Natural Resources: Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Natural Resources revision notes

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Section A

1. Distinguish between renewable and non-renewable resources, giving two examples of each. [4]

2. Define sustainable development. [2]

Section B

3. Compare fossil fuels and renewable energy in terms of reliability, cost, and environmental impact. [6]

4. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of three renewable energy sources. [12]

5. Explain four causes of water scarcity and two strategies for managing water supply sustainably. [10]

6. Explain why a country may continue to rely on fossil fuels despite knowing the environmental costs, giving three reasons. [6]

Section C

7. Explain one advantage and one disadvantage of geothermal energy as a renewable resource. [4]

8. Sustainable resource management strategies are often grouped into four ideas. Name each idea and give one example of each. [8]

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Answers

1. Renewable resources can be replaced naturally within a human lifetime or are effectively unlimited, e.g. solar energy and timber if managed [1] [1]. Non-renewable resources exist in a finite quantity and are used far faster than they form, e.g. coal and iron ore [1] [1].

2. Development that meets the needs of the present [1] without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [1].

3. Reliability — fossil fuels provide continuous, controllable output on demand, whereas most renewables are intermittent, depending on wind, sunshine or rainfall [1] [1]. Cost — fossil fuel plants have lower construction costs but ongoing and volatile fuel costs; renewables have high initial capital cost but almost no fuel cost, so lifetime costs are increasingly competitive [1] [1]. Environmental impact — fossil fuels emit CO₂, sulfur dioxide and particulates, causing climate change, acid rain and respiratory illness; renewables emit little in operation but have visual, habitat and land-use impacts and require mining for their materials [1] [1].

4. Any three, 4 marks each. Solar — advantages: no emissions in operation and no fuel cost; suitable for remote areas off-grid, and panels can be installed on existing buildings [1] [1]. Disadvantages: generates nothing at night and little in cloudy weather, so storage or backup is needed; high installation cost and large land area for utility-scale farms [1] [1]. Wind — advantages: no emissions and low running costs; land between turbines can still be farmed [1] [1]. Disadvantages: intermittent — no output in calm or very high winds; visual and noise impact, opposition from residents, and a hazard to birds [1] [1]. Hydroelectric — advantages: reliable and controllable, with output adjustable to demand; the reservoir also provides water supply, flood control and irrigation [1] [1]. Disadvantages: very high construction cost and the flooding of large valleys, displacing communities and destroying habitat; sediment is trapped behind the dam, reducing downstream fertility [1] [1]. Biomass — advantages: carbon-neutral in principle if replanted, and uses agricultural and forestry waste [1] [1]. Disadvantages: releases particulates when burned, and growing fuel crops competes with food production for land [1] [1].

5. Causes, any four: population growth and urbanisation raise demand faster than supply can be developed [1]; agriculture, which accounts for around 70% of freshwater use, often through inefficient flood irrigation [1]; pollution of rivers and aquifers by industry, sewage and agricultural runoff, which removes usable supply [1]; over-abstraction of groundwater faster than aquifers recharge, causing water tables to fall [1]; climate change and drought, altering rainfall patterns and reducing glacier-fed river flow [1]; uneven distribution, since supply and demand are often in different places, and shared rivers create international disputes [1]. Strategies, 2 marks each: drip irrigation and lining canals deliver water directly to plant roots and cut losses to evaporation and seepage, greatly increasing agricultural efficiency [1] [1]. Rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling capture water that would otherwise be lost and reduce demand on mains supply [1] [1]. (Also accept: metering and pricing to reduce waste; desalination; repairing leaking pipes; treating and reusing wastewater.)

6. Any three, 2 marks each: existing infrastructure represents an enormous sunk investment — power stations, refineries and distribution networks — which would be costly to abandon before the end of its life [1] [1]. Fossil fuels remain cheaper and more reliable for baseload generation in many countries, and cheap energy supports industrial competitiveness and keeps consumer bills low [1] [1]. Employment and government revenue depend on the industry, so closure carries a heavy political and social cost in mining and oil regions [1] [1]. Renewable capacity cannot be built quickly enough to replace demand, and storage technology is still expensive, so a transition period is unavoidable [1] [1].

7. Advantage: geothermal energy provides continuous, reliable output, unlike solar or wind, because it does not depend on weather conditions [1] [1]. Disadvantage: it is only viable in tectonically active areas, where hot rock lies close enough to the surface to be accessed economically, so most countries cannot use it at scale [1] [1].

8. Use less — reducing consumption through efficiency and conservation, e.g. more efficient appliances or better insulation reducing energy demand [1] [1]. Use again — reusing or recycling materials rather than extracting new resources, e.g. recycling metal and glass, or reusing greywater [1] [1]. Substitute — replacing a non-renewable resource with a renewable alternative, e.g. switching from coal-fired power to wind or solar generation [1] [1]. Restore — actively repairing damaged environments, e.g. replanting forests, rehabilitating mined land, or establishing protected areas [1] [1].

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Where marks are usually lost

• Calling timber non-renewable, or gold renewable because it can be recycled.
• Giving advantages of renewables without their land or intermittency costs.
• Listing causes of water scarcity without distinguishing physical from economic scarcity.
• Ignoring the economic and political reasons for fossil fuel dependence.