Geo Active Questions and Awnsers 1-5

1.)List the main reasons for water scarcity?
A.) The main reasons for water scarcity are variations in climate, land degradation population growth, and water pollution.
2.)What is drought? What type of hardships do you think that drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia?
A.) Drought is a period of below average precipitation. I think that if a drought happened in Ethiopia many people would die.
3.)How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water?
A.) Land degradation would not allow the soil to store water.
4a.)What is El Nino?
A.) El Nino is a warming where the moist easterly trade winds reverse their direction and cause droughts in certain areas and flooding in others.
4b.)Why does El Nino often cause drought in Australia?
A.) High pressure builds up over Australia this prevents moist tropical air to reach it for a long time.
5.)Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-1983.
5a.)What effects does El Nino have on the availability of fresh water?
A.) In the countries that are dry it would limit the amount of water. And in the heavy rain areas it would cause floods that would pollute the fresh water and can cause diseases.
5b.)Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall caused by El Nino?
A.)Africa had reduced corn crop. China had agricultural land under threat from drought in the northern part and threats of flooding in the southern. Philippines had lower rice harvest. Papua New Guinea had failure of food crops and had to have food aid. Australia grain growing areas were threatened by the drought conditions.