IB Geography • HL6.2
Environmental Risks
How trade, production and consumption shift environmental costs between places and across borders.
How global interactions create environmental risks for particular places and people
Pollution travels with trade
Ships and long supply chains move emissions, invasive species, waste and environmental costs as well as goods.
Shipping connects distant producers and consumers, yet port communities and coastal populations often bear disproportionate risks from sulphur and nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, greenhouse gases, ballast water, oil, waste and underwater noise. These are externalities: costs not fully reflected in the market price of a product.
Enquiry 1 — Trace one product
Map an imported product from raw material to consumer. Add an environmental risk at each stage, distinguish winners from risk-bearers, and propose interventions at local, national and global scales.
Fast fashion and localised pollution
Low-cost consumption in one place can depend on concentrated environmental risk in another.
The relocation of textile production combines TNC cost decisions, supplier clusters, weak infrastructure and uneven regulation. At the Citarum River in West Java, industrial effluent, domestic waste and agricultural pollution affect water, farming, health and flooding while the garments produced enter distant global markets.
Enquiry 2 — From wardrobe to river
Map the manufacture locations of five garments. Build a causal chain from brand decisions and consumer demand to dyes, factory effluent and river impacts. Allocate responsibility among consumers, brands, factories, Indonesian authorities and importing states.
Transboundary pollution
Air masses, rivers, ocean currents and traded waste ignore political borders.
A useful model separates source, pathway, receptor and impact. Prevailing winds, monsoon circulation, drainage basins and currents shape exposure, while states may free-ride when the cost of action is national but the benefits are shared. Effective responses need monitoring, evidence, agreements and enforcement.
Enquiry 3 — Who killed Albert Ross?
Use the original mystery to organise evidence into source, pathway, receptor and impact. Then compare three cities on the live map and design an international response covering monitoring, prevention, compensation and enforcement.
Bangkok air pollution
Transport, construction, industry, regional burning and seasonal atmospheric conditions combine to create unequal exposure.
PM2.5 can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream. Bangkok’s pollution varies through time because emissions interact with weak winds, dry-season conditions and temperature inversions. Vulnerability is also social: outdoor workers, children, older people and those unable to avoid exposure face greater risk.
Multiple sources
Traffic and diesel vehicles, construction, industry, power generation and agricultural burning.
A dense megacity
Roadside communities, schools, commuters and outdoor workers experience different exposure.
Emergency and structural responses
Warnings and masks reduce short-term exposure; cleaner transport, fuels and regional cooperation address causes.
Enquiry 4 — Build a Bangkok risk profile
Record current AQI data, construct a cause web, identify unequal impacts and rank five policy responses by effectiveness and fairness. Distinguish emergency measures from long-term structural change.
Carbon footprints and food systems
A meal connects land-use change, farm inputs, methane, processing, refrigeration, transport, retail and waste.
Food miles alone are an incomplete measure. Production methods and land-use change often matter more than distance, while seasonality, storage and transport mode alter the balance. A fair evaluation also considers nutrition, livelihoods, price and food security rather than carbon alone.
Paper 3 synthesis — Investigate a meal
Calculate a meal’s footprint, identify its largest contribution and redesign it twice: once for minimum carbon and once for balanced sustainability. Evaluate: “Consumers in wealthy markets are responsible for environmental risks in distant production zones.”