International Baccalaureate Geography

Standard Level Notes

IB Geography SL notes

UNIT 2: GLOBAL CLIMATE - VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE

CAUSE OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

Structure of Earth’s atmosphere

- Made up of solids, liquids and gases that are held up by Earth’s gravitational force
- Situated from 0 – 80 km above sea level
- Consists of
o 78 % Nitrogen
o 21 % Oxygen
o 0.9 % Argon
o Variety of other trace gases such as Helium and CO2
o Water vapour
o Aerosols (suspension of fine particles in air) in the form of ash and dust
- Concentration of gases
o Ozone is concentrated between 25 – 35 km
o Nitrogen is concentrated between 100 – 200 km
o Oxygen is concentrated between 200 – 1100 km
- The concentration of these gases has a major impact on the temperature of the atmosphere
- Troposphere
o Lowest 0 – 17 km,
o Temperatures fall by 6.5 degrees per kilometre on average as altitude increases
o Water vapour, on the other hand, is only found in the lowest 15 km as it is too cold to hold water
vapour above it
o Most weather processes take place here
- Stratosphere
o 18 – 47 km above sea level
o Temperature rises with altitude in this layer due to the presence of the concentrated ozone layer
which absorbs incoming solar radiation
o Lacks dust and water vapour
o It is stable and thin
- Mesosphere
o 48 – 80 km above sea level
o Temperature decreases as decreasing density makes it harder for absorption of energy
- Thermosphere is quite literally out of the atmosphere (it’s more than 80 km away from sea level)
o It’s virtually a vacuum and it absorbs a lot of energy due to the presence of short-wave radiation
o Consists of ionosphere and magnetosphere, which have charged particles (responsible for Aurora
displays under the right conditions

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Energy balance
- Atmosphere is an open energy system that receives energy from both the Sun and Earth
- Incoming solar radiation from Sun is known as insolation
o This energy drives most weather processes
o It is mostly absorbed in tropical regions and mostly reflected in polar regions
- There is a circulation of this energy (via wind cycles) from low latitudes to higher latitudes to make up
for this uneven distribution
Energy budget
- Until recently, the energy balance had been maintained by re-radiation, resulting in no real increase in
temperature of the Earth despite insolation
- This is because of global warming, caused by anthropogenic activities such as land use change and usage
of fossil fuels
- So, how can this balance be achieved?
o Radiation
 Emission of EM waves such as UV light, infrared radiation, short-wave, long-wave
radiation
 Solar insolation is mostly short-wave radiation (low wavelength UV light and visible
light)
o Convection
 Transfer of heat by movement of fluids such as liquid and gas
 Wind systems would fall under this mode of energy transfer
o Conduction
 Transfer of heat by contact
- What’s the natural energy budget like then?
o Only ~ 46 % of insolation gets through Earth’s atmosphere
o 31 % reflected back to space
o 19 % absorbed by gases (ozone and O2 in high altitude, CO2 and water vapour in low altitude)
 Greenhouse effect
o 8 % energy loss due to scattering
o 17 % energy reflected by water droplets in clouds (clouds are very good at reflecting the
insolation)
 Clouds can also absorb some of the short-wave radiation and re-radiate back to Earth
o Evaporation and condensation also lead to heat losses
o 6 % of the energy is reflected by the Earth’s surface

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Incoming solar radiation

- Main energy input
- Affected by,
o Latitude
o Season
o Cloud cover
- For cloud cover, the angle of insolation and the type of cloud matters
o Generally, less cloud cover or higher cloud cover means more radiation reaching Earth’s surface
- Insolation does not heat Earth’s atmosphere
o It heats the surface which re-radiates long wave radiation which can be absorbed by most of the
atmosphere (ozone can absorb short-wave radiation though)

Long-wave radiation
- Radiation from Earth into atmosphere (some goes to space)
- There’s also incoming long-wave radiation though
- Day
o Outgoing long-wave radiation is greater than incoming long-wave radiation and Earth’s surface
loses energy
- Night

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o If there’s not much cloud cover, outgoing long-wave radiation is greater than incoming long-
wave radiation and Earth’s surface loses energy
o If it’s cloudy, it’s the other way around, Earth’s surface would gain energy
- The net-radiation balance refers to the difference between the two flows
Greenhouse effect
- Process by which certain gases i.e., greenhouse
gases, allow shortwave radiation from the sun to
pass through but trap an increasing proportion of
outgoing long-wave radiation from the Earth’s
surface, leading to the warming of the
atmosphere
- Reason as to why our Earth is much warmer
than our moon which is just nearby, despite
being the same distance away from the sun

- Water vapour
o Accounts for 95 % of all greenhouse gases by volume and 50 % of greenhouse effect
o However, it’s not the main culprit being the enhanced greenhouse effect
- Carbon dioxide
o Its level has risen from 315 ppm in 1950 to 400 ppm in 2012, expected to reach 600 ppm in 2050
o This is because of anthropogenic activities
 Deforestation is especially bad because it not only increases atmospheric CO 2, it also
decreases the number of trees that convert CO 2 into O2
o Carbon dioxide only accounts for 20% of the greenhouse effect but an increased proportion of
the enhanced greenhouse effect
- Methane
o Second largest contributor to global warming
o Its presence in the atmosphere is increasing at the rate of 1 % per annum
o Cattle convert about 10 % of the food they eat into methane, releasing about 100 million tonnes
of methane each year
o As global warming occurs, bogs (decaying plant material) trapped in permafrost would also melt,
further contributing to the increasing emissions of methane
- Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
o Synthetic materials that destroy ozone and absorb long-wave radiation themselves
o Ten thousand times for effective at trapping heat than CO 2
o Emissions are increasing at a rate of 6 % per annum

Changes in energy balance

- Variations in solar radiation
o 11-year cycles
 Leads to short-term changes in solar radiation
 11-year periodic change in the sun’s activity measured by the number of observed
sunspots on the solar surface
 Every 11 years, the sun’s magnetic field flips, the flip occurring when the sunspot cycle
is near its maximum
 At the time of the flip, the Sun releases the greatest amount of radiation
o Milankovitch cycle

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 Leads to more long-term changes in solar radiation

