The Challenge of Resource Management

• Drought : The short:term lack of water to meet demand. Droughts can cause dehydration and fatalities.
• Biofuel : Burning crops and vegetation for electricity and heat.
• Agribusiness : Farms that choose more intensive farming methods or buy modern machinery, to increase crop yield.
• Aquifer : A permeable or porous rock which stores water.
• Biotechnology : Genetically modifying (GM) crops to grow faster or become less vulnerable to pests & disease. GM crops are controversial, as the side effects to humans and the environment aren’t fully understood.
• Decommission : The process of closing and safely disposing waste from a power station. This can cost millions of pounds and take over a year to complete.
• Climate Change : The changing characteristics of the climate and seasons in regions across the world.
• Energy Mix : The composition of a country’s energy sources.
• Energy Surplus : A country that generates more energy than its population needs (the supply is greater than the demand).
• Fairtrade : A charity that ensures farmers are paid a fair wage and safe regulations.
• Famine : A long or short:term shortage of food, resulting in many people becoming malnourished or even starving.
• Food Poverty : A country that grows, produces and imports less food than it needs to feed its population.
• Food Miles : The journey that food takes from farmer to consumer. The higher the food miles, the further the food has travelled and the greater the emissions produced from the transport vehicles.
• Fracking : The process of releasing trapped natural gas from shale rocks. Fracking involves pushing high-pressure liquids underground to cause the shale rocks to crack.
• Hydroelectric Energy : Water is trapped in a dam and forced past turbines in the dam to escape downstream, which turns the turbines to generate electricity. Water can be pumped back uphill to repeat the process.
• Geothermal Energy : Water is pumped deep underground to be heated by magma plumes or radioactive rocks. The hot water creates steam, which turns turbines in generators to produce electricity.
• Hydroponics : Growing crops in water rather than soil, which can increase crop yield and make farming more efficient.
• Greenhouse Emissions : Gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) that thicken the Earth’s atmosphere which is causing the planet to warm up and climates to change.
• Irrigation : Keeping crops well watered regularly using hose pipes, water channels and digging wells.
• Obesity : When people are very overweight. This is often due to an individual consuming too many calories.
• Permaculture : Trying to adapt farming approaches to the natural environment and wildlife surrounding.
• Pesticides : Chemicals that kill pests (e.g. slugs, greenfly) to stop crops becoming damaged and killed off.
• Malnourishment : When a person doesn’t eat either enough food or enough of the right food to get the nutrition they need to be healthy.
• Non-Renewable : A source of energy that can only be used once to generate electricity or takes thousands of years to replace e.g. Fossil Fuels.
• Nuclear Fusion : The process of joining atomic nuclei together to produce energy.
• Organic : Food that hasn’t been grown or manufactured using chemicals or pesticides.
• Renewable : Primary energy that can be re-used to produce electricity or has a short lifetime, therefore any used can be replaced quickly e.g. Hydroelectric, biomass, solar.
• Soil Erosion : The soil is stripped of nutrients and becomes more dust-like, which won’t grow plants or crops in the future.
• Water Deficit : The supply of water is less than the demand for water.
• Solar Energy : Using solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity.
• Sustainability : Trying to conserve resources for the future, whilst meeting the demand for goods in the present.
• Tidal Energy : As the tides change, water rushes out to sea or in towards the land. Turbines on the seabed can be built, so they are powered as the water rushes past them and the tides change.
• Water Security : Having a clean, reliable source of water that meets demand throughout the year.
• Water Surplus : The supply of water exceeds the demand for water.
• Water Stress : There could be a large enough volume of water to meet demand, but not enough clean, good quality water is available or the water is inaccessible.
• Water Transfer Scheme : Water is taken through pipes from a region of water surplus to a region of water deficit. If this is across countries, water may be traded for money.
• Wave Energy : Electricity is generated by small turbines within floating buoys, which float on the surface so passing waves flow through the turbines.
• Wind Energy : Using wind turbines to drive generators to produce electricity.