Unit 3: Global resource consumption and security revision

Case studies and examples

Required case studies

• None are required by the syllabus

Required detailed examples

• Detailed examples of two countries with contrasting levels of resource security
  • geographyalltheway.com > Switzerland and United Arab Emirates

Suggested examples [as an absolute minimum]

• 3.1 Global trends in consumption
  • Global progress towards poverty reduction
  • Continental progress towards poverty reduction
  • The growth of the “new global middle class”
  • Individual, national and global ecological footprints
  • Global patterns and trends in the availability and consumption of water, including embedded water in food and manufactured goods
  • Global patterns and trends in the availability and consumption of land/food, including changing diets in middle-income countries
  • Global patterns and trends in the availability and consumption of energy
  • The relative and changing importance of hydrocarbons, nuclear power, renewables, new sources of modern energy
• 3.2 Impacts of changing trends in resource consumption
  • The water–food–energy “nexus” and how its complex interactions affect national water security, including access to safe water
  • The water–food–energy “nexus” and how its complex interactions affect national food security, including food availability
  • The water–food–energy “nexus” and how its complex interactions affect national energy security, including energy pathways and geopolitical issues
  • The implications of global climate change for the water–food–energy nexus
  • The disposal and recycling of consumer items, including international flows of waste
• 3.3 Resource stewardship
  • Pessimistic views, including neo-Malthusian views
  • Optimistic views, including Boserup
  • Resource stewardship strategies, including the value of the circular economy as a systems approach for effective cycling of materials and energy
  • Resource stewardship strategies, including the role of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and progress made toward meeting them

3.1 Global trends in consumption

3.2 Impacts of changing trends in resource consumption

3.3 Resource stewardship

Unit 3 revision clock