Lesson 3.2.5.6

3.2.5.6 Resource futures Quiz: AQA Geography, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 3.2.5.6, Resource futures: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Geography (7037), Unit 2: Human geography, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which term describes energy, water or mineral futures that depend on new technologies and policies?

    • Carrying capacity decline
    • Primary energy depletion only
    • Alternative resource futures
    • Stock resource exhaustion

  2. Which development is most likely to reduce future dependence on fossil fuels for electricity?

    • Expansion of oil exploration in unexplored regions only
    • Falling costs and growth of renewable generation combined with storage
    • Reduction of all renewable capacity to save money
    • Increased reliance on coal with no change in technology

  3. Which factor is most likely to influence future mineral demand in the global economy?

    • Reduction in the global population to very low levels
    • Technological change, such as the spread of electric vehicles and batteries
    • Decline in all manufacturing industries
    • Increase in the use of paper-based communication

  4. Which argument best evaluates the claim that future water supplies can be secured by technological developments alone?

    • Technology helps but costs, environmental impacts and governance also determine whether supply can be secured
    • Technology has no role in water supply
    • Technology always solves water scarcity without cost
    • Water security depends only on the colour of pipes

  5. Which development would most reduce pressure on freshwater resources in the future?

    • Stopping all recycling of water within homes
    • Desalination powered by renewable energy and efficient water use in agriculture
    • Increasing leakage in urban water networks
    • Expanding water-intensive crops in dry regions with no pricing

  6. Which factor would most likely make alternative energy futures more feasible in a region?

    • Unstable policy and high technology costs
    • Stable policy support, grid investment and falling technology costs
    • Prohibition of any new energy infrastructure
    • Restricted access to all electricity grids

  7. Which statement about resource futures is most accurate?

    • Future resource availability is fixed by geology alone, since the amount of every deposit was set when the rocks first formed
    • Future resource availability is unaffected by policy, because governments have no tools to influence how resources are used
    • Future resource availability depends on interactions between technology, economics, environmental limits and policy
    • Future resource availability can only fall and never rise, since every new discovery or technology is expected to be exhausted quickly

  8. A forecast suggests that electricity demand will double by 2050, and that 80% of supply will come from renewables. What is the key uncertainty?

    • Whether renewables will cease to produce any electricity, since turbines and panels are expected to fail within a few years
    • Whether storage, grid expansion and investment can keep pace with the change
    • Whether the population will stop using electricity entirely, because people are expected to give up power in favour of candles and fires
    • Whether the sun will continue to shine on the planet, since solar output depends on the brightness of the star over time

  9. Which trend would most reduce the environmental pressure of future metal demand?

    • Rising recycling rates and product design that makes metals easier to reuse
    • Increasing use of disposable metal products without reuse, since each new item is designed to be discarded once its useful life is over
    • Falling recycling rates and rising disposal of metals, as more products are thrown away after one use with no metal recovered
    • Expansion of mining without rehabilitation of sites, which leaves each worked deposit scarred and unusable for any future purpose

  10. Which argument best supports the view that energy futures should be planned with water and mineral futures in mind?

    • Energy futures require no materials or water at all, since modern power systems are built from air, sunlight and electrical charge alone
    • Energy, water and minerals are entirely independent resources, so planning for one has no effect on the supply or use of the others
    • Energy technologies depend on water and minerals, so planning across resources avoids new conflicts and shortages
    • Planning one resource has no effect on the others, because each is governed by separate institutions with no shared responsibilities

  11. Which measure would be most useful in assessing alternative water futures?

    • Projections of supply and demand under different climate, population and technology scenarios
    • The number of books written about water each year, counted in library catalogues and compared with the number of articles published
    • The colour of water in one lake in a single year, recorded by a visiting scientist and compared with the colour of the lake in dry seasons
    • The total number of water bottles sold in a single shop, counted over one weekend and compared with the sales of drinks in the same shop

  12. Which argument best evaluates the role of new technology in mineral futures?

    • New technology always eliminates the need for any mineral extraction, because recycled material can replace every new deposit in all uses
    • New technology can improve extraction and recycling, but its benefits depend on cost, energy use and environmental safeguards
    • New technology has no effect on how minerals are used, since manufacturers keep the same materials and methods in every product
    • New technology only increases the environmental impact of minerals, because every innovation requires more ore and more energy to produce

  13. Which policy would most support sustainable resource futures across energy, water and minerals?

    • Policy that focuses only on expanding extraction with no environmental limits, since supply growth is assumed to solve every problem
    • Policy that bans all resource use without any alternatives, which would stop every industry and household from using energy or water
    • Integrated planning that combines demand management, recycling, investment in alternatives and environmental protection
    • Policy that ignores demand and relies on existing reserves only, because known deposits are expected to meet all needs for centuries

  14. A region plans to meet 40% of its water demand from desalination by 2040. Which issue is most important to assess?

    • The energy requirements and costs of desalination and the impact of brine discharge
    • The number of visitors to the coastal town, counted each summer and compared with the number of hotel rooms available near the sea
    • The colour of the desalination plant's buildings, which determines whether the structures blend into the coastal landscape for visitors
    • The average height of the coastal hills, measured from sea level and compared with the height of the cliffs along the shoreline

  15. Which argument best supports the view that resource futures are highly uncertain?

    • Technological breakthroughs, price shifts and policy changes can each significantly alter resource availability and use
    • Resource futures depend only on the weather in one year, so a single season of rainfall or sunshine decides the outcome for decades
    • Resource futures are certain because they follow a fixed timetable, since every development is known in advance and no surprises can occur
    • Resource futures cannot be affected by anything in the future, because the present stock of every resource is already fixed in law

  16. Which term describes the outward movement of the point at which resources become viable as technology lowers the cost of extraction?

    • Stock exhaustion, the point at which every unit of a finite resource has been removed from the ground and cannot be recovered
    • Carrying capacity decline, a fall in the largest population an environment can sustain as its resources diminish over time
    • Resource peak, the point at which the maximum production rate of a finite resource is reached and output then begins to decline
    • Resource frontier expansion

  17. A battery pack costs 200 pounds per kWh now and falls by 10% each year. Approximately what is its cost after two years, assuming a constant annual fall?

    • 162 pounds per kWh
    • 160 pounds per kWh
    • 180 pounds per kWh
    • 140 pounds per kWh

  18. Which policy instrument is designed to make the environmental cost of resource use show up in market prices?

    • A subsidy for coal extraction
    • A ban on all trade in natural resources
    • A carbon price or emissions tax
    • Removal of all price signals in energy markets

  19. Which argument best evaluates the claim that the future of energy depends mainly on the size of known reserves?

    • Energy futures depend only on the weather in one year, so a single season of rainfall or sunshine sets the energy outlook for decades
    • Cost, technology and policy can make a large reserve less useful and a smaller one more valuable
    • Reserve size is irrelevant because all energy is free, so the amount of fuel in the ground has no bearing on supply
    • Only reserve size matters for energy futures, since the amount in the ground decides every outcome regardless of extraction cost

  20. A desalination plant uses 3 kWh of energy per cubic metre of water. How much energy is needed to produce 10,000 cubic metres, in MWh?

    • 3,000 MWh
    • 30 MWh
    • 3 MWh
    • 300 MWh

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