 The variations in eccentricity, axial tilt and precession result in the cyclical variation in
the solar radiation reaching the earth
 These variations result in the world experiencing ice ages and warm periods
every ten thousand years or so
 By right, we should be descending into an ice age gradually by now.
 But, the rate of increase of global temperature is actually increasing right now, breaking
away from the natural cycle. This is because of increased climate forcing (soon to be
explained)
o Solar evolution
 The Sun is always gradually becoming hotter and hotter, although this is barely
noticeable
o Seasonal changes
 Changes in albedo when ice melts and is replaced by dark-coloured vegetation as a result
of this would also result in increased amount of insolation being absorbed by Earth’s
surface
 Albedo: measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation
received by a body

- Global dimming
o Cooling effect produced by air pollution
o Short-term cycles lasting less than a decade caused by volcanic eruptions

o Long-term cycles caused by anthropogenic emissions

 Clean air contains natural particles that provide condensation nuclei for water
 Polluted air, in juxtaposition, contains ash, soot, sulphur, sulphur dioxide and many more
sites for the water to bind to, resulting in smaller water droplets than in naturally
occurring clouds
 So, albedo of polluted clouds is higher, resulting in less short-wave radiation reaching
the Earth’s surface
 These small droplets are also lighter, meaning they don’t fall as rain as often
- Feedback loops
o Feedback mechanisms play a key role in controlling the Earth’s atmosphere, changes to which
would result in implications for the climate
o These feedback loops occur when the output of a system circulates back and becomes the input,
resulting in a succession of cause-and-effect cycles

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o Positive feedback loops

 Enhance or amplify change
 Tend to make a system move away from its equilibrium state and make it more unstable
 Example:
 Melting of the polar ice caps due to global warming results in less ice and lowers
planetary albedo.
 Since ice is more reflective than water, less ice means less reflection.
 Lowering albedo increases the amount of solar energy absorbed at the Earth’s
surface, and leads to an increase in temperature, which results in even more
accelerated melting of polar ice caps.
o Negative feedback loops
 Dampen or buffer changes, maintaining some state of equilibrium of the system, making
it more stable
 Example:
 Increased evaporation in low latitudes, as a result of higher levels of
precipitation, may lead to increased snowfall on the polar ice caps, reducing the
mean global temperature. Similarly, an increase in carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere leads to increased plant growth by allowing higher levels of
photosynthesis. Increased plant biomass and productivity would reduce
atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.
Climate forcing
- Imbalance in the top of the Earth’s atmosphere
- Difference between amount of energy received by absorption of insolation and rate of energy emitted by
top of Earth’s atmosphere expressed in W m -2 (Intensity)
- The heat retained by the greenhouse gases in our Earth’s atmosphere results in there being some climate
forcing that act as a warm blanket that raises the temperature of the Earth, giving it its characteristic
liveable conditions
- Factors affecting climate forcing:
o Greenhouse gases (GHGs) (+)
o Albedo – forest coverings (+)
o Ozone (-)
o Aerosol (-)
o Solar irradiance – intensity of light received by
Earth’s surface (+)
o Anthropogenic factors have been observed to
have a much greater positive impact than the
natural positive factor of solar irradiance
o Perhaps, this would help us explain the
enhanced greenhouse effect…
Enhanced greenhouse effect
- It is the impact of increasing levels of GHGs in the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities
- Also referred to as global warming
- Global climate change – changes in global patterns of rainfall and temperature, sea level, habitats and the
incidence of droughts, floods, storms resulting from changes in Earth’s atmosphere caused by the
enhanced greenhouse effect
- Natural greenhouse effect is important as mentioned before but enhanced greenhouse effect, on the other
hand, is harmful for the environment

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- The ozone layer (although ozone is a greenhouse gas) is very important for us as it helps to absorb
harmful wavelengths of shortwave UV radiation from the Sun that could render life as we imagine it
improbable. It’s contribution to the greenhouse effect is very small. Hence, it is not to be confused as a
contributor to this harmful phenomenon we have created.

Contributors to the enhanced greenhouse effect

- Increase in GHG emissions is linked to industrialisation, trade and globalisation
- Increase in industrialisation  Increase in CO2 emissions
o Many NICs and LICs are actively industrialising and adopting a consumer culture, suggesting
that this trend is expected to go on unless something is done
o The per-capita emissions of HICs, however, is still the main contributing factor to enhanced
greenhouse effect. NICs and LICs have the potential to make it much worse.

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CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

Implications of climate change

- Rising sea level, causing flooding in low-lying areas
- Rising storm activity i.e., cyclones, hurricanes due to more atmospheric energy
- Change in agricultural patterns
o Crop yield decrease in countries like India, USA
o Increase in countries like Greenland, Canada
- Decline in precipitation
- Loss of biodiversity
Changes to hydrosphere
- Hydrosphere: water bodies all around the world
o Freshwater
o Seawater
o Glaciers / ice caps
- Apart from rising sea levels being a threat to populations living in low-lying areas, melting glaciers also
lead to flooding

Changes in sea-ice
o Establishment of a positive feedback loop
 Receding ice over the years has resulted in the increase in the potential for wave
formation
 Stronger and higher waves will facilitate and accelerate the breaking up of ice, resulting
in a positive feedback loop of disappearing sea ice and wave formation
o Impacts of disappearing sea ice
 Methane emissions from tundra increases because of chlorine atoms released from sea
Melting glaciers and ice caps
- Many glaciers and ice caps are the source of water supplies for many regions, such as the Hindu Kush
Himalayan Mountain range being a source of water for many of Asia’s major river systems
- Lower elevations glacial retreat is said to be unlikely to cause major shortages in water in the near future
- However, one cannot be certain about the impact of these glacial retreats on water supplies as of yet
- What we know for sure is that some glaciers are retreating at an accelerated pace
Changes in carbon stored in ice, ocean and biosphere
- Before Industrial Revolution, all of this was relatively balanced
- But anthropogenic activity had changed things and some carbon sinks even became carbon sources
- The obvious activity that results in this would probably be the burning of fossil fuels
o Before that, it was activities like the odd volcanic eruption that disrupted the carbon cycle in our
planet
- Natural carbon cycle has a much slower rate of turnover than the accelerated impact that we are seeing
now

