Resources and environment, Year 10: development and protection (Cold environments option)

oil

HintIt is pumped out as a thick black liquid.

The whyAQA names four development opportunities in cold environments: mineral extraction, energy, fishing and tourism. For your own case study, be ready to explain one example of each and the jobs and income it brings.

So their warmth does not thaw the permafrost and make the ground sink

HintA house leaks heat downwards as well as upwards.

The whyFrozen ground is as hard as rock, but once it thaws it turns to soft mud. A building sitting directly on it would tilt and crack. The gap lets cold air flow underneath. Roads and airstrips are laid on thick pads of gravel for the same reason.

Sea ice blocks the routes in winter

HintFrozen for months.

The whyThis is the challenge of inaccessibility. On land there are few roads or railways, and some roads can be used only in winter, when the ground and rivers are frozen hard. Many places can be reached only by air, which is expensive.

Cold water rich in nutrients feeds plankton, the base of the food chain for fish

HintStart with the tiny drifting life at the bottom of the menu.

The whyCold water also holds more dissolved oxygen than warm water. Where plankton is plentiful, fish are plentiful, and so are the seals, whales and seabirds that eat them. Fishing is one of AQA's four development opportunities.

Only the short summer is light and mild enough to work outdoors

HintMonths of darkness and deep frost stop the job.

The whyThis is the challenge of extreme temperature. In winter it can fall to −40 °C, bare skin freezes in minutes and machinery fails. Workers need special clothing and shorter shifts, and are paid more, all of which raises costs.

A wilderness area

HintNo roads, no farms, no towns.

The whyCold environments are some of the last such places on Earth. They are valued for their wildlife and scenery, for scientific research into climate, and simply because they are still untouched.

Plants grow very slowly in the cold and the short growing season

HintThink how few weeks of the year anything can sprout.

The whyThis is what "fragile" means: easily damaged and slow to recover. Stripping the plant cover also lets the Sun warm the dark soil, so the frozen ground beneath starts to thaw and the track becomes a muddy channel.

Migrating herds such as caribou can walk underneath

HintThink of animals that travel hundreds of kilometres each year.

The whyA pipeline lying on the ground would be a barrier across the routes the herds follow between summer and winter feeding grounds. This is an example of using technology to reduce the harm that development does.

It binds every country that signs, so none can exploit what the others have agreed to protect

HintA national law stops at the border.

The whyThe Antarctic Treaty is the best-known example: it has kept a whole continent for peace and science since 1961, and a later protocol bans mining there. An agreement only works if countries sign it and keep to it, and nobody can force a country to join.

They campaign to put pressure on governments and companies, and raise public awareness

HintPetitions, publicity and protest.

The whyThey also pay for research and monitor what companies do. Governments are the ones that can pass laws, set up protected areas and refuse permission to drill. Each of the four strategies does a different job.

technology; governments; agreements; groups

HintOne is about engineering, one about laws, one about treaties and one about campaigners.

The whyUse these four as the paragraphs of a long answer. For each, give what it does and one limit: engineering costs money, laws can be changed, treaties depend on countries keeping to them, and campaigners have no power to enforce anything.