Core 3 • Section 3.1
Global Trends in Consumption
How development changes demand for water, food, land and energy—and how those changes can be measured.
How global development processes affect resource availability and consumption
Poverty reduction
Global and regional progress towards poverty reduction.
Long-term extreme-poverty rates have fallen, but progress is uneven. Compare percentages with absolute numbers and examine regional contrasts rather than treating development as a uniform global process.
Scale-check task
- Describe the global trend.
- Identify two regional contrasts and one exception.
- Compare the rate with the number of people affected.
- Explain how rising incomes may alter resource demand.
The new global middle class
Rising incomes improve wellbeing while changing diets, mobility, energy demand and material consumption.
The largest growth in middle-income consumers has occurred in Asia. Distinguish a country’s income category from the economic circumstances of individual households.
Follow the consumption chain
Choose one rising-income region. Link higher disposable income to three consumption changes, then trace the distant demand created for land, water, energy or minerals. Add one wellbeing benefit and one resource-security cost.
Ecological footprints
Individual, national and global ecological footprints and biocapacity.
An ecological footprint measures demand on biologically productive land and sea; biocapacity measures the capacity available. Per-capita footprint and total national demand answer different questions.
Footprint at three scales
- Calculate an individual footprint.
- Compare two contrasting countries.
- Explain why per-capita and total rankings differ.
- Evaluate one use and one limitation of the measure.
Water consumption and virtual water
Direct water use and the water embedded in food and manufactured goods.
A product’s water footprint connects consumers to distant production regions. The same footprint has different consequences in water-rich and water-stressed places.
Infographic analysis
State the main pattern, support it with located evidence, trace one water-intensive traded product, then evaluate source, date, scale and what the visual conceals.
Land, food and changing diets
Nutrition transitions in middle-income countries and pressure on land, water and energy.
As incomes and urbanisation rise, diets often shift towards processed foods, animal products and eating outside the home. This can improve variety while increasing land, feed, water and energy demand.
Food-stress explanation
Build a systems chain for one commodity: changing income → diet → production → land/water/energy demand → security outcome. Add a named place and a countervailing factor.
Energy consumption and changing sources
Hydrocarbons, nuclear power, renewables and new sources of modern energy.
Read the energy mix as a proportion and as a changing total. Distinguish electricity from primary energy: transport, heating and industry mean rapid renewable-electricity growth can coexist with high fossil-fuel use.
Interrogate the transition
Mark evidence as continuity, transition or uncertainty. Compare fossil fuels, nuclear and renewables for cost, reliability, carbon impact, build time and security. Conclude whether the system shows replacement, diversification or both.