Activity 1 (pp2-3, should be compared with Activity 5 on pp.17-18)
Sample response:
This chart illustrates changes in the carbon dioxide emissions of the world’s major industrialized nations between 1990 and 2002.
There was a general increase in emissions among the nations represented, although there was one major exception to this trend and comparative data were not available for India. The exceptional case was Russia which showed a dramatic 25% decline in emissions. For other nations, the trend was in the opposite direction with China and the United States increasing emissions by around 30% and 20% respectively. The world’s largest producer of CO2 emissions throughout the period was the United States. The United States also had the second largest increase in emissions in the period.
Activity 2 (p.8) Sample response:
The graph shows variations in the surface temperature of the Earth from 1860 to 2000, shown as deviations from the average.
Considering the data in detail, there are many small increases and decreases in temperature (for example, it was warmer in 1880 and 1900 than in the years in between). However, if a larger view is taken, and the curve smoothed out a little, definite trends can be seen. Throughout the early decades of the 20th century, there was a steady rise in temperatures, reaching a peak around 1940. After a modest cooling thereafter until around 1970, temperatures rose sharply in the closing 20 years of the century, showing no signs of falling back as it ended. Between 1860 and 2000, a rise of on average 0.75 of a degree centigrade had been observed.
Activity 6 (p.20)
Sample response:
The chart shows the numbers of tourists arriving at Bangkok International Airport according to their country of origin. The figures refer to the first three weeks in April in 2002 and 2003.
The chart allows us to compare changes in the situation in the two years and to see how different sources of tourists were affected. The main trend was for the number of tourists entering Thailand to drop quite sharply in 2003, compared to the previous year. This was most apparent in the case of Far Eastern tourists, and most dramatic in the case of Chinese tourists, whose numbers declined by over 50%. The numbers of Japanese tourists, the largest group overall, also declined sharply by over 30%. A similar pattern was seen for the United States.
On the other hand, the European and Australian tourist market continued to flourish with the United Kingdom actually going against the trend with a slightly higher number of tourists arriving in 2003.
Activity 7 (p.26) Sample response:
The two figures concern meat consumption around the world. The line graph shows the figures for the developing world. The bar chart shows the figures for the world as a whole.
Despite slow growth in India and Nigeria, meat consumption in the developing world had been growing fast since the late 1970s. Taking the developing countries as a whole, consumption doubled from 1978 to 1988 and continued to grow robustly during the 1990s. A lot of the impetus for this growth came from Brazil, which started out higher with 35 kg per annum, compared with 5 kg for India, and ended the century at about 70 kg. China also had impressive growth rates rising five-fold in 20 years.
The bar chart puts these figures into perspective. North Americans were still eating double the amount of meat that South Americans did and their intake was still rising up to 1998. Oceania and Europe also came ahead of Latin America. The figures for Asia were about a third of Europe’s. The figures for sub-Saharan Africa were the lowest and showed no signs of growing.
