CCEA GCSE Geography Unit 2 Theme D Managing Our Environment: resource consumption, ecological footprints, the impact of consumption and sustainable management

What this theme demands

Managing Our Environment is the fourth of the four human themes in Unit 2 Living in Our World, and is worth a quarter of the unit. It studies how the world's growing demand for resources is straining the planet, the environmental damage that rising consumption causes, and how resources and the environment can be managed sustainably. This overview ties the dot-point pages together and shows how the resource-based paper rewards each skill.

The building blocks of the theme

The theme follows a clear problem-and-solution structure.

• Resource consumption and ecological footprints. Why consumption is rising, renewable versus non-renewable resources, and the ecological footprint.
• The impact of increasing consumption. Pollution, deforestation, habitat loss and climate change.
• Sustainable management of resources. Sustainability and the strategies to achieve it at individual, local and global scales.

Demand, damage, management

The single idea that organises the theme is this chain: rising demand for resources causes environmental damage, which can be reduced by sustainable management. The first dot point explains why demand rises and how it is measured by the footprint; the second traces the damage; the third evaluates the solutions. Keeping this chain in mind links every part of the theme and stops answers becoming lists.

The skills the paper rewards

Theme D tests all three assessment objectives. AO1 is the definitions: resources, the footprint and sustainability. AO2 is explaining the environmental impacts of consumption and evaluating sustainable strategies. AO3 is the skills: interpreting graphs and maps of resource use, footprints and consumption in the resource booklet.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall questions covering the whole theme. Attempt them, then check the solutions.

1. Give one renewable and one non-renewable resource. (2 marks)
2. Give two reasons world resource consumption is rising. (2 marks)
3. What does the ecological footprint measure? (2 marks)
4. Name one gas from burning fossil fuels that causes acid rain. (1 mark)
5. Give two environmental effects of deforestation. (2 marks)
6. Why are the impacts of energy consumption especially serious? (2 marks)
7. Define sustainability. (2 marks)
8. Give two individual actions that are more sustainable. (2 marks)
9. Name two renewable energy sources. (2 marks)