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- Much of the carbon we extract from these sinks through things like deforestation and burning of fossil
fuels ends up in the atmosphere as well, enhancing the greenhouse effect
Changes in oceans
- As we know, climate change has been mainly because of the increasing atmospheric carbon content
- This also leads to increasing carbon content in oceans, acidifying these waters, possibly leading to marine
life taking a hit
o More plants would grow because of this and store more carbon but…
o Less carbonate means shell-building organisms would end up with less carbonate to build their
shells and they will become weaker
o Accelerated growth of phytoplankton but again this has negative impacts too

UNIT 3: GLOBAL RESOURCE CONSUMPTION AND SECURITY

POVERTY REDUCTION AND GLOBAL MIDDLE CLASS

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

- These are the 8 goals that the UN Member states had agreed on trying to achieve by 2015
- The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed on 2000, committed world leaders to combat
poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women

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- The MDGs did a very good job in reducing poverty worldwide

o In 1990…
 Around 50% of people who lived in LICs lived on < $1.25 / day
 Number of people living in extreme poverty: 1.9 billion
o In 2015…
 Around 14% of people who lived in LICs lived on < $1.25 / day
 Number of people living in extreme poverty: 836 million
- However, the targets set were too idealistic and the UN changed the 8 MDGs to 17 SDGs (sustainable
development goals) which were more specific in 2015
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

- SDGs have a greater focus on incorporating solutions in achieving goals than MDGs
- MDG goals such as ‘Reduce Child Mortality’ were refined and categorised into more focussed and
realistic goals…
o ‘Good Health and Well-being’ and ‘Clean water and Sanitation’
- Bring forth issues (e.g., racial or cultural inequality) and provide direction for government to solve them
What is poverty in the first place?
- Can manifest in the form of hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services,
social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the lack of participation and in decision making.
- A lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods can lead to these issues,
entailing in a vicious, continuous cycle of poverty
- There are a few types of poverty that have different definitions.
Extreme poverty
- The state whereby a person lives on less than $1.90 / day (World Bank definition)
- This value was determined by collecting data from the 15 poorest countries and taking the average value
of the data collected.
Absolute poverty
- UN defines it as the state whereby a person or individual does not have the amount of money necessary
to meet basic needs such as food, water, clothing and shelter
- The issue with absolute poverty being used as an indicator is that it does not take into account the quality
of life
- Fails to realise cultural and social needs of people

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Relative poverty
- Poverty in relation economic status of other members of a country
- Refers to those who fall below prevailing standards of living in a particular society
Distribution of poverty
- While absolute or extreme poverty has definitely decreased over the past 20 years, the distribution of
poverty has changed as economic performances have changed
- From 1993 – 2017…
o There are more countries with better economic performance.
o Sub-Saharan African countries have improved. However, this results in a bigger range of levels
of poverty.
o Asian countries have generally improved.
o Since 2011, South Asia has not been the global centre of extreme poverty. Today, the largest
number of extremely poor people are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa.
o Shifted from Asia to Africa

What are the implications of a larger range of poverty levels in a region?

- If there is a wider rich-poor gap within the region, there will be more migration to “richer” cities. The
brain drain further widens the gap.
- Potential investors are also deterred.
How will COVID 19 affect the global poverty levels?
- The magnitude of this effect is still highly uncertain.
- But it is clear that the pandemic will lead to the first increase in global poverty since the 1998 Asian
financial crisis when global poverty since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, when global poverty increased
by 0.4 percentage point and 47 million people were pushed into extreme poverty relative to the previous
year.
- Estimates suggest that South Asia will be the region hardest hit, with 49 million additional people (almost
57 million under the worst-case scenario) pushed into extreme poverty.
- Sub-Saharan Africa would be the next most affected region, with between 26 million and 40 million
additional people predicted to be pushed into extreme poverty.
What can or has been done to reduce poverty around the world?
- To answer these questions, use MDGs and SDGs as a starting point. What have people done to achieve
them or work towards achieving them?
- Who are the stakeholders involved?
o Low-income citizens: Discuss how are the citizens and LICs and poor communities being
affected by the work done towards alleviating poverty
o Governments: Discuss what governments around the world are doing to fight poverty (Example:
How China lifted a 100 million people from extreme poverty in eight years)
o Non-governmental organisations: Discuss the work of NGOs in fighting against poverty
(Example: Engineers without Borders)
o Multi-governmental organisations: Discuss the work of MGOs in fighting against poverty
(Example: United National Development Programme)
Global Middle Class
- As poverty levels decreased over the past 20 years worldwide, the global middle class grew
- The global middle class is classified as the global population living on at least $4 / day
- This population almost tripled between 1990 and 2015

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- In 1990…
o Global Middle Class accounted for 18% of people in LICs
- In 2015…
o Global Middle Class accounted for nearly 50% of people in LICs
- The increasing numbers of middle-class people are the result of the increase in average incomes and the
fall of the number of people living in absolute poverty
- The middle-class population in Asia is growing at a much faster rate than in Europe and North America
o In 2009…
 Europe – 664 million, Asia – 525 million, North America – 338 million
o In 2020…
 Roughly 2 billion Asians are in the middle class, mainly due to the rise in people
emerging out of poverty in China and India.
 Account for more than 60% of global middle class
- Apart from North America, Europe and Asia, there have been small increases in middle-class populations
in all other regions / continents as well

Economic importance or growing middle-class

- Increasing middle class helps to increase sales of goods e.g., electric goods, cars
o Sales of cars and motorbikes have gone up by 800% since 2009
- Not consistent for all countries but continued growth can lead to major economic changes in a country
o South Korea’s middle-class had surged rapidly from the 1990s to over 50% of the population in
the 1980s
o This allowed Korea to diversify its economy away from export-oriented to domestic consumption
- Economy security is not guaranteed though for the middle class
o Many people remain vulnerable to unemployment / underemployment
o Many also work in the informal economy
o In today’s times, COVID has also pushed many middle-class people back to poverty
o Vulnerable groups such as the disabled and women in patriarchal societies can also be pushed
back to poverty

GLOBAL CONSUMPTION OF RESOURCES

Ecological footprint

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- As the population of the world grows and the middle-class and wealthy population swells, consumption
of resources around the world increases
- A good indicator of this is the ecological footprint of a country / region / continent
- Crude measurement of the area of land or water required to provide a person (or society) with the energy,
food and resources needed to live and to also assimilate all their waste.
- Analysis involves:
o How much land, sea and other natural resources are used to produce what people consume
o How much land is needed to dispose of an individual or society’s waste
- For example, UK dumped their e-waste in HK and China
Contributing factors to ecological footprint

Increasing factors Decreasing factors

Over-reliance of fossil fuels Reducing amount of resources used

Excessive use of technology and thus, energy Recycling resources

High levels of imported resources (cos transport) Reusing resources

High carbon waste production / capita (energy and Transportation of waste to other countries (would
electricity) increase EF at receiving end though)

High consumption of food / capita Reducing pollution

Meat-rich diet
Utilising technology to make processes more
efficient

Reducing population

Importing resources from other countries

- In general, ecological footprint is increasing around the world.

