort to reduce population increase and uses harsh methods such as heavy fines

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What is an example of a pro-natalist population policy?

  • Sweden encourages people to have more children by giving men 13 months off work whilst receive 80% of their salary – usually it is just women that receive maternity leave, this is great for young families

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What are some of the positive impacts of immigration (into a country)?

  • For example, immigrants contribute $30billion to the US economy each year

  • Foreign un-skilled workers do jobs that others do not want to do

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Topic 1 Population Dynamics

What are some of the disadvantages of immigration?

  • Healthcare systems can become strained by additional people

  • Immigrants often form their own communities and do not integrate into broader society

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Topic 2 Consuming Resources

What might be some of the impacts of population growth on resources?

  • More expensive food; more expensive fuel; climate change (the atmosphere is a resource – good); more migration (and conflict); war. 

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Topic 2 Consuming Resources

How can resources be categorised?

  • Three major categories (especially for energy) include: renewable energy (e.g. wind farms in the USA); sustainable energy (e.g. bio-gas in India); and, non-renewable energy (e.g. natural gas supplies in Europe). 

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Topic 2 Consuming Resources

What are the costs and benefits of obtaining one type of energy from each of the three categories?

  • Wind Farms: costs – obscure attractive views and can be noisy; benefits – is a clean source of energy with very little carbon emissions once set up.

  • Bio-gas: costs – does produce methane gas which can harm the stmosphere and contribute to global warming/climate change; benefits – can provide developing countries with a source of fuel that is alternative to oil and gas which they may not have.

  • Natural gas: costs – costs - not a renewable and will therefore run out (by about 2030?); benefits - a relatively clean form of energy in comparison to coal or oil and therefore contributes less to climate change and global warming. 

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Topic 2 Consuming Resources

Why do developing countries have better supply of some resources such as oil?

  • More economically Developed Countries (MEDCs) have a higher demand for oil as their rich populations use things such as central heating in houses, cars for transport and plastic in their consumer goods. This means that poorer countries that have oil sell it to make money for their economies rather than keep it for their own populations that do not need it as much – and certainly cannot afford to pay as much for it. 

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Topic 2 Consuming Resources

If global economic growth continues (especially in countries such as China) what will be the impact on resources such as oil?

  • As countries become more developed their demand for oil increases, this is because they are more likely to be driving cars (petrol comes from oil) and buying consumer goods often made from plastic (plastic comes from oil). As these nations have huge populations the demand for oil will grow significantly – this will mean that the countries that can afford the highest prices will get the oil. 

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Topic 2 Consuming resources

What was Thomas Malthus’s opinion on population change?

  • “We’re all doomed”: that population would reach a critical point where there would be too few resources and the earth’s population would naturally get smaller through ‘natural checks’ such as famine (food shortage)

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Topic 2 Consuming Resources

What was Ester Boserup’s opinion on population change?

  • She believed that people would think of inventive solutions to overpopulation and that creativity would win out over shortages in resources. Necessity is the mother of invention – a believer in people and technology!

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Topic 2 Consuming Resources

In what ways can we reduce the demand for resources such as oil?

  • Recycling – especially of plastic. This will reduce the amount of crude oil used for making new plastic bottles (especially mineral water and pop!).

  • Technology – cars that run on electricity are a good way of reducing demand on oil (but the electricity that we charge them up with must come from sustainable resources such as wind farms!). 

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Topic 2 Consuming Resources

Can renewable energy alternatives provide a technological fix?

  • Examples of sustainable buildings in California suggest that it is possible to provide alternative forms of heating and lighting to reduce demand on traditional forms of energy. Google have also proven that transport to and from work can also become a sustainable part of everyone’s working lives (e.g. electric pool cars, shuttle buses to collect workers, schemes to donate money to charity for cycling to work)

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Topic 3 Living Spaces

What makes a good living space?

The answer varies according to factors, for example: age, family situation, preference for urban/rural living, culture etc.

Older members of the population will be more concerned with peacefulness, accessibility and closeness to relatives that can support them – they may chose seaside resorts, flatter locations, areas of scenic value etc

Younger people may choose to live in cities where they can access more job opportunities, spend leisure time in bars and clubs and access consumer services more easily

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Topic 3 Living Spaces

Why is the variation in the quality of living spaces?

Factors affecting living spaces include: social, economic, political and environmental

Political: if a place is well-governed people feel safe; there is stability. If not, a location can leave people feeling vulnerable

Environmental: an attractive and clean place is far better than a polluted and vandalised location

Economic: places with job opportunities and transport links offer a better chance of improving quality of life

Social: if crime rates are high and health care is poor a place is likely to have a negative effect on people

Any of the above factors can start of a process called a ‘spiral of multiple deprivation’ where one negative factor causes another until a place becomes worse and worse

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Topic 3 Living Spaces

What is the ‘rural idyll’ in developing countries?

