CARA'S TIPSEnvironmental resources, hazards & conservation
JAMBWAECNECO
What the syllabus asks
JAMB: Physical Geography I–L: environmental resources, land ecosystem and environmental balance, environmental hazards, environmental conservation
WAEC: environmental resources (types, renewable and non-renewable); the land ecosystem and environmental balance; environmental hazards (natural and man-induced); environmental conservation
NECO: environmental resources (types, renewable and non-renewable); the land ecosystem and environmental balance; environmental hazards (natural and man-induced); environmental conservation
What you will learn
- Define environment and environmental resources.
- Classify resources as renewable and non-renewable, with Nigerian examples.
- Describe the components and functioning of a land ecosystem.
- Explain food chains, food webs and energy flow.
- Explain environmental balance and how it is upset.
- Classify and describe natural environmental hazards.
- Describe man-induced hazards, their causes and effects.
- Explain the effects of hazards on people and the environment.
- Describe methods of environmental conservation.
- Discuss the roles of government agencies, laws and individuals in conservation.
Key points
- Environment: physical, biological and human surroundings.
- Resources: land, water, air, minerals, biological, energy, human.
- Renewable: solar, wind, water, forests, fish; non-renewable: oil, gas, coal, tin.
- Ecosystem = biotic (producers, consumers, decomposers) + abiotic (sunlight, water, soil, air).
- Energy flows; about 10% passes to each next level; nutrients are recycled.
- Balance is upset by deforestation, hunting, pollution, alien species, burning, climate change.
- Natural hazards: floods, drought, earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, pests, epidemics.
- Man-induced: pollution, deforestation, desertification, erosion, oil spills, gas flaring, global warming.
- 2012 floods: 363 deaths, 2.1 million displaced; 2022 floods: 612 deaths, about 1.4 million displaced (NEMA).
- Oil pollution: spills, theft, illegal refining; UNEP Ogoniland report 2011.
- Gas flaring causes heat, acid rain and greenhouse gases.
- Desertification affects the far north; Great Green Wall and shelterbelts.
- Conservation: afforestation, parks, soil and water conservation, recycling, EIA, education.
- Agencies: Ministry of Environment, NESREA, NEMA, NiMet, NIHSA, NOSDRA.
- Risk depends on hazard, vulnerability and capacity.
Start here: The environment and environmental resources
An environmental resource is any part of the environment that people use to satisfy their needs. A thing becomes a resource only when people have the knowledge, technology and demand to use it: crude oil in the Niger Delta was not a resource to people living there centuries ago.
Types of environmental resources
- Land resources: soil, farmland, building space.
- Water resources: rivers, lakes, groundwater, oceans.
- Atmospheric resources: air, rainfall, sunshine, wind.
- Mineral resources: oil, gas, coal, tin, limestone, iron ore, gold.
- Biological resources: forests, grasslands, wildlife, fish.
- Energy resources: fossil fuels, HEP, solar, wind, biomass.
- Human resources: the skills and labour of people.
Resource, reserve and stock
Geographers distinguish the total stock of a substance in the earth, the resources that could be used with present or foreseeable technology, and the reserves that are known and can be extracted profitably now. Reserves grow when new deposits are discovered, when technology improves (e.g. deep-water drilling), or when prices rise, making expensive deposits worth mining. This explains why estimates of “how long oil will last” keep changing.
Uses of environmental resources
Food (crops, livestock, fish); water for drinking, farming and industry; raw materials for industry; energy; shelter and building materials; transport routes (rivers, seas); recreation and tourism; medicine; foreign exchange from exports.
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Practice questions
- forests
- crude oil
- coal
- tin ore
Show answer
A: forests
Forests can regrow if managed; minerals cannot be replaced.
- solar energy
- wind
- fresh water in the water cycle
- natural gas
Show answer
D: natural gas
Fossil fuels are used up.
- decomposers
- carnivores
- producers
- primary consumers
Show answer
C: producers
They make food by photosynthesis.
- secondary consumers
- decomposers
- producers
- herbivores
Show answer
B: decomposers
They return nutrients to the soil.
- flooding after heavy rain
- oil spillage
- deforestation by logging
- gas flaring
Show answer
A: flooding after heavy rain
Man-induced hazards include pollution and deforestation.
Key words
- Environment
- The surroundings in which people, animals and plants live, including physical, biological and human elements.
- Resource
- Anything in the environment that people can use to satisfy their needs.
- Renewable resource
- A resource that is naturally replenished, e.g. water, sunlight, forests if managed well.
- Non-renewable resource
- A resource that is finite and cannot be replaced once used, e.g. crude oil.
- Ecosystem
- A community of living organisms interacting with one another and with their non-living environment.
- Biotic component
- The living part of an ecosystem: plants, animals, micro-organisms.
- Abiotic component
- The non-living part: sunlight, temperature, water, soil, air.
- Producer
- An organism (green plant) that makes food by photosynthesis.
- Consumer
- An organism that eats other organisms.
- Decomposer
- An organism (bacterium, fungus) that breaks down dead matter and recycles nutrients.
- Food chain
- A sequence showing who eats whom and how energy passes along.
- Food web
- Interconnected food chains in an ecosystem.
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