Geography Teaching Today

Key Concepts:
Human processes
Interdependence
Environmental interaction and sustainable development

How many billionaires live in ‘Asia’ and ‘The Middle East’?
Asia is the world’s largest and most populous continent with more than 60% or the world’s current population. China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and Singapore have strong manufacturing bases with Japan and South Korea and increasingly China and India, host to many multinational corporations.  At the time of writing there were 142 billionaires in Asia. The ‘Middle East’ is a historical and political region of Africa-Eurasia with no clear definition. Many countries located around the Persian Gulf have large quantities of crude oil. At the time of writing there were 57 billionaires in the ‘Middle East’.

How are we helping Asia to produce more billionaires?
The number of billionaires is on the rise in Asia as globalisation means that economies of these countries are increasingly interdependent with those in Europe and North America

Many companies from Europe, North America and Japan have operations in Asia’s developing countries to take advantage of their human resource of cheap labour and relatively developed infrastructure. Owing to its large and competitive information technology industry and well educated and English speaking population, India has become a major location for outsourcing services.  Demand for cheaper and cheaper consumer goods in Europe and North America has fuelled a booming manufacturing economy in many Asian countries, most notably China. This means many Asian countries such as China are making and selling us vital goods and services that we need in order to sustain our current standard of living.  As we continue to consume, China has become a hub for waste recycling; some 40 million tonnes of are shipped there from the UK a year. Much of this waste plastic and metal is seen as a vital resource in China for new industries which in turn help to boost the economy.  But billionaires are being made not just by making things that appear in shops globally, but also by serving their domestic consumers through retailing, property, media and finance. Increasingly well off young Asians particularly the 30-somethings are buying more and more retail goods in the same way that young British people have long been accustomed to helping to make these countries richer. 

How are we helping the Middle East get richer?
The world depends on fossil fuels and oil is the one we use the most. Between 30 and 40% of the entire world’s energy comes from oil. Oil is the raw material for many everyday products such as make-up, shampoo, plastics and petrol. Over half the world’s oil is in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has a quarter of the world’s oil and Kuwait a tenth. Countries with carbon-based economies and lifestyles or with few or no fossil fuels of there own are dependent on the region.  

What are human resources and natural resources?
Natural resources occur naturally in or on the Earth, that we can make use of, rivers, soil and oil are all examples of natural resources. Human resources are skills, labour and entrepreneurship of the population.