Close communities; less traffic and crime; near the countryside etc.

Problems: demand has sent the price of houses rising; people that come from rural areas are becoming poorer as agriculture declines and there are fewer jobs

Weekends in rural locations are often full of people at weekends and throughout the summer, but in the winter and week days there is a lack of people using services and a decline in the economy

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Topic 3 Living Spaces

What is the ‘rush for towns’ in developing countries?

Rural areas in developing countries lack services and people are leaving to find jobs, schools and healthcare

This results in rural-urban migration and the rapid growth of towns and cities

When poor rural people arrive in cities they realise that everything costs money and that they are poor in a town/city location

Slums develop on the outskirts of towns and cities leading to further problems

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Topic 3 Living Spaces

How can personal choices about living spaces be affected by life cycles?

The re-urbanisation of cities by ‘twenty-somethings’ is happening because: good nightlife; being with similar-aged people; high-quality flats; close to shopping and service

Retirement to locations such as Spain is happening because: warmer climate (can improve arthritis and reduce winter illness); improved health facilities; good transport links; private and state pensions in the UK can be transferred to Spain; ex-pat communities provide you with familiar culture and language.

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Topic 3 Living Spaces

What pressures are experienced by rural areas in developed countries?

House building on greenbelt land; new road building increasing traffic flow causing noise and air pollution; increased light pollution; expansion of runways

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Topic 3 Living Spaces

Why are urban spaces in countries in demand?

  • Urban locations offer prosperity: better jobs, social lives, healthcare, service and some would argue quality of life

  • How does demand for living space in urban areas impact negatively on quality living spaces?

  • Too many people wanting to live in urban areas results in over-crowding: cramped conditions, more pollution; less relaxing atmosphere; greater pressure on services such as transport and healthcare. Slums and favellas can cause even deeper problems relating to crime, unsafe areas and people working in an informal economy.

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Topic 3 Living Spaces

To what extent have sustainable living spaces been created?

  • Curitiba in Brazil is an example of a sustainable city or ‘green’ city

  • 1989 – first Brazilian city to separate and recycle waste; people are employed in this process (including homeless people); reusable materials are sold to local industries – profits are used to fund social programmes to improve the cities other problems

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Topic 4 Making a Living

What are the four main types of employment?

  • Primary industry – extracting raw materials (e.g. fishing, farming and mining)

  • Secondary industry – manufacturing products (e.g. factories producing cars and microwaves)

  • Tertiary industry – providing services (e.g. nursing, teaching, plumbing and hairdressing)

  • Quaternary industry – research & development (e.g. laboratory work to find cures for diseases and microchip development to improve computers)

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Topic 4 Making a Living

What employment changes do countries usually go through?

Using the Clark-Fisher model there are three phases of change:

  • pre-industrial (mostly agricultural jobs);

  • industrial (manufacturing jobs are most common);

  • post-industrial (tertiary jobs are very common – agriculture is very low and manufacturing is decreasing rapidly. Quaternary jobs are becoming more common)

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Topic 4 Making a Living

How do two countries employment compare?

  • USA (de-industrialising): lots of tertiary employment and a big decrease in manufacturing

  • This means a big decrease in unskilled work (such as in factories) and an increase in skilled work

  • This might cause problems for people that are not well-skilled. Also, will there be enough tertiary jobs to make up for the loss of secondary industry

  • China (industrialising/industrialised): lots of manufacturing jobs and industry

  • This means lots of jobs for people in factories etc.

  • Lots of pollution in the atmosphere and water courses (rivers and lakes)

  • There could be a decrease in quality of life for people and animals/plants

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Topic 4 Making a Living

What links are there between economic change and urbanisation in an industrialising country?

  • As countries industrialise they do so in urban areas where there are plenty of workers

  • This attracts more people to urban areas for employment which is not necessaryily available

  • This can lead to the formation of an informal economy which can mean people working in illegal unprotected jobs that are not taxed by the government and therefore contribute little to the economy and the benefit of others

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Topic 4 Making a Living

What are the factors leading to diversification of the rural economy?

  • Rural economies have had to diversify as agriculture has become less important as a means of employment

  • As a result: there are less people living in rural areas – so services such as buses and post offices have become less common. This has not helped to attract other people to rural locations

  • Too many homes are owned by wealthy people working in cities and this means that there is a lack of affordable homes

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Topic 4 Making a Living

What are the environmental impacts of changing employment: de-industrialisation and diversification in a developed country?

  • De-industrialisation has led to an increase in brownfield sites – environmentally unsafe; visually displeasing; and potentially dangerous

  • Diversification of the countryside includes farms focusing less on food production and switching to B&B provision for tourists, opening farm shops and providing activities such as clay pigeon shooting

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Topic 4 Making a Living

What are the environmental impacts of employment change in a developing country (e.g. Mexico)?

