Resources and environment, Year 9

Physical water scarcity

HintThe first word contrasts it with the kind caused by a lack of money.

The whyMuch of North Africa and the Middle East is in this position: there is simply not enough rain. Its counterpart, economic scarcity, is where water exists but there is no money for the pipes, pumps and reservoirs to supply it.

agriculture

HintIt is the activity that puts food on the table.

The whyIndustry and homes share the rest (FAO puts farming at about 72%, 2022 data). Crops such as rice and cotton are especially thirsty, so what a region farms matters as much to its water supply as how many people live there.

Modest rainfall has to supply a very large population

HintCompare what falls from the sky with how many taps it has to fill.

The whyThe south-east is among the driest parts of the UK and the most crowded, so demand runs close to supply. The Environment Agency's 2021 list of seriously water-stressed areas covers most of it: stress is about the balance, not rainfall alone.

Their water was diverted to irrigate cotton fields

HintUpstream, the desert was turned into farmland for a very thirsty crop.

The whyFrom the 1960s the Amu Darya and Syr Darya were tapped so heavily for irrigation that little reached the lake. Fishing ports were left many kilometres from the shore — a clear case of demand upstream outrunning supply.

Poverty and conflict stop it reaching them

HintAsk who can pay for the harvest, and whether lorries can get through.

The whyAbout 645 million people faced hunger in 2025 (FAO). It is mostly a problem of access. Food goes to those who can buy it, and war, drought and poor roads cut people off from markets. That is why maps of hunger follow poverty and conflict more closely than they follow harvests.

Households — about 60% of the total

HintThink of your own kitchen bin.

The whyThe UN estimates that about a fifth of the food available to shoppers was wasted in 2022 — over a billion tonnes — and more is lost earlier, between farm and shop. Cutting waste feeds more people without farming any more land.

Water is taken faster than nature replaces it

HintThink of a bank account where withdrawals outpace deposits every year.

The whyYields rise at first, but wells have to be sunk deeper and rivers run low for everyone downstream. Every fix for feeding the world has a price; the question is whether the gain is worth it and who pays.

A genetically modified (GM) crop

HintIts two-letter abbreviation often appears in debates about food labelling.

The whySupporters point to higher yields and less pesticide; critics worry about the cost of seed for small farmers and about effects on wildlife. Weighing a fix means setting its benefits beside its trade-offs.

2022

HintIt was announced in a November early in the 2020s.

The whyThe UN marked the date as 15 November 2022, though nobody can count so precisely. Growth is slowing, but the total is still rising, and everyone added will need feeding.

secondary; tertiary

HintMaking comes after growing or digging; serving comes after making.

The whyOne sector manufactures things from raw materials; the other provides services. A single product can pass through every sector: iron ore is mined, the car is built, then it is sold, insured and repaired.

primary

HintMachines replace many of the people who once worked the fields.

The whyFarm machinery means fewer people are needed to grow food, so workers move first into factories and later into services. A country's mix of sectors is therefore a rough guide to how far it has developed.

tertiary

HintThink of shops, schools, hospitals, banks and transport.

The whyMore than four in five UK jobs are in services (House of Commons Library, 2025). The balance has shifted steadily away from farms, mines and factories over the last two centuries.

The quaternary sector

HintIts name comes from the Latin for 'fourth'.

The whyScientists, software designers and consultants sell knowledge instead of goods. It is the newest of the four and is largest in high-income countries, often clustering around universities — the science parks of Cambridge are a British example.