Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's lesson on Earth's resources and sustainable development.

I am Mrs. Adcock, and today we are going to be thinking about how we use the Earth's resources and how we could support sustainable development.

Today's lesson outcome is, I can describe examples of how humans can reduce, reuse and recycle to support sustainable development.

Some of the key words we will be using in today's lesson include natural resources, renewable resources, finite resources, synthetic products and sustainable development.

Here you can see each of those keywords written in a sentence.

It would be a good idea to pause the video now and read over these sentences.

You might like to make some notes so that you can refer back to them later in the lesson if needed.

Today's lesson on Earth's resources and sustainable development is split into two main parts.

First of all, we are going to be looking at Earth's resources and then we are going to move on to look at sustainable development.

Let's get started on the first part of our lesson on Earth's resources.

The Earth, oceans and the atmosphere provide humans with resources, and these resources that come from Earth are known as natural resources.

Here we've got some examples of natural resources such as plants, and plants can provide us with things for medicines, they could provide us with food and they can provide us with wood.

Metal ores, these providers with metals, and water.

Which of the following are natural resources? Now, these may be ones that we've just mentioned or there may be some extra ones here.

So see if you can think about whether these are resources that come from Earth.

We have A: water, B: soil, C: rock, D: air, and we want to think about which of those are natural resources.

The correct answers are A: water, B: soil, C: rock, and D: air.

They are all natural resources.

They all come from Earth.

Humans use Earth's resources to meet our needs.

Earth's resources provide us with the essential things for life, such as warmth.

We need warmth to be able to survive.

We need shelter, and we get the things that we need to provide our shelter from the Earth.

And also food.

So warmth, shelter, food, transport are all essential things that we need for life, and we get those from Earth.

Which of the following do Earth's resources provide us with, A: warmth, B: shelter, C: transport, D: food? Choose any answers that you think are correct.

The correct answers are A: warmth, B: shelter, C: transports, and D: food.

Well done if you chose all four correct answers.

They were all, once again, correct.

These are all things that Earth's resources provide us with.

Some of Earth's resources are renewable, and this means they are not used up or they can be replaced in our lifetime.

Examples of renewable resources include wool that we get from sheep, silk that comes from silk worms and sunlight used by solar panels that can be used to generate electricity.

All of these are renewable resources because they can all be replaced in our lifetime, such as the wool from sheep that can be regrown or they are not used up such as the sunlight, which is used by solar panels.

Some resources from Earth are finite, and these finite resources exist in limited quantities.

So once these resources have been used, they cannot be regenerated or replaced in our lifetime.

So if we use them up, then they're gonna be gone, they're gonna run out and there will not be any more of those resources left.

Examples of finite resources include metal ores.

Now, we saw earlier how we use metal ores because these provide us with metals that we use for many different applications.

These metal ores are in limited quantities, and if we use them up then those supplies are going to be gone.

Another example of a finite resource is coal and crude oil.

Coal, natural gas and crude oil are all fossil fuels and these take millions of years to be produced.

Fossil fuels such as coal, crude oil and natural gas are non-renewable resources.

So that means they cannot be replaced or regenerated in our lifetime and they are therefore finite resources.

Petrol, kerosene and diesel oil are all obtained from crude oil.

These are non-renewable fuels.

And we can see an image there showing our petrol and diesel pumps, just reminding us how reliant humans are on these fuels.

And petrol, kerosene and diesel oil are all obtained from crude oil.

So crude oil is a mixture of different hydrocarbons.

And we use a separation technique to separate that crude oil into different fractions.

That's known as fractional distillation.

And it's the process of fractional distillation that we're able to obtain the petrol, the kerosene and the diesel oil.

Methane is found in natural gas and methane is also a non-renewable fuel.

So just a reminder that natural gas is a example of a fossil fuel and that's where we get our methane from.

And we use methane for things such as we can see there, cooking, and in the lab you might have used a Benson burner and Benson burners use methane gas as well.

We have limited quantities of natural gas, and therefore once we use up these supplies, they will be gone because they cannot be replaced or regenerated in our lifetime.

Time for a check for understanding.

Finite resources can be replaced once we have used them.

Is this statement true or false? This statement is false.

So can you justify your answer? Why is this statement false? Is it A: because finite resources such as fossil fuels and metal ores cannot be replaced once they have been used? Or is it B: finite resources such as wind and solar cannot be replaced once they have been used? The correct answer is A.

Finite resources, and we've got some examples there, fossil fuels and metal ores cannot be replaced once they have been used.

B was not correct because although it mentions that finite resources cannot be replaced, it suggests that wind and solar are finite resources, whereas in fact these are renewable resources.

Well done if you got this question correct.

Earth's resources can be manufactured to make synthetic products.

The table below shows some examples of synthetic products and the natural resources they are made from.