Why use ecological footprint?

- Ecological footprints act as a model for monitoring environmental impact.
- Also allow for direct comparisons between groups and individuals, such as comparing LICs and HICs.
- They can highlight sustainable and unsustainable lifestyles i.e., high EF, not sustainable and vice versa
How to calculate ecological footprint
- All resources consumption and land use should be included but this would be very tedious.
- Simplified calculation is…
o Bio-productive land (+)
o Bio-productive sea (+)
o Energy land (+)
o Built land (+)
o Non-productive land (-)
- Factors that have been ignored are…
o Land / water required to provide aquatic and atmospheric resources (+)
o Land / water required to assimilate waste other than CO 2 (+)
o Land used to produce resources that are imported (essentially the land from other countries that is
used to produce the resources you get as it allows you to use less of your own arable land) (-)

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o Replacement of productive lost land through urbanisation (-)

- So, these are the cons of using ecological footprint
Ecological footprint of HICs vs LICS
- LICs have smaller ecological footprint than HICs because of their much smaller rates of consumption
- In HICs…
o There is more disposable income. Hence, consumption increases and demand energy sources is
high.
o Resource use is wasteful i.e., more pollution and useless by-products produced
o Diet is almost 30% protein-based (meat). 90% of energy from crops is used by animals for other
processes (e.g., respiration). Hence, they consume a higher grain equivalent then a population
that feeds directly on grain.
- In LICs…
o Less disposable income and less consumption
o Informal economy recycles many resources
- Fixation of carbon dioxide is also dependent on the climatic region and vegetation. Countries nearer
equator have vegetation with higher rates of net primary production (also happen to be mostly LICs and
their ecological footprint is lowered)
- Populations more dependent on fossil fuels have higher carbon emission i.e., oil-rich HICs

WATER AVAILABILITY AND CONSUMPTION

Water availability
- Unevenly distributed
- Over 780 million do not have access to clean water
- With global population likely to increase to 9 billion by 2050 and with changes to diet, demand for water
will increase
- Increased demand for hydroelectric power will further strain earth’s water resources
- Water availability likely to decrease in many regions
o 300 million in Sub-Saharan Africa live in water-scarce environments
o Central and Southern Europe are expected to get drier because of climate change
- HICs always tend to maintain or increase their consumption of water and an increasing proportion of this
water is embedded in agricultural and manufactured products (often from LICs)
- In some cases, loss of water from LICs does not just happen through products but also through the loss of
land

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o Saudi Arabia cut down its cereal production within the country itself by 12% but through a series
of land grabs, produced the cereals it needed in various parts of Africa
Water consumption in HICs vs LICs
- Industrial use of water increases with GNI per capita – from 10% for LICs to around 60% for HICs
- More water required to produce food in all countries in general due to changes in diet
- Many industries (e.g., cotton, textiles, pharmaceuticals) need a lot of water, increasing water demand.
- Much of this growth in water demand will be in LICs (cos they are the ones who depend a lot on the
manufacturing sector), although they are the ones who are mainly experiencing water stress today

Factors affecting water availability and consumption

- Population growth, as mentioned before
- Growing middle class – increasing affluence leads to more water consumption i.e., showers, baths
- Urbanisation – requires significant in water and sanitation facilities to ensure hygienic usage of water and
removal of water waste
- Climate change – can’t tell the effect of it with certainty in the long run but there are bound to be
communities that will face devastating and adverse effects
Virtual water and how it travels
- Virtual water travels through exports of manufactured goods
- Allows countries to ‘outsource’ their water from other countries so as to have more of water resources
and reduce the use of their own water resources
o Mexico imports maize and saves 12 billion m3 of water every year

LAND AVAILABILITY AND FOOD CONSUMPTION

Increasing food consumption

- Despite increase in population, food intake (calorie intake / person) has increased steadily on a global
scale
- Remained steady in Sub-Saharan Africa but dramatic increase in the Middle-East, East Asia and North
Africa
- Diet has swayed from cereal rich to a more varied diet including meat, vegetables and dairy products
- Between 1964 and 1999 in LICs,
o Meat consumption increased by 150%
o Dairy product consumption increased by 60%
o Part and parcel of LICs transforming into NICs
- Meat consumption
o Global meat production has increased due to above-mentioned factors

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o Increased urbanisation  more fast food and mass-produced products  increased demand for
meat
o Strains land and water resources
- Fish consumption
o Since 1961, total fish supply and consumption have increased by about 3.6 per cent per year
while the world’s population has grown by 1.8 percent over the same period.
 However, world’s ocean fisheries have levelled off since 1970, due to overfishing
 Hence, wild fish stocks have dropped but the gap has been filled by growth in
aquaculture e.g., fish farms
- Harvested crops consumption
o Crop reduction has been occurring due to natural disasters, climate change and use of land to
produce biofuels
 Food shortage has even led to riots in some regions e.g., Indonesia
o Three ways to increase crop production
 Expand the area farmed
 Multi-cropping, using irrigation
 Using GMOs that are high yielding
o All three already been implemented for many years, so other ways could be looked into as well
- GOOD NEWS: Growth in demand for food and food consumption has been declining year on year as
many countries have already reached a point where it can’t really get much higher (likely to fall from
+2.2% / year to +1.5% / year over next 30 years)

