Geography: c6 energy resources

• Energy resources are sources of fuel for human activities, used to provide light, heat, and power at home, in industry, and in transport
• Energy resources can be renewable or non-renewable
• Renewable resources can be used over and over again and are nonfinite, meaning they do not run out
• Non-renewable energy resources cannot be replaced once they are used up, and they are finite, eventually running out
• Oil:

  <|>Location: Persian Gulf, Middle East, USA, Russia
• Extraction: drilling
• Uses: heating homes
• Advantages:

  • Burns more cleanly than coal
  • Easily available and transported
• Disadvantages: oil spills are damaging to the environment
• Natural gas:

  <|>Extraction: drilling
• Advantages: cheap, easily available, sourced in Ireland
• Wind energy:

  <|>Location: coastal areas
• Extraction: turbines
• Uses: added to the National Grid supply
• Advantages:

  • Clean with no CO2 emissions
  • Nonfinite
• Disadvantages: turbines are often placed in areas of natural beauty
• Biomass:

  <|>Location: upland areas
• Extraction: harvested
• Uses: heating homes, some used to produce biofuels for transport
• Advantages: non-finite
• Disadvantages: uses land that could grow food
• Oil in Saudi Arabia:

  <|>Environmental impacts:

  • Positive: efficient fuel that does not emit a lot of smoke
  • Negative: oil spills harm fish, birds, and animals
• Economic impacts:

  • Positive: oil industry brings huge wealth to Saudi Arabia
  • Negative: oil is a finite resource that will run out in approximately 100 years
• Social impacts:

  • Positive: people in Saudi Arabia enjoy a high standard of living
  • Negative: increasing wealth has led to a gap between the wealthy and the less wealthy
• Oil in Ireland:

  <|>Corrib gas field:

  • Discovered in 1996
  • Will supply 60% of the island's gas needs for up to 20 years
  • Local protest group called Shell to Sea opposed the pipeline
• Kinsale Head gas field:

  • Discovered in 1970
  • Gas piped to shore and distributed, sold to Bord Gáis Energy
  • Exhausted in 2020
• Acid rain:

  <|>Caused by industry and transport emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
• Effects:

  • Damages fish, life, and plants
  • Makes soils more acidic, causing leaching
  • Damages buildings, especially those made of limestone and marble
  • Stunts growth of trees
• Solutions:

  • Using public transport
  • Using renewable energy sources
  • Reducing the amount of energy used to heat homes