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Answers for p286-295 Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

THE HUMAN POP. EXPLOSION

1a) Give 3 reasons why the human population has increased so rapidly.
We have discovered how to grow more food; we can cure/p­revent many killer diseases; we have no natural predators.
1b) Describe how people reduce the amount of land available for animals and plants.
Because of the increase in the human popula­tion, we need to accomm­odate for all those people. So more and more land is used for houses, shops and roads; we use billions of acres of land for farming; we dig up quarries to obtain rocks and metal ores; human waste pollutes the enviro­nment and processing it takes up land.
2a) Give 3 examples of resources that humans are up.
Fossil fuels; land; forests.
2b) List five examples of how the standard of living has improved over the past 100 years.
We now have access to hospitals; better and stable housing; the common use of techno­logy; knowledge of poisonous foods/how to make food safer; availa­bility of medicines and better medicinal knowledge.
3) Explain in detail the different ways the ever increasing human pop. is causing pollution.
Because of the rapid growth and the rapid improv­ements within society, there are more and more amounts of waste being produced, whether it be more factories that produce industrial waste or humans creating bodily waste (sewage). Throwing the waste away takes up space and if it isn't handled properly, it can cause serious pollution e.g. sewage or fertil­isers from farms polluting our water.
 

LAND AND WATER POLLUTION

1a) What is sewage?
Waste waters from homes.
1b) Explain why it is important to dispose of sewage carefully.
If it isn't treated correctly, the sewage may wash away into local streams or pollute soil with unpleasant chemicals and parasites.
1c) What are bio-in­dic­ators used for?
They're used to monitor pollution levels in waterways.
2a) Describe the polluting effects farming can have on i. land and ii. water.
On land: The pesticides and herbicides used enters the soil and becomes part of the food chains where the toxins get into organisms that feed on the plants or live in the soil and bioacc­umu­lation takes place eventu­ally. In water: Minerals from fertil­isers are easily washed away into local streams and bioacc­uma­lation takes place within the aquatic aerobic life, because of a lack of dissolved oxygen in the waters.
2b) A chemical called DDT was used until the 1980s to kill insects, and large birds of prey and herons began to die due to the high levels of DDT in their systems. Discuss how this may have happened and why it took so long for a link to be made.
The animals may have eaten the crops and ingested the chemical which can't be broken down. The DDT may have entered the food chain and caused a large amount of organisms to die. It may have taken a while for so many to die before the ecosystem was affected, which may be why it took so long for a change to noticed.
 

AIR POLLUTION

1. Explain how acidic gases from cars and factories burning fossil fuels can pollute: a) air b) water c) land.
a) It pollutes air with partic­ulates because of smoke pollution. b) Acidic gases that dissolve in rainwater create acid rain, which falls into lakes and rivers, + eventually many lakes become 'dead'. c) Acid rain directly damages the enviro­nment, so it's able to soak into the soil. As it soaks into the soil, it can destroy the roots.
2) Explain why some countries that have strict controls on sulfur emissions still suffer from acid rain.
The sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are carried high in the air by the wind and travel towards cleaner countries that neighbour the countries that produce the pollution.
*figure questions written by hand

DEFORE­STATION + PEAT DESTRU­CTION

1a) Define defore­sta­tion.
1b) Explain how defore­station affects biodiv­ersity and why it matters.
2) Give 3 reasons why defore­station increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosp­here.
3a) Explain why the numbers of peat bogs and peatlands are decrea­sing.
3b) Discuss why this is a cause for concern.
4) Discuss the conflict between the need for cheap available compost and the need to conserve peat bogs and peatlands.
 

GLOBAL WARMING

1a) FIGURE 1 BAR CHART THING
As the years go by, the carbon dioxide emissions increase. This must be due to evolving technology and increase in population
1b) Describe the greenhouse effect.
It is the trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosp­here, due to the greater transp­arency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface.
2a) Explain why global warming is occuring.
Because of the levels of carbon dioxide and methane, the greenhouse effect increases. There are more greenhouse gases and the average temper­ature of the Earth is increa­sing.
2b) Describe two of the biological conseq­uences of global warming.
Increase in temper­ature and decrease in rainfall.
3) Give an example of an organism that has been/might be affected by global warming. Explain the effect of global warming on the survival of this organism.
The rise in sea temp. has decreased the amount of fish needed for puffins to eat and feed their offspring, which means they have to move mating sites.