ENERGY AVAILABILITY AND CONSUMPTION

Energy security over the years

- 1985 to 2003 was considered to be the era of energy security
- Following energy crisis of 1975 and Iraq War (1990-1991), oil prices were low and lead to energy
security
- Since then, insecurity has risen because…
o Increase in demand, especially from NICs
o Decreased reserves as supplies are used up
o Geopolitical power of countries with oil such as Russia in response to dwindling levels at the
Middle East and the North Sea
o Global warming and natural disasters have increased awareness of misuse of energy resources
o Terrorist activity in Syria
o Conflict between Russia and Ukraine

Oil Sources around the world

- Middle East controls about 50% of world’s remaining oil reserves, Saudi Arabia alone controlling about
20%
- This is not really good for consumers as a diverse range of sources is best for energy security
- For example,
o USA consumes over 200 million barrels of oil per day but has less than 2% of the world’s oil
resources
o This means it has to have good political relations with the Middle East as it has the most control
over the oil market today.
- However, the situation also motivates rich countries to develop alternative forms of energy such as
renewable sources, nuclear and coal

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- It also motivates them to use energy less wastefully

Non-renewable energy sources
- Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas
- Contribute to majority of mankind’s energy supply
- Their use is expected to continue to increase to meet global energy demand (at least until 2030)
- Fossil fuels can’t be renewed at the same rate as they are used up, resulting in depletion of stock
- Nuclear power can also be considered as non-renewable as the source of fission, uranium, is limited
- HIC economies are based on high energy production from fossil fuels
- Meanwhile, demand for fossil fuels is much lower in LICs due to reduced utilisation of technology and
usage of natural resources for daily activities
- However, demand is increasing even in LIC, which is why its use will continue to increase at least until
2030
- Renewable sources are less popular because…
o More expensive than using non-renewables such as natural gas, for which technology already
exists to produce energy from
o Renewable sources may still be unreliable when set up (e.g., wind turbines)
- In the future, however,
o Prices of non-renewables will shoot up as easily extractable reserves would have depleted
o Environmental taxes to compensate for global warming would also make non-renewables more
expensive
o Renewable sources might become more attractive than non-renewable sources, which would
benefit our planet much more
Fossil Fuels

Advantages Disadvantages
- Relatively cheap and plentiful - Most significant contributor to the build-up of
- Advanced technologies for safe extraction exist CO2 in the atmosphere (global warming)
- Technology for controlling pollution from fuels - Unsustainable as it implies liquidation of our
exist finite stock of fossil fuels
- Generates a lot more energy than other sources - Extraction will become increasingly difficult
- Oil and gas can be delivered over long and dangerous
distances by pipeline - Mines get deeper and deeper and will be placed
further out to sea, potentially increasing the
chance of oil spillages from tankers, polluting
and damaging ecosystem
- Opencast mining also clears habitats that are
home to biodiversity, disrupting ecosystem

Nuclear Power
- Low carbon, low emission, non-renewable resource
- Problematic and controversial due to storing of radioactive waste and potential scale of nuclear disasters

Advantages Disadvantages
- Does not emit CO2, does not contribute to - Radioactive waster from nuclear power station
global warming is extremely dangerous and remains so for
- Technology to generate energy from it is thousands of years.
readily available - Disposing radioactive waste is still an
- A large amount of energy can be generated unresolved problem
from a single nuclear plant - There’s always a small probability of nuclear
- Very efficient – 1 kg of uranium contains power plant failure (e.g., Chernobyl and

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IB Geography SL notes

20000 times more energy than 1 kg of coal Fukushima-Daiichi)

- Nuclear power plants can become targets for
terrorist attacks
- Uranium is estimated to last only for the next
30-60 years depending on demand
- It takes 20-30 years to build a nuclear power
plant and uptake of nuclear power will take
time

Renewable energy sources

- Include solar, biomass, hydropower, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal
- Do not release pollutants such as greenhouse gases or chemicals that contribute to acid rain
- Will not run out as they are renewable
- But they are still expensive for large-scale use, especially in countries like USA where automobile usage
is very high, demanding a lot of energy
- Locations available for renewable energy sources are often limited by politics (people might not like
sound pollution from wind turbines etc.)
Hydroelectric power
- Uses turbines that can be switched on whenever energy is needed

Advantages Disadvantages
- Once construction of turbines is complete, it is - Vast areas may be flooded, involving loss of
relatively cheap to run habitats, farmland, and displacement of people
- Dams that block flow of water can be used to - Dams may restrict flow of sediment, affecting
form large artificial lakes for recreational ecosystems and farming downstream
purposes - May also lead to increased erosion rates
- Artificial lakes can also be used for food downstream and disrupt natural flow of river
sources and irrigation systems
- Cost of building dams in the first place is high
and dams may eventually silt up, rendering
them unusable.

Tidal power
- Uses ebbing or flooding tide to turn turbines and produce energy
- Good tidal range is required to generate sufficient energy
- Coastline must be right shape to channel water through to turbines, interfering with navigation and
impacting wildlife
- Expensive to set up
Solar Energy
- Usually harnessed through panels containing solar cells
- Passive solar energy is much cheaper than fossil fuels for heating homes but is very expensive to generate
high quality power for manufacturing through solar energy
- Its usefulness is limited to northern countries during winter months
Wind power
- Produced by wind turbines driven by available wind energy

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IB Geography SL notes

- Rotational energy is transferred to generator, which generates energy using electromagnetism, which is
then supplied to an electrical grid
- If there is wind, however, there is no energy (unreliable)
- Turbines have to be placed at regions where there is consistently high wind
Biofuel energy
- Produced by burning plant material to five of heat, transforming plant matter into ethanol, which is then
used as fuel
- Digestion methods can also be used to convert biomass to methane, which is burned to generate
electricity\

Advantages Disadvantages
- Great potential for circular economy - Give off emissions and large amounts of land
are required to grow biofuel crop
- Biofuel crops may take up land used for
growing food crops, pushing up price of food
and disadvantaging locals who can’t get
enough food
- Often planted at the expense of ecosystems as
land is cleared to create space for growing the
biofuel crop

Waste-generated energy

Advantages Disadvantages
- Organic waste decomposes to give off methane - Burning emits greenhouse gases to atmosphere
gas, which can be burned
- Waste such as straw can also be burned directly *However, it can be argued that decomposition of
to generate energy waste in the long run would have the same effect.
- Waste is readily available and does not deplete
natural capital
- Waste that would otherwise have been disposed
of in some way is serving a useful purpose

