Case Studies - Tropical Rainforest & Hot Desert

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Malaysia Rainforest - Causes of Deforestation (1)
-Population Pressure - as the population in the area increases, trees are cleared to make land for new settlements. -Mineral Extraction - minerals (e.g gold & iron ore) are mined and sold to make money.
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Malaysia Rainforest - Causes of Deforestation (2)
-Energy Development - building dams to generate hydro-electric power floods large areas of forest. -Commercial Logging - trees are felled to make money. Road building for logging also requires more tree clearance.
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Malaysia Rainforest - Causes of Deforestation (3)
-Commercial Farming - forest is cleared to make space for cattle grazing, or for huge palm oil or soya plantations. -Subsistence Farming - forest is cleared so farmers can grow food for themselves and their families.
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Malaysia Rainforest - Environmental Impacts of Deforestation (1)
-With no trees to hold the soil together, heavy rain washes away the soil (soil erosion). This can lead to landslides and flooding. -Without a tree canopy to intercept rainfall and tree roots to absorb it, more water reaches the soil.
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Malaysia Rainforest - Environmental Impacts of Deforestation (2)
-This reduces soil fertility as nutrients in the soil are washed away, out of reach from plants. -Trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Also, burning vegetation to clear forest produces CO2. So deforestation means more CO2 in the atmosphere.
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Malaysia Rainforest - Environmental Impacts of Deforestation (3)
-This adds to the greenhouse effect and it is responsible for at least 15% of global CO2 emissions each year - more than all the world's annual transport emissions combined.
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Malaysia Rainforest - Economic Impacts of Deforestation (1)
-Logging, farming and mining create jobs. -A lot of money is made from selling timber, mining and commercial farming. -Long term; deforestation can destroy the resources that countries depend on and reduce the attractiveness of the area (tourists).
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Malaysia Rainforest - Economic Impacts of Deforestation (2)
-The livelihoods of some local people are destroyed - deforestation can cause the loss of animals and plants that they rely on to make a living.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Opportunities (1)
-Mineral Resources - Morocco is now the world's largest exporter of phosphate (used in batteries, fertilises, cleaning products, etc). -Oil and Gas - Algeria is a leader in oil exploration and extraction in the Sahara Desert.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Opportunities (2)
-60% of its income comes from the oil and gas industry. It has many oil fields, including Hassi Messaoud, and the industry employs over 40000 people.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Opportunities (3)
-Solar Energy - 12 or more hours of bright sunshine and cloudless skies everyday are ideal for generating solar power. A 100km2 area solar energy development in Tunisia is planned to supply enough electricity to meet the needs of 2 million homes.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Opportunities (4)
-These will be located in Europe and it should be in action by 2018. -Tourism - many people are fascinated by remote and exotic desert locations. Sandboarding, carting and cross-desert (camel) treks are popular tourist activities in the Sahara.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Opportunities (5)
-Tourism in the Sahara itself remains on a small scale though many people visit cities on the outskirts (e.g Marrakech).
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Thar Desert & others - Development Opportunities (6)
-Farming - water is essential for plant growth so commercial agriculture in the Sahara is only possible where there is enough irrigation water. E.g the Aswan Dam provides a year-round water supply in Egypt.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Challenges (1)
-Extreme Temperatures - due to the lack of cloud cover, daily temperatures can range from over 40 degrees C during the day to below freezing at night. Exposure to high temperatures can cause illness or death; healthcare may be a long distance away.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Challenges (2)
-The hot season is often too hot for tourists so employment in the tourism industry can be seasonal. -Inaccessibility - the Sahara is huge - people have to travel long distances - often by air, which is expensive.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Challenges (3)
-It's difficult to provide services (e.g medical care) to remote regions, making it hard for them to develop. -Expensive pipelines have to be built to transport oil and gas from remote areas.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Challenges (4)
-It takes 5 days by truck to transport salt from salt mines in Mali out of the desert. -Water Supply - the Sahara has very low annual rainfall (
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Thar Desert & others - Development Challenges (5)
-Providing enough water for workers, industry or irrigation is extremely hard. -Deep boreholes are used to extract water stored naturally under the Sahara but this isn't sustainable because the supply isn't being replenished.
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Thar Desert & others - Development Challenges (6)
Some desert resources are so valuable that new developments find ways of supplying the water they need. E.g the phosphate mines in Morocco pipe water from a dam in central Morocco.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

-Energy Development - building dams to generate hydro-electric power floods large areas of forest. -Commercial Logging - trees are felled to make money. Road building for logging also requires more tree clearance.

Back

Malaysia Rainforest - Causes of Deforestation (2)

Card 3

Front

-Commercial Farming - forest is cleared to make space for cattle grazing, or for huge palm oil or soya plantations. -Subsistence Farming - forest is cleared so farmers can grow food for themselves and their families.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

-With no trees to hold the soil together, heavy rain washes away the soil (soil erosion). This can lead to landslides and flooding. -Without a tree canopy to intercept rainfall and tree roots to absorb it, more water reaches the soil.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

-This reduces soil fertility as nutrients in the soil are washed away, out of reach from plants. -Trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Also, burning vegetation to clear forest produces CO2. So deforestation means more CO2 in the atmosphere.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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