GLOBAL ISSUES Flashcards
(22 cards)
What are the global impacts of climate change (7)
- Increased frequency and intensity of storms and flooding
- Disease areas will expand as temperatures rise, for example malaria
- Rising temperatures causes more ice to melt in colder areas causing rising sea levels thermal expansion which will mean warming water will expand
- With the increased CO2 more crops will grow
- Polar bears need sea ice, therefore if sea ice is reducing in spring and autumn the polar bears will go hungry
- Coral bleaching will happen as the coral pulps expel algae in warmer water which kills coral
- Warmer dryer weather and longer periods of drought will create an increase in wildfires
Local impacts of climate change (7)
- Hotter summers
- Record temperatures will be broken as a result of this for example in coninsby in July 2022 the recorded temperature was 40.3 degrees C
- Forest fires will also become more widespread, form 2011-2017 there was 100 recorded wildfires but in 2019 there was 137 wildfires showing a significant increase
- Ski resorts will see a decrease in revenue as there is less snow meaning less people can go skiing
- Highland plants will face extinction as they aren’t cut out for warmer weather
- Cereal crops will grow better in more northern areas of the country
- Maize vines may be able to grown more exotic fruit and plants such as oranges and peaches
Solutions to climate change (7)
- Insulate homes and switch off appliances to reduce usage of CO2
- Recycle more, to reduce landfill reducing methane being released. 45% of waste in the uk is recycled
- Install smart meters to encourage being energy efficient
- Use renewable energy: windmills, biomass, hydro and solar
- Use electric or hybrid cars, 20% of uk sales are electric, they are 25% more expensive than regular cars
- Carbon capture and storage is using air scrubbers to remove CO2 from the air, it costs $500 to scrub 1 ton, trees also have the same effect
- Government policies such as the Paris agreement where they agreed to limit temperature ruse to 1.5 degrees C above the pre industrial level at the same agreement they decided to try and lower greenhouse gasses by 43% by 2030, neither example of a government agreement is cop 27
Reasons for Difference in LEDC and MEDC
MEDC:
1. Stable government
2. An increasingly educated population
3. They have natural resources such as oils and minerals
4. The country has a pleasant climate and attractive scenery, therefore attracting and encouraging tourism
5. Has accessibility to good trade- has things such as ports
LEDC:
1. The country is remote
2. The country struggles with disease such as malaria
3. Lack or natural resources (lack of things to trade)
4. Corrupt government
5. Civil war
6. Natural disasters such as drought and earth quakes
Advantages of primary health care
- Primary healthcare provides the only hope of basic healthcare when resources are limited
- It is affordable- training costs are low, suitable for LEDC’s
- Bear-foot doctors are locals and are known and accepted
- It means that large money investments such as hospitals are used to the best of their abilities and used to max capacity
- Health care is at an appropriate level and is preventative
- It benefits large numbers of people
- Communities can thrive through self help schemes involved with primary health care
- Local labour and building materials are often cheaper and also provide training and transferable skills for locals and faster acceptance/usage in community
Adaptations to Climate change
- Prepare for extreme weather- for example the Thames barrier or the flood gates at Stonehaven
- Whitening or greening buildings to limit the heat island
- Plant drought and salt resistant plants
- Some populations may have to be resettled to cooler environments due to climate change making their countries unbearably hot creating climate refugees
- Plant more C3 crops such as rice, oats and potatoes as the increase of CO2 will increase the crop yield by up to 50%
Human causes of climate change
- Releasing co2 from burning fossil fuels - it stays in the air for 300-1000 years
CO2 is released from deforestation as fallen trees do not obsord co2
The burning off the trees also releases co2 - Releasing methane into the air - lasts in the air for 10-15 years
Methane is realised from manure heaps
Out both ends of cows
Landfill
And rice paddies which generates methane
Permafrost - Nitrous Oxide
Vehicle combustion as cars release N2o
Fertilisers as they get broken down by microbes and release N20
4.CCS’S and HFC’S- lasts for centuries in the air
Found in old fridges as a coolant, it releases CFC’s from the foam insulation when breaking down the fridge
Physical causes
1.Milankovitch mechanism
- Eccentricity (stretch), 100,000 year cycle the more eccentric it is the closer to an ice age
- obligivity (roll), 41,000 year cycle it takes 20,000 years for the earth to tilt back up and back down, the less tilted it is the closer it is to an ice age and the cooler the earth is
- precision (wobble), 22,000 year cycle, every11,000 years the sun orbits closer to the sun then further
2.sun spots
A spotty sun is a more active sun, they come in 11 year cycles
Sun spots are cooler areas of the sun but are surrounded by high energy areas
- Volcanoes and feedback
CO2 comes out of volcanoes which warms the area and causes better plant growth
Plants then remove CO2 from the air causing cooling
The plants then die from the cooling realising CO2 back into the air causing more warming - Rock weathering
Rocks weather from hydrolysis,
Silicate rocks and rainfall (carbonic acid) creates calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate gets washed into the sea and then used by Shelly creatures and locks into limestone causing cooling - Melting polar ice
Fresh water goes into the sea
It then dilutes the salt with in the sea slowing currents such as the North Atlantic drift - Melting permafrost
Releases methane causing warming
Causes of global cooling
- Cirrus contrails reflect sunlight causing cooling
- Sulphites that come from volcanoes reflects the sun causing clouds which then causes cooling
- Deforestation increases surface albedo from the increased land reflecting more sunlight than a tree canopy causing cooling
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE - EXPLANATION, EFFECTIVENESS, INNEFECTIVNESS (UNICEF)
Explanation-
UNICEF is a vaccination plan that for uses on providing immunisation to those living in rural areas
Effectiveness-
saves 2-3 million children from diseases such as malaria and polio, it has also dropped polio cases by 99%]