WATER-FOOD-ENERGY NEXUS

Interactions between water, food and energy

- Interrelationships between water, food and energy security
- Water security: Access to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Food security: Access and availability of sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs and
preferences, so as to ensure healthy lifestyle

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- Energy security: Clean, reliable, uninterrupted energy for practical and productive purposes
- Water is essential for mining, transport and refining of energy sources
- Water is also essential for production of food (70% of water is used for this)
- Energy is essential to run machinery for the extraction of water from ground water and also for
desalination
- Energy is also required to conduct agricultural processes that produce food
- These are some of the connections, resulting in the formation of a WFE nexus (tragedy of commons is
embedded inside this, which is basically competition for resources like water between two sides)
What’s the point of the nexus approach?
- As population of countries grow and due to the rapidly growing middle class (especially in BRICS
economies), many countries are struggling to meet the increasing demands for the three resources,
because of very high consumption
- The nexus approach implies that certain actions that we do in response to a particular resource’s
consumption will impact the resource security of that resource as well as other resources
o Positive example: Building dams to generate hydroelectric power would increase energy security.
This could also create artificial lakes which can be used for irrigation and cultivating crops,
increasing food security.
o Negative example: An economy’s financial strength can be used to gain access to fossil fuels, a
reliable source of energy, increasing energy security. However, the spill-over effects of burning
fossil fuels to generate power include the pollution of neighbouring water bodies, which could
lead to the quality of the water decreasing and posing a threat to water security.
- Using nexus allows for the possibility of a circular economy (provides a way to look at ensuring resource
security in the long run for sustainable development)
Strategies to achieve goal of nexus
- The main goal of the nexus approach is to ensure the water, food and energy security of an economy
while sustaining resources through the efficient use of resource
- Introduce policies to ensure security of resources
- Good governance in order to engage multiple stakeholders and harmonise them, so that policies will be
impactful and have intended effect
- Policies should take into account the butterfly effect on all resources

CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS EFFECTS

How does it affect the nexus?

- Water availability increases in some areas while it decreases in other areas
- It will affect food availability, crop yields, water availability, and the need for irrigation
o Higher temperatures will increase evapotranspiration rates and will reduce water supplies,
increasing need for additional water provision
o Energy demand would rise due to increase in need to pump out or purify water i.e., desalination,
pumping out groundwater etc.
o Rise in energy demand would compete with the need of additional water resources for agriculture
and cultivation as well, putting great pressure on increasingly scarce water resources
- Attempts to limit effects of climate change may also have an effect on the WFE nexus
o Production of biofuel and usage of HEP to limit the dependence of fossil fuels, the main source
of carbon emissions, could result in the increase in demand for water resources
- Methods to adapt to climate change could also affect WFE nexus

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o Using drip irrigation or desalinisation of seawater takes up a lot of energy

o Same goes for extraction of groundwater
o Extraction of groundwater could also lead to sedimentation, leading to the salinisation of nearby
water bodies, putting a strain on water resources once again
- Many of these methods do have positive impacts though
Methods for water security in the face of climate change
- Increased water efficiency
o Less water used per capita
o More water for other purposes
- Using wastewater instead of freshwater where possible (or something like NEW water)
o Less freshwater used per capita
o More freshwater for other uses e.g., industrial
- Switching from wet to dry cooling at thermoelectric plants (the one in Chapter 8 of Physics, uses coal)
o Basically, replace the cool water to condense the steam to something cool that’s not water
o In this case, on top of reducing water use, it also helps to reduce pollution (cos the water is taken
from a reservoir and it becomes waste water after passing through the condenser)

o
- Desalination
o Increases freshwater and brackish (intermediate of salty and fresh) water supplies
o So, there’s more water for agriculture and stuff like that
- Watershed management (land use and other strategies to preserve quality of water in water bodies)
o Quality of water from sources will be upheld
o More water suitable for a variety of purposes

Methods for land / food security

- Using High-Yield Variety (HYV) crops
o Crop yield is increased or maintained during drought seasons
o Reduces water demand
- Using wasteland / marginal land for biofuel
o Since you are not going to eat biofuel crops, might as well grow them in land that’s not to fertile
(not arable)
o Saves space
o Also increases the renewable energy outlets of a country

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Methods for energy security

- Increasing transmission capacity
o Length of wire required decreases, economic cost is reduced
o Less power is lost, increasing energy security
- Increase usage of renewable energy
o Less environmental impact
o Less water required for cooling in thermoelectric plants

CASE STUDY

Resource Security of Switzerland vs UAE (Two HICs affected differently from climate change)

Switzerland UAE
Key Data
Human Development Index 0.955 as of 2019 (rank: 2) 0.890 as 0f 2019 (rank: 31)
Geography Switzerland has a land area of The United Arab Emirates
2
Available land 39 997 km , of which 38.7% is (UAE) has a land area of 83
for farming agricultural land (estimated in 600 km2, of which 4.6% is
(agricultural land 2018). Permanent crops and agricultural land (estimated in
minus permanent permanent pastures took up 2018). Permanent crops and
crops and 0.6% and 27.9% of the land in permanent pastures took up
permanent Switzerland, meaning 10.2% of 0.5% and 3.6% of the land in
pasture)  the land in Switzerland is UAE, meaning 0.5% of the
available for farming, which is land in UAE is available for
about 4080 km2. farming, which is about 418
km2.
2
Irrigated land 630 km as of 2012 923 km2 as of 2012
People & Population size 8,453,550 (July 2021 estimate) 9,856,612 (July 2021 estimate)
Society Population growth 0.65% (2021 estimate) 0.62% (2021 estimate)
Rate of urbanisation 0.88% annual rate of change 1.71% annual rate of change
(2015-20 estimate) (2015-20 estimate)
Children <5 No data available No data available
underweight
Improved water 100% of the population 100% of the population
access
Economy GDP per capita $68,628 (estimated in 2019) $67,119 (estimated in 2019)
(PPP)
GDP Composition 53.7% (estimated in 2017) 34.9% (estimated in 2017)
by end use-
household
consumption
Labour Force in 3.3% of labour force, about 7% of labour force, about
Agriculture 167211 (in 2015) 374080 (in 2015)
Energy Electrification % 100% in 2020 100% in 2020
total population
Electricity 58.46 billion kWh (estimated in 113.2 billion kWh (estimated
Consumption 2016) in 2016)
Electricity imports 34.1 billion kWh (estimated in 1.141 billion kWh (estimated
2016) in 2016)