Urbanisation (rural-urban migration) and the growth in towns and cities is having impacts:

  • Overcrowding = development of slums sanitation systems (sewers and rubbish collection) cannot cope which is resulting in environmentally unhealthy areas in cities

  • Resources are stretched = water in Mexico is in short supply. Aquifers under the city are being emptied quickly which means water is running out and the city is slowly sinking!

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Topic 4 Making a Living

How has a named brownfield site been regenerated?

  • Fort Dunlop near Birmingham (UK) was a tyre manufacturer

  • Derelict for many years it is now a modern business/retail park

  • Lots of tertiary business e.g. call centres, architects and accountants locate there

  • There are shops, restaurants and even hotels available

  • The environment in this area is much improved visually and in terms of safety but there could be negative impacts associated with increased traffic to the site (air and noise pollution) and this may impact negatively on the health of local residents and employees

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Topic 4 Making a Living

What potential is there for growth in the green employment sector?

  • Examples of green employment include: research and design of alternative energy such as solar panels and wind turbines; includes installing and maintaining solar panels and wind turbines; cavity wall insulation; eco-house building; workers in recycle centres.

  • The need for the ‘green sector’ to grow is increasing

  • Climate change is a threat and the ‘green sector’ offers sustainable solutions

  • A job in the green sector is likely to be more sustainable

  • Compared to something such as a job in oil refinery, green sector jobs will never run out or become unnecessary 

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Topic 8 World of Work

What is the ‘new economy’ and how will it affect people in developed and developing countries?

  • Production of knowledge, ideas and services – global and well interconnected

  • Developed countries (MEDCs) have more hot-spots such as World Cities and this means that they are more suited to the ‘new economy’

  • Developing countries (LEDCs) are less well connected and tend to be better able to support old economies such as manufacturing and the extraction of raw materials

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Topic 8 World of Work

How will the ‘new economy’ affect different groups of people, e.g. Women and children?

  • In developing countries women might find it easier to work and raise a family if they do not need to travel to work – this might be because technology such as computers and broadband allow them to work from home

  • Children may find themselves more susceptible to exploitation in LEDCs where there are not laws protecting them from child labour

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Topic 8 World of Work

Explain how a TNC is using the ‘new economy’ to outsource some activities and shift manufacturing.

  • TNCs use LEDCs to source raw materials and manufacture products – labour is cheap and there are often fewer laws controlling what they do. Key term: SHIFT IN MANUFACTURING

  • TNCs will often base their headquarters and research centres in MEDCs where the new economies are growing – these tend to be World Cities such as Tokyo and New York

  • TNCs that use call centres – such as banks - may out source (key term) operations to take advantage of cheaper workers and unsociable working hours

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Topic 8 World of Work

What advantages and disadvantages do TNCs bring to developed and developing countries?

  • MEDC (advantages) – cheaper imports may benefit consumers

  • MEDC (disadvantages) – outsourcing work leads to job losses

  • LEDC (advantages) – exports rise generating more income and encourage further investment

  • LEDC (disadvantages) – people rushing to cities (keyword: urbanisation) for work can bring lots of problems (e.g. over-crowding; crime; slum enlargement, etc.)

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Topic 8 World of Work

How has the outsourcing of call centres affected a named city in India? (LEARN YOUR CASE STUDY!!!)

  • Increased employment and a significant wage rise for some people living in Bangalore

  • The local economy in Bangalore is growing as people have more disposable income – this indirectly improves the lives of people that service or sell to the employed (money trickles down)

  • As Bangalore grows as a business hub other businesses will take hold there – increasing employment opportunities and prosperity

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Topic 8 World of Work

How are different people in a country impacted by activity such as outsourcing?

  • MEDCs (advantages) – shareholders will benefit from a more efficient business

  • MEDCs (disadvantages) - there will be employment cuts; people will lose their jobs

  • LEDCs (advantages) – young workers have a higher than normal income

  • LEDCs (disadvantages) – the economy may get locked into ‘low value’ activities

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Topic 8 World of Work

How might workplaces change for different people in the future?

  • Technology enables people to work differently, e.g. they may not have to travel to work and they may not have to work a set period of the day

  • This means that people may have: better health; less stress; less illness; better producitvity; improved environment from less travelling

  • Disadvantages: lower wages; isolation from work colleagues and friends; problems with motivation; obstacles to promotion

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Topic 8 World of Work

Are changes in workplaces sustainable?

  • Sustainability of changes in work places is always a question of whether the positives out-weigh the negatives

  • MEDCs: need to build up their workforces to plug the gap of too many people retiring and a shortage of workers and young people; MEDCs must also consider the extent to which flexible working, outsourcing and manufacturing shift might reverse in the future

  • LEDCs: need to be careful that their specialisms in raw materials and manufacturing don’t impact too negatively on their work forces and environment; awful working conditions and high levels of pollution are not sustainable ways to run an economy

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