Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

I'm Miss Reid.

Welcome to a brand new Geography unit.

So this unit is all about energy and sustainability.

And we'll learn a bit more about those terms as we go on.

Let's have a look at our lesson title for today.

So our lesson title or question is, what is sustainability? Well, we're going to think about that in a bit more detail as we go through.

In this lesson, we'll learn the definition of sustainability and we'll consider what sustainable development means.

And how it impacts decisions we make in the present day.

We'll think about aspects of our daily life that are unsustainable.

And compare them to innovations that are making life better for the present and future generations.

We look at star words, then we'll go on to learn about sustainability.

And then we'll think about development before thinking about sustainable development.

And finally the company Tesla.

In this lesson, you'll need a piece of paper, a pencil and your brain.

Pause the video now to go and get those things if you don't already have them.

Let's go through our key words.

I'm going to say the key words and you can repeat them after me.

Sometimes I'll give you a bit more explanation about each key word.

You don't have to repeat that part.

Sustainability.

Environment.

The environment is the natural world, including all the world's biomes, for example, deserts, rain, forests, oceans, and all of the living things within them.

Economy.

The economy refers to the system of how money is made and used within a particular country or region.

A region's economy is connected with things like, how many goods and services are produced and how much money people spend on these things.

Development.

Development is the ways in which a country improves.

Poverty.

Poverty is the state of being extremely poor.

Resources.

Now, when we discuss resources, we're talking about things that help a country to support itself.

Such as energy sources like fossil fuels or the things that are found in the land, such as precious stones or rainforests.

When we think about fossil fuels, we're thinking about things like oil and coal.

There's a few pictures next to the word resources to help you understand that.

You can see that there's a drill, which is used for extracting oil.

You can see precious stones and you can also see Wood.

These are things or the resources that help a country to support itself.

Now we've had to look at all of our key words.

Let's carry on with the lesson.

Sustainability.

Now sustainability is using resources.

That's are good for people, the environment and the economy, both in the present and in the future.

We're going to go over that one more time.

Sustainability is using resources that are good for people, the environment and the economy, both in the present and the future.

Now you'll remember that when we discussed resources, we're thinking about the things that help to support a country, such as the energy sources like fossil fuels or wind or solar energy.

All of the things that are found in the land, such as precious stones or wood from rainforests.

Here's your first task.

You need to complete the sentence using the keywords and images to help you.

The sentence starter is, sustainability is using resources that are.

You can see the images you've got are people, environment, economy, and then you have another image, which is the timeline present future.

I'd like you to use these images and the sentence starter to complete that sentence.

Pause the video now and complete that sentence.

Let's have a look at the answer that I wrote.

If you hadn't quite get it, you can copy mine.

So sustainability is using resources that are good for people, the environment and the economy, both in the present and in the future.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you managed to get that sentence correct.

If you didn't quite get it, you can copy mine out now.

Pause the video now so you can do that.

If you've got it right hope you gave yourself a big tick.

If you've copied it out correctly, now you can give yourself a big tick anyway.

So development.

This was one of our key words at the beginning of the lesson.

And development is the ways in which a country improves.

And it improves in a number of ways.

And we're going to look at those ways.

Now, when we think about development, we're often thinking about developing countries.

There's countries that are still trying to improve.

And of course, every country across the world is trying to improve.

But all countries are on different journeys of improvement.

And countries are trying to improve in these ways.

The economy.

The economy is about the jobs that make people money and the country money.

The environment.

This is the natural world and all of the living things within that natural world.

And so countries are trying to improve their economy the ways that it makes money and the environment, the natural world they're trying to make sure that they're looking after the natural world.

Another way is quality of life.

This is what it's like to live in a particular country.

And when we think about quality of life, we're specially thinking about what it's like for the poorest members of society.

We're thinking about, is life good enough for everyone.

And countries are trying to make sure that they're improving and developing to make sure that everyone has the best life.

Equality.

This is ensuring different groups of people are treated fairly and equally in the country.

And countries that are developing are trying to make sure that everyone is treated equally.

They're on a journey to do that.

And finally sustainability.

So sustainability is again that definition of making sure that the resources in the country are good for the people, the environment and the economy, both in the present and in the future.

We've recapped that a couple of times now.

So those are the five ways that countries try to develop.

The countries try to improve, economy, environment, quality of life, equality and sustainability.

Of course, there are more, but those are the five key ones.

You have a task.

You need to match the word or phrase to the definition.

Now you don't have to write each word and definition out.

Each of the words and phrases are numbered one to five, for example, economy, one, two, environment, three, quality of life, four, equality, five, sustainability.

And each of the definitions are labelled from a to e.

