Environmental impacts
Big idea: Resource extraction causes significant environmental damage — from habitat destruction and pollution to landscape degradation and biodiversity loss.
Habitat destruction
- Mining: Open-pit and strip mining removes entire ecosystems
- Deforestation: Logging and land clearing for agriculture
- Dredging: Damages river and ocean floor habitats
- Drilling: Oil and gas extraction disrupts terrestrial and marine environments
- Scale: Mining alone disturbs ~400,000 km² globally
Pollution
- Water pollution: Acid mine drainage, heavy metal contamination, oil spills
- Air pollution: Dust, particulates, SO₂ from smelting, methane from coal mines
- Soil contamination: Tailings, chemical leaching, heavy metals
- Thermal pollution: Power plant cooling water affects aquatic ecosystems
Other environmental impacts
- Landscape degradation: Scarring, subsidence, altered drainage
- Biodiversity loss: Direct habitat loss plus pollution effects
- Erosion and sedimentation: Exposed soil washes into waterways
- Groundwater depletion: Mining often requires dewatering
- GHG emissions: From extraction, processing, and transport
Exam tip: When describing impacts, use the cause → effect structure. E.g., Open-pit mining removes vegetation (cause) → leading to habitat loss and soil erosion (effects).
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Social and economic impacts
Big idea: Resource extraction has both benefits (jobs, income, development) and costs (displacement, health impacts, inequality). The distribution of these impacts is often unequal.
Benefits of resource extraction
- Employment: Direct jobs in extraction, processing, transport
- Economic growth: Export revenue, tax income, infrastructure development
- Energy security: Domestic fuel production reduces dependence on imports
- Materials for development: Resources enable industrialisation and construction
- Technology access: Resource wealth can fund education and innovation
Social costs
- Displacement: Communities relocated for mining, dams, or drilling
- Health impacts: Respiratory disease, water contamination, accidents
- Indigenous rights: Traditional lands often targeted; cultural disruption
- Inequality: Benefits often flow to corporations and elites, not local communities
- Boom-bust cycles: Resource-dependent communities vulnerable to price crashes
The resource curse (paradox of plenty): Countries with abundant natural resources often have slower economic growth, more corruption, and less democracy than resource-poor countries.
Environmental justice
Extraction impacts often fall disproportionately on:
- Indigenous communities
- Low-income populations
- Communities of colour
- Developing countries exporting to wealthy nations
Exam tip: Essay questions often ask you to evaluate both benefits and costs. Present a balanced argument with specific examples before reaching a conclusion.
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IB-style question — Impacts of resource extraction [3]
An open-pit copper mine has been opened in a forested river valley. Outline three environmental impacts likely to result from extracting and processing the ore. [3]
How to answer it, step by step
- Land and habitat
• Forest cleared for the pit — habitat and biodiversity lost
• Spoil heaps and erosion strip and bury soil - Water and air
• Acid mine drainage and tailings pollute the river
• Dust and smelter emissions lower air quality
Final answer
Examiner tip: name a distinct impact for each mark (land, water, air) rather than three versions of the same pollution point.