We've got steel that's a synthetic product that's made from the natural resource, metal ores.

Nylon is another synthetic product that is made from crude oil.

We have the processing of crude oil to help us manufacture nylon.

Plastic is also a synthetic product that involves using the natural resource crude oil.

We process that crude oil to help us manufacture plastic.

Glass is another synthetic product, and this is made using the natural resources: sand, soda ash and limestone.

Time for a question.

Which statements about synthetic products are true, A: synthetic products are natural resources, B: synthetic products are manmade, C: plastic and glass are examples of synthetic products, D: wool and cotton are examples of synthetic products? The correct answers are B: synthetic products are manmade, and C: plastic and glass are examples of synthetic products.

So well done if you selected answers B and C.

D is not correct because wool and cotton are both examples of natural resources.

Time for our first practise task of today's lesson.

What you need to do for the first question here is separate the following resources into two columns.

You're going to separate them into finite and renewable resources.

If you pause the video now, read through that list of resources, decide if they are finite resources, so they cannot be replaced or regenerated in our lifetime, or are they renewable resources which can be replaced in our lifetime, or they are not used up.

Then come back when you're ready to go over the answers.

Let's see how you got on with separating those resources into finite and renewable resources.

So our finite resources are coal, metals, natural gas, crude oil and nuclear fuel.

And the renewable resources that were mentioned were wind, cotton, silk, leather and wool.

Well done if you are able to separate those resources into the correct category of finite or renewable resources.

For the second part of this practise task, we have a question on ethanol.

Ethanol is an alcohol, and ethanol can be produced by two different methods.

The table shows the raw material used in each method.

We've got method of producing ethanol, so we have hydration of ethene and fermentation of glucose.

And it tells us the raw material that is used in each of these methods.

Explain why the raw materials for the manufacture of ethanol can be described as finite or renewable.

Look carefully at that table and use the information to help you answer this question.

Pause the video now, then when you come back we'll go over the answer.

Let's see how you got on.

Explain why the raw materials for the manufacture of ethanol can be described as finite or renewable.

Your answer may include the following, the raw material ethene comes from the processing of crude oil, and crude oil is a finite resource that will run out.

Glucose, however comes from plants, and this can be used as the raw material for making ethanol.

And plants are a renewable resource as more plants can be grown.

Hopefully you included lots of the key details in this answer.

You needed to look at those two different methods of producing ethanol and hopefully you noticed how one of them used a finite resource because it used crude oil, and the other method, which was the fermentation of glucose, used plants and plants are a renewable resource because we can grow more plants.

We have looked at Earth's resources, now we are ready to move on to the second part of our lesson looking at sustainable development.

Finite resources will run out if we continue to use them.

Here we can see some data collected from Our World in Data that shows us the number of years of fossil fuel reserves that are left.

We have coal, natural gas and crude oil.

And we can see the number of years that we have left on these fossil fuel reserves if we continue using them at their current rate.

For coal, we only have about 114 years of reserves left, and the coal will have run out.

For natural gas and crude oil, those years of reserves are even lower.

Natural gas is about 53 years, and crude oil, about 51 years of reserves that we have left.

These values can change based on the discovery of new reserves and also on use.

So if we can reduce our use of these fossil fuels, then obviously the fossil fuel reserves will last longer.

Sustainable development is where we use resources in a way that it meets our needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

So an example of sustainable development is to use renewable resources such as solar, wind and tidal.

If we use these to generate electricity rather than using fossil fuels, then we will still be able to meet the needs of the current generation.

However, we won't be compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

We can see in the image there, we've got a picture of some wind turbines on a wind farm.

How else could we be more sustainable? Hopefully you thought of lots of ways that we could be more sustainable.

Perhaps you came up with ideas of how we could reduce our fossil fuel use.

Examples may include walking or cycling rather than driving to school or our workplaces.

Another way to improve sustainability is to use biofuels rather than fossil fuels to meet our energy demands.

And biofuels can be made from plants.

Miscanthus, we can see is shown there in the image, and miscanthus is a plant used in the production of some biofuels.

And it is a good plant to use in the production of biofuels because it has a high biomass yield and it only requires a low input to grow.

Let's have a go at a question.

Which of the following are sustainable ways of generating electricity, A: combustion of fossil fuels, B: using nuclear fuels, C: wind turbines, D: solar panels? Let's see how you got them.

Wind turbines, that's answer C, and D, solar panels, are both sustainable ways of generating electricity.

So well done if you chose C or D.

The combustion of fossil fuels and using nuclear fuels are both not sustainable ways of generating electricity because they use finite resources in order to generate electricity.

Glass, metals, building materials, clay ceramics and most plastics are produced from finite resources.

When these products are made, the energy used in the processing of these products also comes from our limited finite resources.

