UK Environmental Challenges | OCR GCSE Geography A (J383)
UK Environmental Challenges
- 85 questions
- 7 subtopics
- Component 01
- Component 01
UK Environmental Challenges is examined in Component 01, Living in the UK Today.
It covers air masses, the North Atlantic Drift and the UK’s extreme weather, A UK flood event: causes, effects and responses, how people use, modify and change UK ecosystems, the UK’s renewable and non-renewable energy sources, changing UK energy supply and demand, and sustainable use, renewables in the UK, and the future of fossil fuels and what shapes the UK’s energy choices.
Sample questions from UK Environmental Challenges
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
-
Air masses, the North Atlantic Drift and the UK’s extreme weather
What is the North Atlantic Drift?
Show the answer
A warm ocean current that carries surface water from the Gulf of Mexico north-eastwards across the Atlantic towards north-west Europe. -
Air masses, the North Atlantic Drift and the UK’s extreme weather
How do air masses produce damaging winds over Britain?
Show the answer
Where warm tropical air meets cold polar air along the polar front, deep depressions form and the steep pressure gradient inside them drives violent gusts. -
A UK flood event: causes, effects and responses
What counts as an environmental impact of flooding?
Show the answer
Harm to soils, habitats and water quality, such as eroded farmland, drowned wildlife and sewage or chemicals washed into watercourses. -
A UK flood event: causes, effects and responses
What weather caused the Somerset Levels floods of 2014?
Show the answer
A long run of Atlantic depressions brought southern England its wettest January on record, falling on land that was already saturated, while high tides stopped the rivers draining to the sea. -
How people use, modify and change UK ecosystems
What is overfishing, and how is it limited in British waters?
Show the answer
Taking fish faster than stocks can breed and replace themselves; quotas, minimum net mesh sizes and closed areas are used to hold catches down. -
How people use, modify and change UK ecosystems
Why has fracking been so strongly opposed in Britain?
Show the answer
Because of the risk of contaminating groundwater and of triggering small earth tremors, and because it yields yet another fossil fuel to burn. -
The UK’s renewable and non-renewable energy sources
Which renewable sources are available to Britain?
Show the answer
Wind, solar, hydroelectric, tidal and wave power, along with biomass and geothermal heat. -
The UK’s renewable and non-renewable energy sources
Which renewable makes the biggest contribution to British electricity?
Show the answer
Wind power, with offshore farms now producing more than onshore ones.
The 7 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Air masses, the North Atlantic Drift and the UK’s extreme weather | Air masses, the tropical maritime, polar maritime, polar continental and tropical continental air that reach Britain, the North Atlantic Drift and Britain's mild winters, continentality, and how depressions, Arctic air and the jet stream bring damaging winds, heavy snow and prolonged rain. | 10 |
| A UK flood event: causes, effects and responses | The weather and human causes of a UK flood, from saturated soil and snowmelt to building and woodland clearance, its primary and secondary effects on people and the environment, immediate and long-term responses at local and national scale, the Environment Agency, hard and soft engineering, warning systems, and the Somerset Levels floods of 2014. | 19 |
| How people use, modify and change UK ecosystems | The mechanisation of farming and the loss of hedgerows, commercial fishing, bottom trawling and limits on overfishing, wind farms and objections to them, fracking and why it is opposed, upland reservoirs, and water transfer schemes and why Britain needs them. | 12 |
| The UK’s renewable and non-renewable energy sources | What makes a source renewable or non-renewable, the fuels Britain relies on, its renewable options, why nuclear and biomass are classed as they are, the biggest shares of electricity, and why Britain imports energy. | 10 |
| Changing UK energy supply and demand, and sustainable use | Coal in the 1950s, North Sea oil and gas, the dash for gas and the collapse of coal mining, falling energy demand, how government and agreements such as the Paris Agreement steer supply, sustainable energy use by households, councils and the nation, smart meters, and why cutting demand beats building new generation. | 14 |
| Renewables in the UK, and the future of fossil fuels | The rapid growth of offshore wind, the benefits of renewable schemes and the objections and environmental harm they bring, the limits of hydroelectric power, intermittent wind and solar, the case for gas-fired stations and against burning more fossil fuel, and the arguments for and against more nuclear power. | 10 |
| What shapes the UK’s energy choices | The economic, political and environmental factors behind Britain's energy mix, cost, the world gas price, energy security, war overseas, the planning system, the net zero pledge, landscape and waste concerns, and public opinion. | 10 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
-
Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
-
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
-
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
OCR GCSE Geography A Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 749 questions with their answers.