This document discusses global patterns of resource consumption. Wealthy countries like the United States and China are typically the largest consumers of many key resources due to their large populations and economies. Factors like population size, level of industrialization, and GDP influence how much a country consumes. Coal, oil, and natural gas power economic growth but also have negative environmental impacts. As non-renewable resources, metal prices are expected to increase over time as supplies diminish.

1. Patterns of Resource Supply and Consumption

2. Skill Zone – Patterns of Resource Consumption
Use the resource consumption by country map to complete the questions below
1.
Which two countries regularly appear at the top of resource consumption?
2.
What do the top 4 countries of cotton consumption have in common in terms of development?
3.
Why do you think the two biggest consumers of rice are India and China?
4.
What percentage of the worlds oil does the USA consume?
5.
Wealth and population have a big impact on the amount resources consumed by a country, explain why.
6.
China is known as the ‘worlds factory’ due to the huge amount of goods that are produced there and shipped around the world, bearing this in
mind why do you think it is the world’s biggest consumer of coal? (clue: think about what the coal would be used to create).
7.
Name 3 resources that the USA is the world’s biggest consumer of.
8.
The USA doesn’t have the worlds largest population but yet it is often the world’s largest consumer of resources, why?
9.
What are the environmental consequences of coal, oil and natural gas?
10.
The largest consumers of energy (oil, natural gas, coal and electricity) are all MEDC’s (wealthy countries), why do you think this is?

4. The Global Export and
Imports of Metals
1. Look at the world what’s the
difference?
2. Name 2 regions
(parts of the world
that export more
than they import?
3. Name a region that
imports more
metals than it
exports.
4. Summarise the
global pattern of
metal imports and
exports.
5. Metals are a nonrenewable resource
(although some can
be recycled), what
do you think will
happen to the price
of them in the
future and why?
Global exporters
(sold overseas) of
metals (zinc, iron,
nickel, copper and
aluminium)
Global importers
(bought from
overseas) of metals
(zinc, iron, nickel,
copper and
aluminium)