We're going to read through these definitions now, a, the resources used that are good for the people, the environment and the economy, b, ensuring different groups of people are treated fairly and equally in the country, C, the jobs that make people and the country money, d, the natural world within the country, and e, what life is like for people living in that country, especially the poorest people.

Your task is to write down numbers one to five and much the definitions a to e.

Remember, you don't need to write out the full definitions, but you can, if you want to.

Pause the video now and complete that task.

Well done everyone.

Let's take a look at the answers.

One match to c.

So the economy, the definition of the economy is, the jobs that make people and the country money.

Number two or environment is match to d.

The natural world within the country.

Number three quality of life, is match to e.

What life is like for people living in that country, especially the poorest people.

Number four equality is match to b.

Ensuring different groups of people are treated fairly and equally in the country.

Which means that number five, sustainability, is matched to the resources used, that's a good for the people, the environment and the economy.

You can pause the video now, so you can tick or fix your answers.

Let's move on.

Well done it's on everyone.

So we've learned about development and we've learned about the five key factors or features of development.

These are the ways that a country tries to improve.

Now, sustainable development.

has been summarised here in this sentence, by the United Nation.

I'm going to read it and you can read it along with me.

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

That's essentially going back to our definition of sustainability.

It has to be good for the present generation so us living now, and also good for the people in the future.

Here on this topic, you have the same sentence that we just looked at from the United Nations.

But I've removed two of the words.

I've removed the words future and present.

Your job is to write out this sentence, including the key words, future and present in the correct places.

Pause the video now so that you can complete that sentence.

How did you do? Did you remember which order they needed to go in? Let's have a look.

So sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

You can pause the video now while you tick or fix your answer.

Great work everyone.

So we thought a little bit about the United Nations by looking at that previous quote about sustainable development.

We're going to carry on reading about sustainable development.

And this app extract comes from a report from the United Nations called, "Our Common Future." Which was published in 1987.

I'm going to read, and you can read along with me at home.

Page seven.

The environment does not exist as sphere, place, separate from human actions, ambitions and needs.

The environment is where we all live and development is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot, lives, within that abode, home/place of residence.

You can see the words that are in brackets have been added in.

They're also in Italix because they explain some of the key words.

For example, abode means home or place of residence.

Uneven development, poverty and population growth, place unprecedented, huge, pressures on the planets, lands, waters, forests and other natural resources.

What is needed now is a new era of economic growth.

Growth that is forceful and at the same time, socially and environmentally sustainable.

So this comes from this report from the United Nations, which is an organisation that thinks about the good of the world.

And there are lots of countries that have a voice in the United Nations to make sure that all of the people in the world are fairly represented.

And they make important decisions about how we need to move forward as a whole world and does a whole organisation of people across that world.

You're going to answer some questions based on the text that we've just read.

These questions are true or false questions.

Let's have a read of them.

The environment exists separately to humans.

True or false.

Development is concerned with improving people's lives.

True or false.

The United nations believes economic growth needs to be sustainable.

True or false.

Pause the video now, so you can write numbers one, two and three, and write either true or false next to those numbers.

Let's see how you got on by checking those answers.

Number one.

The environment exists separately to humans.

That was false.

Of course, they said the United Nations stated that we are part of the environment we live within it, and it is our home.

And it's important that we look after it.

Number two.

Development is concerned with improving people's lives.

That of course is true because development is about improving a country for the good of the people who live with it.

Number three.

The United Nations believes economic growth needs to be sustainable.

That's true.

They believe that growth of change of development in the country needs to be good for people who are living now, but also needs to be good for people in the future.

It needs to be sustainable.

There's extracts again.

You're going to have one more question based on this extract, before we move on.

The question says, what are the three factors that are putting pressure on the environment? Your task is to read through and scan through the text and find the three factors putting pressure on the environment.

Pause the video now and complete that question.

Did you work it out? Let's have a look at the answer.

That's the question.

What are the three factors that are putting pressure on the environment? The three factors putting pressure on the environment are, uneven development, poverty and population growth.

You can pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

Good at work everyone, give yourself a Pat on the back before we move on.

So we're still thinking about sustainable development.

And now we're going to think about something that impacts your everyday life.

Something that's very familiar to you.

And that is plastic bags.

Put your hand up if you use plastic bags.

If you use them today.

In fact, I went to the supermarket this morning and I used plastic bags.

That's I'd have in my home, but I took them to the supermarket and I used them to pack up my shopping.

I wonder what you use plastic bags for.

Perhaps you lie in your bins with them.

Perhaps you use them to take your belongings to school.

There are a number of ways that we use plastic bags.

