2 - Under Pressure - Resources

This unit will explore how the key resources of food, water and energy are becoming increasingly under pressure due to the rise of the middle classes and a growth in the global population.

In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.

Wangari Maathai

Key Concept

Change - how has the change in population size impacted how resources are used?

Related Concepts

Causality, Networks and Sustainability - how has resource consumption changed over time? Can our current consumption of resources be maintained?

Global Context

Scientific and Technological Innovation - Can the human race continue to react positively to the rise in population?

Statement of Inquiry

Population change has fostered scientific and technological innovations to occur across a range of networks to create a more sustainable world.

Inquiry Questions

Factual Questions: Remembering facts and topics

  • How do our personal choices create (cause) an impact on resource sustainability?

  • How does a change in wealth impact resource consumption?

  • How can a country's biocapacity be changed by scientific and technological innovation?

  • What scientific and technological innovations have taken place to cause a change in our Earth's ability to produce food?

  • What is malnourishment and what conditions create an environment in which people are malnourished?

Conceptual Questions: Analysing big ideas


  • How far can the scientific and technological changes to food production be used as evidence that Boserup's theory is correct?


Debatable Questions: Evaluating perspectives and developing theories

  • 'The catastrophe of Easter Island will happen again today.' Discuss.

Unit Outlines and AtL Sheets for Under Pressure - Resources

Updated - Blank Unit of Inquiry Grid
2022-2023 Individuals and Societies - Approaches to Learning Grid