1. From the spec Resource Main skill
Today we will investigate –
Will we run out of natural resources?
- to outline the factors leading to demand outstripping food supply
Resource
Text book page 240 – 245
Main skill
Visual Literacy: -
Describing and explaining graph of resource consumption
Interpreting variations in global hunger

2. TITLE: Resource reliance and increasing food demand
Aim: to investigate the trends in global resource consumption. Will the Earth run out of natural resources?
Outline the factors leading to demand outstripping food supply
Challenge: to consider whether the Earth has a finite carrying capacity

3. Clarifying key terms. What is a resource?
Consider the following. You are stranded on a desert island. You find some flotsam washed up on the beach – including a plastic cup, an old rope, an empty tin can.
Are these waste items (rubbish) a resource?
The plastic cup – can be a drinking container or for catching rainwater
The rope – tying wood together to form a shelter or raft
The tin can – could become a plate, a cooking pot, a frying pan.
So, what is a resource? When does something become a resource?
A resource. Anything can be a resource, including ‘waste’, when people have a need for it and have the ability (creativity and technology) to use it.

4. Renewable & non-renewable resources.
Clarifying key terms.
Consumption.
Means to ‘use’. All consumption will create some form of waste. This, in turn, could be a resource. Example: Food consumption creates waste that could be a possible fertilizer.
Renewable & non-renewable resources.
Renewable – means they ‘renew’ themselves; they should not run out. e.g. wind power; rice; fish*
Non- renewable – means they are fixed or finite in supply. e.g. coal, copper.
* = renewable resources should not run out BUT
– species can become extinct e.g. over-fishing;
- land for growing crops is finite.

5. Resource consumption over time. Copy the graph (Fig 1 page 241)
Task. Describe and explain the trends in -
Population: Describe the trend. Why is it growing so quickly? Why does the graph level off?
Resource consumption: Why does it grow more steeply than population? Why does consumption ultimately start to decline?

6. Resource consumption over time.
Population: For a long time population growth was very slow because the death rate matched the birth rate. However, improvements in medical care plus high birth rates in many LIDCs have led to a population explosion. Ultimately population growth levels off as improvements in standards of living result in people choosing to have fewer children.
Resource consumption -shows a rapid rise. Consumption matches (correlates with) the growth in population as more people means greater consumption.
However, consumption rises faster than population as higher standards of living and new technology means that each person (per capita) tends to consume more of the Earth’s resources.

7. The earth’s carrying capacity.
The graph shows the Earth’s carrying capacity as a horizontal line.
Read the text page 241
Grade 7+
What does carrying capacity mean? Explain how changes in technology can alter the carrying capacity?
(4 marks)
Grades 5 & 6
What does carrying capacity mean and why is it level before ultimately declining? (4 marks)
Carrying capacity refers to the maximum number than can be supported. The graph suggests there is a fixed (finite) limit, which at some future point begins to rapidly decline as resources run out.
Carrying capacity refers to the maximum number than can be supported. The graph suggests there is a fixed (finite) limit. However, changes in technology can increase the capacity. For example, improving food production by increasing yields or extracting more resources. Even so, there is an ultimate limit to carrying capacity as resources run out and capacity declines.

8. Feeding the world: our increasing need. read page 243
Visual literacy. Using this graph (or Fig 5 page 243) answer -
Which region has the highest % undernourished in ?
Which region had the greatest % decline in undernourishment between 1990/92 and 2014/16?
Which region had the greatest % increase in undernourishment between 1990/92 and 2014/16?
By how much, in millions, has the global number of undernourished people declined between 1990/92 and 2014/16?
Southern 35.5%
Eastern Asia from 29.2% to 18.6%
Sub Saharan Africa from 17.5% to 27.7%
215 m (from 1.01b to 795m)

9. Feeding the world: our increasing need. read page 243
Question: Even if the world’s population stops growing the demand for food will continue to rise. Explain why.
(3 marks)
Answer: The world’s food demand will continue to rise. This is because as countries become more developed people tend to eat more. They also eat more meat in their diet and they live longer. All these factors increase per capita consumption.

10. Future food security. read page 244/245
Wealthy countries can always buy in food to make up any shortfall in ‘home production’.
Poor countries often sell food to rich countries, even though many of the population may be hungry. Clip:

11. Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vnYwvYxO6g
Many factors will affect the world’s future food security. Use pages 244/245 to explain how the following 6 factors will affect food security.
Clip:
Population growth
Global water crisis
Climate change
Future food security.
Politics
Fossil fuel reliance
Changing diet

12. What is the message?

13. What are the implications of this message for rich, developed world countries?

14. Homework: GCSE workbook Resource Supply & Demand
Page 71