ENERGY AND INDUSTRY

1- Raw materials

- Read this

Raw materials are the resources of the environment that are used in the

industry for the manufacturing of processed products.

Raw materials can be:

- Raw materials of animal origin: they come from farming and

fishing, like for example wool, skin, fish, etc.

- Raw materials of vegetal origin: vegetal (agricultural products) or forest

products (wood).

- Raw materials of mineral origin: the minerals are extracted from the

subsoil and they are transformed into metallic minerals (the metals are

extracted from them, like bauxite from which aluminium is obtained),

non-metallic minerals (like salt, sulphur, rocks used in construction...)

and power minerals (which become energy such as coal, oil...)

Mining is the activity which allows the extraction of mineral resources from the

subsoil. The mines are the places where these minerals are extracted and can

be underground mines or open mines.

and then classify:

Oil, iron, bauxite, silk, cotton, milk, gold, coal, tuna, wood, granite, diamonds, skin, salt, ivory, cooper, tomatoes, sulphur,mercury, wool, linen, resin, rubber, cork

into:

and explain what raw materials are used to produce …

Shoes, chairs, juice, jewels, keys, thermometers, windows, doors, notebooks, sweaters and oil.

2- Renewable energy resources

Renewable energy sources are sources of power that quickly replenish themselves and

can be used again and again. For this reason they are sometimes called infinite energy

resources.

- Join columns:

3- Case Study. The Three Gorges Dam. China

A) Look at it from the air with Google Earth or Google maps:

B) Read this text:

The facts:

. The three gorges Dam will be over 2 km long and 100 m. high

. The lake will be over 600 km long

. Over 1 million people will have to be removed to make way for the dam and the lake.

. The river Yangtze provides 66% of China’s rice and contains 400 million people.

. The Yangtze drains 1.8 million km2 and discharges 700 km3 of water annually.

Advantages

. It will generate up to 18,000 megawatts, eight times more than the Aswan Dam (Egypt) and 50% more than the world’s largest existing HEP dam, the Itapu in Paraguay.

. It will enable China to reduce its dependency on coal.

. It will supply energy to Shangai (population 13 million), one of the world’s largest cities, and Chongqing (population 3 million), an area with high ecomomic growth.

.It will protect 10 million people from flooding ( over 300,000 people in China died as a result of flooding in the 1900s)

. It will allow shipping above the Three Gorges (the dams will raise water levels by 90 m.) and turn the rapids in the gorge into a lake.

. It will generate thousands of jobs.

The protests

. Most floods in recent years have come from rivers which join the Yangtze below the three Gorges dam

. The region is seismically active and landslides are frequent

.The dam may become silted up as a result of increased deposition. To reduce silt load afforestation is needed but resettlement of people will cause more presure on the slopes above the dam.

. Up to 1.2 million people will have to be moved to make way for the dam.

. Most of the available resettlement land is over 800 m. above sea level and is colder and has infertile thin soils.

. Dozens of towns, such as Wanxian and Fuling with 140,000 and 80,000 people respectively, will be flooded.

. Archaelogical treasures will be drowned.

. It will take between 15 and 20 years to build and could cost as much as 70 billion dollars.

(Taken from:

GARRET NAGLE (2000), Advanced Geography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, page #372.)

C) Explain with your own words, at least four advantages and four disadvantages of the new dam.

To know more go to:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5000092.stm

4) Write a few lines about the main enviromental problems of the planet caused by industrial activity, use text and drawings or photographs. Choose two of this list:

- Acid rain

- Greenhouse effect and Global Warming

- Pollution caused by Chemical waste products

- Pollution caused by Radioactive waste

5) Create a p.p.p. about the main types of energy and their characteristics:

Coal, oil, Nuclear power, gas, HEP, solar power, wind power and tidal power.

6) Find out:

1- What is a multinational corporation (MNCs)?

2- Write a few lines about its characteristics?

3- State the main 5 industrial MNCs and the country they are from.

4- Could ZARA be a multinational? And Citroën?. Write a brief report about them.

5- Try to explain these cartoons:

and 7) Watch this video:

Joni Mitchell, ‘Big yellow taxi’

What is she trying to tell us?

To know more and test your knowledge visit: bbc gcse bitesize