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Comparing
World Energy Needs
Summary: This activity will help you rethink your
relationships with each other in the world and with nature.
Introduction:
An ecological footprint
is the land (and water) area that would be required to support
a defined human population and energy resources indefinitely.
Various regions in the world have larger ecological footprints
than others, even though their populations are smaller.
Materials:
- color pencils or markers
- world map (printed from site)
- world atlas (reference)
- spreadsheet program
Classroom Management: Each student should have a map of the
world (printed from site). Divide the class into two teams. Have
one team color the world map for 1995 and the other team for
2025. It is suggested that students should work in smaller teams
to make their spreadsheets on the computer. Students should save
their graphs for comparison and display to the class.
Activity Steps:
1. How does the population of
continental regions relate to land availability?
In a previous extension titled
"A Watery Planet", you were asked to toss a globe up
in the air and to note where your thumb landed. If you did this
extension to Unit I's Activity I, you were probably be surprised
to find out that much of the surface (74%) of the Earth is water.
Only 26% of the surface of the
Earth is land! For more specific uses of the land, click
here. Discuss the following questions within your group.
How much of the surface of the
Earth is already developed?
How much land is presently being
used for crops and grazing or covered with forests?
How much of the surface of the
Earth is desert?
If more land is to be developed
for humans, what type of surface area would need to be used?
Various countries of the world
have different amounts of land. Populations of different countries
are also very different, and do not always relate directly to
the amount of land available. So how is the world population
distributed?
To
help you see how the world's population is distributed, print
out the world map . Observe and order
the information presented on the chart below for either the population
in 1995 or the predicted population in 2025.
Select a color for each of the
world regions. Rank the population for 1995 from highest to lowest.
Create a color key that represents each region of the world.
For example, a key may
look like this. Color each region of the world map based on your
key. If necessary, use a world atlas to help locate the regions
on your map. Label this world map as 1995 population in thousands.
Repeat the same procedure for the 2025 population projections.
Compare your map with a team member
for the other year. How do the two maps compare? Identify the
regions where the greatest amount of population growth is predicted.
How does the predicted population growth compare to available
land surface in these regions?
2. How will the population change
in your lifetime?
Are the population trends predicted
to change in the next 30 years?
Create
a spreadsheet of both populations shown above. Refer to the Technical Hint to see how to set
up the spreadsheet. Make a bar chart of the data. Refer to the
Technical Hint to see
how to make a bar chart.
Look at the bars of each region
and determine if the population is increasing at a faster rate.
Refer back to your colored map of the world and compare the largest
population growths with size of the region. Remember, not all
of the land pictured on the map is available for humans to live
on.
What does an increase in population
mean for the resources found on Earth? Remember, as population
increases, the amount of available land and resources per person
decreases.
3. How do different countries
share the resources of the world?
To observe pie charts of the data
in the chart below, click here.
Is there any pattern of resource use by the countries? We often
do not think that fresh water as a resource. After viewing these
pie charts, what do you think?
So, do we run the risk of running
out of energy resources on Earth? Sharing and using less resources
is the answer. This means that countries with less people would
share their energy resources with other countries and that all
countries need to use less.
Work within groups to design some
plan that could help to decrease our use of resources. The following
are examples of possible actions:
Transportation
Choose a place to live that reduces
the need to drive.
Think twice about buying additional
cars.
Choose a fuel-efficient, low-polluting
car.
Use alternatives to cars, such
as, electric cars, bicycling, car pooling, public transportation.
Food
- Eat less meat.
- Buy certified organic produce.
Household Operations
- Reduce the environmental costs
of heating and hot water.
- Install efficient lighting and
applications.
- Choose an electricity supplier
offering renewable energy.
In the next activity you will log
ernergy resources for a day and calculate your own ecological
footprint.
Extensions:
Research the energy consumptions
of other countries in the world. Compare those in graphical form
to Canada, USA, and India.
Selected
References:
http://www.nwf.org/nwf/international/pop/consume.h
tml
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/Papers/gkh1/ta
bc1_1.htm
http://www.secondnature.org/programs/starfish/meth
ods.nsf/ and click on Environmental Studies
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