Core 3 • Section 3.2
Impacts of Changing Trends in Resource Consumption
How changing consumption creates interconnected pressures on water, food, energy and waste systems.
How pressure on resources affects the future security of places
The water–food–energy nexus
Water, food and energy security are interdependent.
Water grows food and generates energy; energy pumps, treats and moves water and food; food systems compete for land, water and energy. Resource security includes availability, access, affordability, quality and reliability.
Nexus annotation challenge
Choose a burger, smartphone, cotton T-shirt, car or laptop. Trace pressures on water, food and energy, add named places, then draw a four-link feedback loop using active verbs.
Climate change and cascading insecurity
Drought, flood and heat can affect yields, generation, pumping, cooling demand and prices simultaneously.
Climate hazards become resource crises through connected systems and uneven vulnerability. Adaptations such as desalination, irrigation, hydropower and biofuels can improve one form of security while weakening another.
Build a climate cascade
- Select a starting hazard and named place.
- Construct a defensible four-stage chain.
- Identify who gains, loses or becomes vulnerable.
- Judge one adaptation as solution, trade-off or maladaptation.
Security at different scales
Canada, India, Thailand and China show why income and national totals do not determine security alone.
Governance, climate, infrastructure, imports, reserves and geopolitical routes alter vulnerability. National abundance can hide regional scarcity and unequal household access.
Four-country security audit
For each country, record one strength, vulnerability and dependency for water, food and energy. Verify two claims, identify an internal inequality, then rank resilience to a combined drought and energy-price shock.
Changing energy sources
Renewables, nuclear, storage and grids grow unevenly while total energy demand continues to rise.
The energy transition can strengthen climate and import security while increasing demand for critical minerals, transmission networks, storage and new geopolitical relationships.
Evidence check
Sort evidence into continuing fossil dependence, transition and unresolved constraints. Verify three claims using IEA, IRENA or Ember, then evaluate whether new energy systems shift insecurity rather than remove it.
Your trash’s global journey
Consumption, disposal and recycling transfer materials, value and environmental impacts between places.
A product may be designed, consumed, sorted, exported, repaired and discarded in different countries. These flows recover materials but can transfer health and environmental costs to groups with less power.
Map, question and role-play
Map consumption → collection → sorting → transport → destination. At each stage identify a stakeholder, decision and cost or benefit. Use separate colours for material, money and environmental flows.
E-waste and Agbogbloshie
Informal recycling, livelihoods, environmental risks and contested representations in Accra, Ghana.
Agbogbloshie is often reduced to a toxic foreign dumping ground. A fuller geography separates imported used electronics, illegal shipments and locally generated waste, while recognising repair skills, livelihoods, hazardous recovery and contested redevelopment.
Representation enquiry
Compare what each source foregrounds and omits. Write a balanced paragraph using a claim, precise evidence, a counter-perspective and a judgement.
Systems conclusion
Connect consumption, resource security, climate change, energy transition and waste flows.
Exam practice
“Resource insecurity is caused more by unequal access and management than physical scarcity.” Discuss. Include definitions, processes, two named places, stakeholder perspectives, a counterargument and a justified conclusion.