Resource
depletion
This material has been produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ)
under contract to the Ministry of Education. It has been written to assist teachers
and schools in their delivery of the technology/ hangarau curriculum statements.
The project is jointly coordinated by personnel from the Technology Education
New Zealand (TENZ)
and National Association of Māori Mathematicians, Scientists and Technologists
(NAMMSAT) networks. Monitoring and evaluation of the material is carried out
by a national project advisory group.
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News
The human race is using up the Earth's resources at a faster rate than
ever before. This is the message in the report, State of the World Population
2001 released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF). The report
shows that over the past 70 years the world's population has tripled to
6.1 billion people, with water use increasing six-fold. Already 508 million
people live in 31 countries that lack water and the problem is predicted
to worsen as the global population is projected to rise to eight billion
by 2025. The report states that:
| Human activity has affected every part of the planet, no matter
how remote, and every ecosystem, from the simplest to the most complex.
Our choices and interventions have transformed the natural world,
posing both great possibilities and extreme dangers for the quality
and sustainability of our civilisations, and for the intricate balances
of nature. |
In the period since 1970 consumption expenditures have more than doubled
with increases mainly in the richer countries. It points to the fact that
although we have created wealth "on an unimaginable scale", half of our
world still exists on less than US$2 a day. An inevitable consequence
is that measures to conserve energy, curb pollution, and promote sustainable
use of natural resources are essential for sustainable development in
the future.
In detailing the close link between population and the environment the
report suggests that to understand the ways in which population and environment
are linked requires detailed consideration of the way in which contributing
factors interrelate – including affluence, consumption, technology,
and population growth.
The full report can be accessed at www.unfpa.org/swp/
Ideas for classroom use
- The fact that unclean water and poor sanitation already kills over
12 million people every year is emphasised in the report. It predicts
that by 2050, 4.2 billion people will be living in countries that lack
water. In a paper titled Appropriate water supply and sanitation solutions
in developing countries with particular reference to Papua New Guinea
Monika Fry and Dr Paul Henriques highlight many of the valuable lessons
that have been learned about how appropriate technology can be successfully
utilised in a developing country context.
- Here in New Zealand most people take water very much for granted.
However, providing water that is safe and pleasant to drink can be a
real challenge for water treatment professionals. In 1995 Dunedin's
water treatment received an "E" grading - the lowest possible. The addition
of a dissolved air flotation process (DAF) enabled the Water Treatment
Plant to produce "A" grade water. (For further information click here
- Link to dunedin_water.doc).
- Local water treatment systems can provide an excellent context for
student practice in technology education. A technology unit relating
to a specific rural water issue can be found at (link to rural_water.doc)
- The report claims that although we have developed technologies to
extract the level of resources required for our use we have not learned
to deal with the resulting waste. One example of this is recycling of
scrap tyres (link to TechinNews13/11.doc). Classes could research other
case studies relating to problems locally or globally with waste streams.
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