Innefectivness-
UNICEF is not a cost effective solution to wide spread disease
BEARFOOT DOCTORS
Explanation-
Locals trained into medical care so hospitals can focus on the very sick and ill
Effectiveness-
The bearfoot doctors are trusted by the local comunity and have been reducing illness as well as infant mortality rates as they have dropped from 30-9%. Bearfoot doctors also have created a decrease in malaria cases
Innefectivness-
They are often poorly equipped and therefore are unable to care for people as they don’t have the supplies to do so
SODIS
Explanation-
Clean pet bottles are filled with water and exposed to UV rays to kill bacteria for 6 hours then stored in sodis bottles
Effectiveness-
Gives clean drinking water and kills bacteria reducing disease
Innefectivness-
Not suitable for large volumes of water and is weather dependant (Only works if the sun is out
ORT
Explanation-
You mix water sugar and salt to provide a quick way of hydration
Effectiveness-
It is cheap and cost effective and reduces the number of doctors needed
Innefectivness-
Can cause a lack of appetite and can cause vommiting
Play pump
Explanation-
Drives a conventional borehole pump by a roundabout play equipment
Effectiveness-
Provided clean water to communities and reduces risk of disease
Innefectivness-
If kids get bored of using it the water stops being produced, if the pump gets broken the locals have no idea how to fix it
Indecisive treated bed nets
Explanation-
The are bed nets designed to stop inffecting you with diseases such as malaria when you go to sleep
Effectiveness-
Provides a physical barrier against mosquitoes stopping disease
Innefectivness-
They need to be treated regularly with insecticides to be effective which can be expensive
Social and economic impacts of malaria
life expectang is lowered as deatn rates are higher in affected areas, malana Kills over 1 million people each year, with over 90% of these deaths in afnca
• counties have to spend money on treating mararia patients,
education programmes and malana prevention approches
and research Into the disease, diverting funds from other
important develoment goals such as education
• roll back malana: reports, that some of the most affected
countres spend up to 40% of their health budget on malara.
•those infected have prolonged absenses from work and/or school, impacting on levels of retainment and economic output, hindering development
•Unicef reports that afnca as a continent would nave a
GDP of $12 bilion per year higher if malaria was
eradicated.
• in some areas, communities can harest less than 50% 0f
Their crops because much of the labour required is
Unavailable due to malana. This reduces personal income
and food provsions in vulnerable communities.
• families often have to invest heavily in treatment and tare
tIme off work to care for loved ones or help them travel
to treatment centres therefore the impact on yield and or
School attendance is multiplied beyond the patient
• Many TNC’s are put off Investigating in maranal areas due to poor health records, and tounsm as an industry struggles because the reputation and risks assosiated with the disease, preventing growth of the country
Social consequences of desertification
- Nomadic farmers- farmers move around from place to place as land becomes unusable meaning they are loosing grazing and herds
- Rural or urban migration- which puts pressure on cities to home extra people, this also causes political unrest as tribes are forced to live together
3.people turn to famine foods such as leaves which lacks nutrients
- Community wells dry up from extreme warmth
Economic consequences of desertification
- Animals such as goats and cattle die creating a loss of income which hinders a countries development and strains their economy
- Countries will become more reliant on aid and need help from other countries
- Crop failures will cause starvation impacting children who are the next generation
environmental consequences of desertification
- Decrease in vegetation cover
- An increase in dust storms causing dunes to advance
- The surface albedo increases if vegetation is lost causing the area to become cooler
- If there is less convection there will also be less rain
- It will cause a decrease in soil organic matter- if there is no plants that will cause a decrease in structure due to there being less humus and manure
- There will be a loss of key plant and animal species
Solutions to desertification
1.use fertilisers to keep plants alive- artificial or natural, this will help Kip vegetation cover
- Intercropping- 22 crops planted next to each other and harvested at different times to keep crop cover over soil at all times
- Agroforestry same thing as intercropping but with trees- stops soil exposure, it also provides fuel and wood
- Fence off over bearded areas from animals to protect the soil
- Use better breads of animals- animals with more meat means you will need less animals meaning there will be less grazing preventing overgrazing
6.social forestry- if communities grow their own trees they will take pride in it and not cut down the trees creating soil cover, protecting the soil
- Creating trash lines- straw mats that stops wind erosion
- Diguettes- stone lines that prevent water erosion and soil being washed away from water protecting crops
- Create terraces
- Strip cropping, plat crops along contour lines
- Leave stubble from plants on feilds for soil coverage
- Use charcole and biogas as fuel meaning less wood is needed or solar energy
- Flush salt away with channels or plant trees to lower the water table
Human causes of desertification
- Population growth, outstrips the carrying capacity of the area, an overuse of resources and marginal land becomes very unproductive
- Deforestation for fire wood and building exposing the soil
- Overgrazing, too many goats and cattle roots die and soil is lost
- Overcropping, nutrients are lost and soil structure is weakened
- Poor irrigation caused by water being evaporated which leads to salt build up
- The over extraction of water lowers the water table killing plants
Physical causes of Desertification
- Unreliable rainfall associated with the ITCZ - movement drought has become more common since the 60’s, if there is a lack of rainfall the soil will dry up, plants will die and soil is lost
- Flash floods- the soil is so dry the water can’t absorb into the soil
- Water erosion- rain splash, sheet wash and gully erosion creates bad lands (Canyons)
- Wind erosion- creates dust storms and causing dunes to migrate
