Sustainability and Natural Disasters Quiz

Sustainability and Pollution

• Pollutants, including oil spills, plastic waste, and chemicals, severely harm marine ecosystems.
• Fish consume microplastics, which enter the human food chain.
• Air pollution from factories, vehicles, and deforestation reduces air quality and exacerbates climate change.
• E-waste and fast fashion are environmentally damaging.
• E-waste is toxic and contaminates land and water.
• Fast fashion, made from low-cost materials in sweatshops, produces excessive landfill waste.
• Freshwater waste results from household, agricultural, and industrial overuse, leading to contamination.

Physical Geography

Natural Disasters

• Earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, landslides, hurricanes, avalanches, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, and droughts/sandstorms are devastating natural disasters globally.
• These disasters are often caused by plate movements.

Physical Processes

• Terrain uplift occurs through volcanism, where lava cools to form igneous rock.
• Terrain breakdown happens through erosion and weathering by rain, ice, and chemical processes.

Geologic Eras

• Geologic eras, in order from oldest to newest, are Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.

Tectonic Plates

• Earth's crust consists of large plates that move and interact, causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain formation.
• Plates are composed of:
  • Continental crust (thicker, less dense)
  • Oceanic crust (thinner, more dense)
• Plate movement is driven by convection currents in the Earth's interior.
• Heated magma rises, cools, and creates currents that move plates.
• Seven major plates: African, Antarctic, Eurasian, Australian, North American, Pacific, and South American.

Types of Plate Movement

• Divergent: Plates move apart, typically along mid-ocean ridges.
• Convergent: Plates move toward each other.
• Transform: Plates slide parallel against each other, causing frequent small earthquakes but less catastrophic damage.
• Subduction: Denser oceanic plate slides beneath a continental plate.
• Collision of continental plates: Since both are similar in density, plates crumple upward to form mountains.

Factors Influencing Local Conditions (LOWERN)

• Latitude: Affects sunlight exposure and climate.
• Ocean currents: Influence temperature and climate. Water moving away from the equator is warmer shaping ocean currents, which can be tracked and predicted.
• Winds and air masses: Determine local climate conditions. An air mass is a large volume of air that behaves like its source environment.
• Elevation: Higher elevations have lower temperatures due to lower air pressure as air is thinner and molecules spread out, cooling the air.
• Relief: Landforms influence precipitation patterns.
• Nearness to water: Coastal areas have milder climates.

Industries and Resources

Resources

• Renewable resources: Replenish naturally at a rate that supports human use, provided human consumption is below natural replenishment.
• Non-renewable resources: Formed slowly over millions of years, so current resources are finite. Fossil fuels and minerals are the two most significant categories of non renewable resources.
• Flow resources: Continuously replenished by nature, unaffected by human activities. Examples are sunlight, wind, and water currents.
• Primary, secondary, and tertiary industries focus on the production of goods and services.
  • Primary: Extraction of natural resources.
  • Secondary: Manufacturing of raw materials into finished goods.
  • Tertiary: Provision of services.
• Total stock represents all elements of the natural environment (energy, living organisms, and non-living materials).

Natural Resources (Canada)

• Water scarcity and pollution are issues in Canada.
• Overfishing and depletion of fish stocks affect the fishing industry.
• Oil extraction provides economic benefits but has environmental costs.
• Fracking extracts natural gas from shale rock.
• Farming faces challenges from excessive pesticide use, fertilizer overuse, and farmland loss due to urbanization.

Influence on Industry Location

• Industry location depends on factors such as resource access, transportation networks, and market demand.
• An example for each factor: A steel mill is often located near iron ore mines with good transportation and a market for its products.

Electricity Generation in Canada

• Canada mainly uses hydroelectric, nuclear, and thermal power sources.
• Hydroelectric and nuclear have low carbon emissions, but nuclear has high costs and environmental impacts.

Human Geography

Population Density

• Population density is expressed as the number of people per square kilometer.

Population Changes

• Population change is measured by birth and death rates. Population change is studied under Demography.
• Birth rate: Number of births per 1000 people per year.
• Death rate: Number of deaths per 1000 people per year.
• Natural increase/decrease rate: Difference between birth and death rates.
• Emigrant: Person moving out of a country.
• Immigrant: Person moving into a country.
• Emigration rate: Number of emigrants per 1000 people per year.
• Immigration rate: Number of immigrants per 1000 people per year.
• Net migration rate: Difference between immigration and emigration rates.
• Doubling time: Calculated by dividing 70 by the natural increase rate.
• Push and pull factors: Factors influencing migration such as opportunities, living conditions, and political conflicts.

Demographic Transition Model

• A model that helps understand population changes over time.

Urban Land Use

• Urban areas are divided into land use categories:
  • Residential (40%)
  • Transportation (33%)
  • Institutional (10%)
  • Open space (7%)
  • Industrial (6%)
  • Commercial (4%)
• Conflicts can arise between different land uses.

Characteristics of a Livable City

• Accessibility, safety, and quality of life are factors in livability.