When we obtain the raw materials from Earth by quarrying and mining, this also has a negative impact on the environment.

So is there a more sustainable way of producing products rather than obtaining and processing those raw materials every time we want to make a product? Products can be reused.

And if we reuse products, this will improve sustainability.

For example, glass milk bottles can be washed and refilled.

Here we've got an image of a glass milk bottle.

And if we wash and refill our glass milk bottle, then it means that we don't need to obtain those raw materials from Earth and process them in order to make the glass.

Glass can also be crushed and melted down before being reformed into other glass products.

It is therefore more sustainable for us to reuse our glass bottles rather than to generate new bottles every time.

If products cannot be reused, then recycling is a more sustainable option than throwing objects away.

Products that can be recycled include, glass bottles and jars, paper and card and metal drink cans.

If we recycle these products then they can be regenerated into other products rather than as obtaining and using those raw materials which are finite and in a limited supply every time that we want to generate these products.

To enable effective recycling, materials need to be sorted according to type.

Plastics can be difficult to sort into different types and codes and symbols are placed on plastic products to make sorting easier.

And you may have seen some of these plastic identification symbols on plastic items that you've seen and used.

Not all plastics can be recycled, so these symbols are slightly misleading 'cause they do look like a recycling symbol.

However, these are just codes to help make sorting of plastic items easier.

And plastics that can be recycled often have the code one or two on them.

When metals are recycled, they are first of all, separated into different types.

The metals can then be melted and recast or reformed into different products.

Recycled steel is used to make new steel, so recycled steel can be added to iron from a blast furnace to make the new steel.

We can see in the image there a blast furnace where we can use recycled steel along with iron to make new steel.

This reduces the amount of iron that needs to be extracted from iron ore because some of that iron that we need to make the new steel will come from the recycled steel.

Time for another question.

Which of the following are ways to improve sustainability, should we, A: reuse products, B: increase the waste sent to landfill, or C: recycle products? The correct answers are A: reuse products.

So we looked at how we could reuse glass bottles by washing them out and refilling them.

And also, recycle products.

We looked at how glass, and cardboard and metal can all be recycled, and how this prevents us having to take those raw materials from Earth.

Reducing the use of products, reusing products and recycling products are always to be more sustainable.

So you can remember the three Rs: reduce our use of products, reuse products, recycle products.

These methods are more sustainable because they reduce the use of Earth's finite resources.

They reduce the energy consumption in the manufacture of new products.

By reducing, reusing and recycling, we also reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing new products, and also we reduce the amount of waste that gets sent to landfill.

So let's start trying to reduce the use of products, reuse products and recycle products because we can see these are all more sustainable methods rather than generating new products every time.

Let's see if you can remember some of the benefits of reusing or recycling products.

Does it, A: increase the use of finite resources, B: increase the amount of waste sent to landfill, or C: less energy is used forming products from recycled products? The benefit of reusing or recycling products is that less energy is used forming products from recycled products.

A is wrong because when we reuse or recycle products, we reduce the use of finite resources.

B is incorrect because when we reuse or recycle products, this decreases the amount of waste that gets sent to landfill.

Well done if you identified C as the correct answer.

Time for our final practise task of today's lesson, and for this task, you've got two questions.

Question one, explain why plastics made from corn starch are sustainable, and remember that corn is a plant.

And question two, explain why it is more sustainable to make bike frames from recycled aluminium than from aluminium from aluminium ore.

Pause the video now.

Have a go at answering these two questions.

Give as much detail as you can in your answers and then come back when you're ready to go over the answers.

Question one, explain why plastics made from corn are sustainable.

Corn star comes from plants and this is a renewable resource as new plants can be grown.

Question two, explain why it is more sustainable to make bike frames from recycled aluminium than from aluminium from aluminium ore.

Using recycled aluminium conserves aluminium ore, which is a finite resource, it reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill and reduces the overall energy consumption.

Your wording is going to be slightly different, but hopefully you've included lots of those key details.

You may have also talked about some of the environmental impacts and how using recycled aluminium will reduce the environmental impact.

We have reached the end of today's lesson on Earth's resources and sustainable development.

Let's just go over some of the key points that we've covered in today's lesson.

Humans use Earth's resources for most of our material needs.

Some resources from Earth are finite and will run out if we use them.

And we looked at examples such as fossil fuels and metal ores.

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

Synthetic products are those that are manufactured from Earth's resources.

One of the examples we looked at is steel, and steel is made from metal ores.

And to enable effective recycling, materials need to be sorted according to type.

We looked at how plastics can be sorted and metals are sorted before they are melted and recast into other products.

Well done for all your hard work throughout today's lesson.

I hope that you have lots about how we use the Earth's resources and what sustainable development is.

Hopefully you now understand why it's important for us all to try and be more sustainable.