They're very useful to our everyday life we've come accustomed to using them.

But plastic bags and other plastic products are an example of an unsustainable man-made item that is putting a huge amount of pressure on the environment.

Can you think of an example of how plastic bags are damaging our planet? Lots of you out there thinking of some fantastic examples of how plastic bags are putting damage.

or putting pressure on our planet and damaging our planet.

We're going to talk about now.

Now most recycling centres are only set up to manage hard to plastic items, such as bottles or containers because plastic bags cannot be recycled.

They overflow from landfill sites and end up littering the natural landscape impacting plant and animal life.

You can see in those images that plastic products and plastic bags are overflowing and often animals will eat the plastic products, if they're left in that state.

Now every year, 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in our ocean.

That's equal to dumping one rubbish truck full of plastic into the ocean every minute.

It's really hard to think about that, because you can't believe that that's happening.

For example, that would be like watching this video up until this moment, 22 rubbish trucks worth of plastic have already been dumped into the ocean.

And that's just why you've been watching this video.

Now there are about 150 million tonnes of plastic in our oceans in total.

That is a lot.

And the plastic in the oceans is having a detrimental impact on our sea life, with millions of living things make mistaking plastic for food, eating it and dying.

Hey, you can see this animal.

This living thing is actually consuming the plastic.

And once they consume it, it gets into their system and they can't digest it and it causes them to die.

You need to answer the question below using the images to help you.

The question says, why is a paperback more sustainable than a plastic bag? A paper bag is more sustainable than a plastic bag because so on the left, you've got an image of a paper bag with a recyclable sign, a recycling sign on the right you've got an image of a plastic bag.

The same recycling sign put a cross to it.

I want you to think about why a paper bag is more sustainable than a plastic bag using those images.

Pause the video now, while you complete that task.

I wonder if you got that correct using those images.

Let's have a look at what I wrote.

A paper bag is more sustainable than a plastic bag because a paper bag is recyclable while plastic bags are generally not.

Of course, that's not to say that no plastic bags are recyclable.

It's just to say that they are generally not accepted in recycling centres.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

Let's move on to the last section of our lesson.

So this section of our lesson is all about the car company, Tesla.

You might've heard about it before.

Now on the right you can see a photograph of Elon Musk.

He is the CEO of Tesla.

Now Tesla is an electric car company that uses electric energy to power its vehicles rather than using petrol or diesel, which are made from oil.

Oil is the fossil fuel that has to be extracted from the earth.

Now electric energy can be generated by renewable sources, such as wind power or solar energy.

And we'll look a little bit at those next lesson.

Now, electric energy is more sustainable than using petrol or diesel because the oil in the earth surface is difficult to extract and therefore expensive to buy and sell.

There is also a finite amount, which means that it will one day run out.

In addition, oil spills are harmful to the environment because oil slick clings to the land and makes oceans, beaches, marshlands, and wetlands uninhabitable for the living things such as birds, fish, and sea mammals, which can swallow the oil and die.

And oil slicks or oil spills do often occur.

Now Elon Musk in 2017, won a bid to create the largest lithium ion battery powered by a wind farm.

And it generates enough energy to give power to 30,000 homes each year and it's located in Australia.

Now for this reason, electric energy can be powered by renewable energy.

It does not harm the natural environment because it encurs naturally such as wind farms that generate energy using wind or solar energy that generates energy using sunlight.

For this reason, electric cars are thought to be more sustainable than petrol or diesel cars, which use oil.

Let's take a look at this task.

You need to answer the question below using the images and the key words to help you.

The question says, why are electric cars more sustainable than petrol or diesel cars? The key words, oil extract, oil spill, harmful, environment, wildlife, wind farms, solar farms, renewable.

On the right you have an image of the electric car, and you can see a wind farm and a solar farm.

And on the left hand side, you can see an oil rig and you can see an example of an oil spill.

Use the key words and the images to help you write a statement about why electric cars are more sustainable than petrol or diesel cars.

Pause the video now and complete that task.

Well done.

That was a really tricky task.

And I'm proud of you for having a go.

Let's have a look at the statement that I wrote, and you can compare yours to mine and then tick or fix it.

I wrote, petrol slash diesel cars use oil and oil is hard to extract.

In addition, oil spills are harmful to the environment and wildlife.

Electric cars can use energy generated by wind farms and solar farms, which is renewable and therefore better for the environment and wildlife.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

That's the end of our first lesson on energy and sustainability.

Next lesson, we'll be looking at renewable and non-renewable resources and sources of energy.

I was really impressed with the hard work you've done today, and I'm so excited for our next lesson.

Thanks so much everyone.

Bye.