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Electricity from 67% from hydro, 13% from 0% from hydro, 1% from other
hydro and other other renewables, 80% overall renewables, 1% overall
renewables (estimated in 2017) (estimated in 2017)

Water Security
- Water in Switzerland is of the highest quality; even a sip of lake water there is completely harmless
(very pristine)
- This is primarily because of the country’s excellent wastewater treatment plants, which can fall under
both watershed management and converting wastewater to freshwater. This alleviates the burden of
cleaning polluted water.
- Importantly, Switzerland also experiences bountiful rainfall every year, meaning that there always is
enough water for drinking and all other purposes
- UAE, on the other hand, experiences extremely arid climate with barely any rainfall all year round.
- Rapid urbanisation and large-scale industrial projects have aggravated this situation
- UAE relies heavily on desalination, which is very energy intensive. Although they do have a lot of
fossil fuels, it is extremely bad for the environment as well.
- UAE also extracts groundwater at a faster rate than it can replenished
- Switzerland – good water security for the foreseeable future; UAE – might face a water crisis in the
near future, perhaps as soon as 2030

Possibilities
- Switzerland is investing on ways to recycle its wastewater e.g., make fertiliser and water from urine
- UAE is still facing a lot of challenges in overcoming this issue. It needs water to ensure food security
as well. Most ideal solution for that is land-grabbing from water-rich countries, which the UAE is
already doing.
Food Security
- Switzerland has so much more arable land that food security is good as of now (FSI ranking: 10)
- Connections between abundance of water and food supplies, as well as the abundance of arable land
are key here
- UAE has limited arable land and it will only shrink due to climate change and desertification. (FSI
ranking: 42)
- However, it’s financial prowess allows it to procure land from other nations. So, food security still
isn’t a problem
Possibilities
- Both countries fare well. Switzerland is obviously blessed to not be affected by climate change as
much and its climatic conditions were favourable from the start.
- For Switzerland, the main obstacle is not climate change for food security but globalisation. This is
because of the crops yielded in Switzerland being exported to other nations. Even local farmers have
brought the issue that perhaps too little is being kept for domestic consumption.
- For UAE, climate change is still the biggest nemesis to its attempts to overcome climate change and
ensure that its food security is sustained. However, financial might has allowed the country to import
its food resources.
Energy Security
- Switzerland has the lowest carbon intensity amongst International Energy Agency (IEA) countries
- This is because it gets 80% of all its energy from renewable sources, mainly HEP and nuclear (not
exactly renewable)
- Switzerland’s carbon emissions decreased by 12% even though it’s energy consumption increased over
the last thirty years
- UAE has the world’s 6th largest oil reserve and 5 th largest natural gas reserve. Due to this, as oil
supplies decrease and demand increases, UAE will be under pressure to export much of the fossil fuels
despite owning them.
- UAE also has to decrease its dependence on fossil fuels due to environmental taxes (Kyoto Protocol)

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- However, the UAE also has solar power farms and nuclear power plants of the highest standard.
Therefore, it’s energy security is still deemed to be pretty good.

Possibilities
- Once again, both countries fare well. Due to climate change, UAE will have to look for alternatives in
the future apart from fossil fuels
- However, this is already being done. It remains to be seen how well they can cope once their oil
reserves deplete.

The takeaway from this is that climate change does have a major say in the resources’ security in
countries. Even HICs such as the UAE can come under crisis, due to their geographical location in the
arid tropical region.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Managing solid domestic waste (Best to Worst strategies)

- The strategies are…
o Remove – eliminate demand altogether
o Reduce – minimise the consumption
o Re-source – change materials or sources (for energy use renewable etc.)
o Reuse – reintroduce into the same consumption cycle
o Recycle – reintroduce into a different consumption cycle after modification
o Recover – retrieve some back from waste
o Return – treat the waste and then dispose it back to the environment
- Although removing demand is the best, it is not always feasible as some resources are part and parcel of
our lives
- Whether these strategies are carried out or which strategy is carried out depends on the 4 Ps
o Culture at the place
o Receptiveness from positions of power
o Technological and economical possibilities
o Existing / potential processes

Types of solid domestic waste

- As consumption increases, the amount of waste has also been increasing over the past few decades
- SDWs are made up of a wide variety of materials (paper, plastic, rubber, food etc.)
- HICs tend to produce more waste due to more consumption
- In general, there has also been an increase in the amount of non-biodegradable waste (possibly due to
increase in usage of plastics, which only became prevalent like 30-40 years ago)
Where does all the rubbish come from?
- World’s cities generate about 1.3 billion tonnes of SDW every year (50% from HICs)
- Due to increasing urbanisation, it’s bound to increase to 2.2 billion tonnes
- A waste crisis is looming
Waste disposal
- 40% of the world’s waste is disposed unsafely in dumps

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- Most of the dumps are located in low-income countries, many of them in Africa
- The waste that arrives at these dumps are also increasingly becoming e-waste, which contain rare earth
metals that can be reused and allow us to manufacture new electronic products in the future
- Due to the lack of proper waste disposal, we are losing these metals when we shouldn’t be in the first
place
- Rare earth metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and flame retardants are also extremely toxic
and can harm biodiversity and even poses a huge risk to humans (Minamata disease i.e., mercury
poisoning)
- Moreover, this leads to pollution of water bodies, air and land, leading to environmental degradation,
putting a strain on our resources
- There are a few methods to manage this situation which lie in accordance with the strategies to manage
SDW
Recycling
- Paper, glass, some metals and some plastics can all be recycled
- Reduces pollution and conserves some rare elements that are limited in supply e.g., lithium
- High recycling rates at certain European countries (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland)
- However, countries such as USA have low recycling rates despite 60% of household waste being
recyclable due to the mindset that it is a complicated process
Reduce and reuse
- More resource efficient than recycling
Composting
- Decomposition of biodegradable materials into compost that has valuable nutrients that can be returned to
soil as fertiliser
Landfill
- Cheap but it comes at an indirect cost and harms the environment
- Landfill sites will eventually fill up so this isn’t a viable solution for a prolonged period of time
- Landfill sites also need to be located close to source of waste to be economic, which means they are often
located near areas of high population density
o May give off methane and contaminate water supplies although measures are usually taken to
prevent leaching
o Noise pollution and pungent smell are also reasons for a lot of resistance

Incineration
- Converts waste into ash and gas particulates
- Heat can be used to produce electricity as well
- Volume of waste will also be significantly reduced (80 – 90%) making landfill disposal afterwards not
too harmful for the environment
- However,
o Air pollution is a major problem CO2, NO2 and other nitrous oxides and greenhouse gases are
released.

CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES OF POPULATION AND RESOURCES

Neo-Malthusian theory

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IB Geography SL notes

- There is a finite optimum population size in relation to population supply

- Increase in population beyond that limit would lead to a decrease in living standards and to war, famine
and disease (like the Tamil thirukkural sia)
- In the absence of population checks, population would grow at exponential rate and could double every
25 years
o Positive population checks would be stuff like lack of food and pandemics that would result in
increase in death rate and directly decrease the population
o Preventive population checks would be stuff like abstinence that would reduce the fertility rate of
population, indirectly decreasing the population
- Optimum population exists in relation to the resources and technology of the country

How have things changed from what Malthus thought what are some problems with the Neo-Malthusian
theory?
- Optimum population is very difficult to measure since technology improves and societal attitudes
towards sex may change
- Geometric rate of population increase is rarely seen today (there might not even be a population curve of
a country that corresponds to such a trend today)
- Malthus’s population checks also don’t really change population growth anymore, even COVID-19 has
not really changed population growth for example (disease might still possibly limit population growth
but highly unlikely in today’s context)
- Industrial development has also affected agricultural production (during the Industrial Revolution, the
rate of production of food well exceeded that of population growth)
o Since his time, people have found many ways to increase crop yield and food production
 Intensification
 Growing more types of crops in the same plot of land or increasing number of
harvests per year
 Extension
 Increasing the amount of arable land available for agriculture
 Can be done by…
o Reclamation of land from sea
o Draining marshland
o Terracing steep slopes
 Other techniques include cross-breeding cattle, using HYV crops, using sophisticated
irrigation techniques such as hydroponics
- But the techniques have also caused environmental problems such as loss of habitat (extension) and high
energy usage (intensification)

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Malthusians today
- Today, neo-Malthusians believe that the only way for population to be effectively controlled is through
the usage of contraceptives or abstinence
- There are quite a few organisations that believe in this ideology
- It can be said that China’s one child policy aligns with these ideas but one difference would be Malthus’s
views on economic system (He believed that a capitalist system was still the only functional ones)
- So, in many ways, Malthus was wrong and the Malthusians today are very aggressive
Boserup’s theory
- People have the resource to increase food production as the greatest resource is knowledge and
technology (optimistic)
- In a pre-industrial society, increase in population would lead to changes in agricultural techniques so as
to produce more food
- Different land-use systems will be used according to the demand and requirements for food
o If fallow ploughing is used, then the fields will only yield crops occasionally and when demand
grew, frequency of harvest would increase again
o Adoption of new techniques to increase crop productivity yield would be unlikely unless
population grew
- Basically, population growth leads to agricultural development and increase in food supply
- Communities that do not have the human ingenuity to develop more intensive yield systems would
ultimately have their population regulated by the system that they were using at that point in time
Emile Durkheim’s theory
- Increasing population density leads to more division of labour and hence, greater productivity
- Population pressure is necessary to increase division of labour
- Division of labour tends to increase with increasing complexity of population
Club of Rome model
- It’s basically based on the Neo-Malthusian model
- It is based on five main factors
o Pollution
o Agricultural production
o Natural resources
o Population
o Industrial production
- It predicts that these negative factors grow at an exponential rate until the resources base forces a
slowdown in industrial growth
- On the other hand, positive factors such as technological development only grow at an arithmetic rate
- So, because of this relationship, there is very limited time to take corrective measures
- There are limits to growth such as physical and social necessities and when these limits are reached, the
death rate will become higher than birth rate because of decrease in food and medical services and
population starts to decrease
- This was all written by a modern Neo-Malthusian and is hence very exaggerated
o The only difference was probably that this guy and his wife who wrote it are both communists
and also suggested that wealth be distributed. On the other hand, Malthus was a capitalist who
said there is no other possible way of governance BUT these factors have to be kept in control

- Problems:

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IB Geography SL notes

o Only focussed on exponential growth of population, food requirement i.e., negative factors but
not on the growth rate of innovation
o It’s a world model that does not distinguish different parts of the world
o Ignores spatial distribution of the five factors

Carrying capacity
- There are three models to describe how the population would behave as it exponentially increases and
approaches carrying capacity, which is essentially the population ceiling that Malthus first talked about
o First one states that the population just increases exponentially and when it reaches the carrying
capacity it just stops which is stupid BS that is defo not true
o Second one is that it will exponentially increase but then there will be a point of inflection on its
way up to carrying capacity, resulting in the population growth tapering until it eventually
reaches 0 at carrying capacity

o Third one is that it continues rising and rising and exceeds carrying capacity then there’s all the
population checks in place like famines and stuff and it goes down again. Then conditions are
once again better for population growth and it exceeds carrying capacity again and then it goes
down

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IB Geography SL notes

Population levels
- Overpopulation: too many people in relation to resources available. Very high population density. Very
vulnerable to natural disaster and geophysical hazards. Have high rates of emigration. Low quality of life
- Underpopulation: Have lots of resources and population could possibly multiply with no real effect on
the quality of life. Population can be increased so as to increase industrial production and improve quality
of life. Will have surplus resources that can be exported to generate income.
- Optimal population: Hard to calculate. It is the population which results in highest economic returns and
highest quality of life. Perfect balances of resources.
Global commons
- Lie outside the political reach of any state – the high seas, Antarctica, the atmosphere and outer space
- Need protectional to ensure renewable resources here are not expended carelessly i.e., resource
stewardship is important here
- However, in what is known as the tragedy of the commons, some countries selfishly take more than what
is required and other countries will also increase their share, so that they do not lose power
- This would lead to resources running out
- Solutions
o Circular economy (covered before)
o The basis are SDGs (covered before)

~ LA FIN ~

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