Continents and Oceans

• Largest continent: Asia.
• Largest ocean: Pacific Ocean.

The five oceans are the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean (Antarctic Ocean) and the Arctic Ocean.

Hot deserts occur in two bands either side of the equator, roughly along the Tropic of Cancer (23.5°N) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5°S), rather than on the equator itself.

They are found in North Africa (the Sahara), the south-west of North America, southern Africa, central Australia (Oceania) and parts of Asia (the Arabian and Gobi deserts).

Many lie in the interiors of continents or on their western coasts, and they are absent from the equator itself (which is dominated by rainforest) and from the high latitudes.

Knowing where places are allows managers to locate and study real case studies precisely — for example identifying that the Amazon rainforest is in South America — so that strategies can be matched to the conditions of that specific place.

It also helps explain why ecosystems and resources occur where they do: the position of land and sea, and distance from the equator, control climate, which in turn determines biomes such as rainforest, desert or tundra.

Finally, the global map reveals how problems cross borders — pollution and greenhouse gases can travel between continents on winds and ocean currents — showing managers that some issues require international cooperation rather than local action alone.

Describing the pattern (AO2). The map shows that the highest emissions (darkest shading) are concentrated in the high-income economies of North America, Europe and East Asia (for example the USA, and the industrial regions of Asia), together with a few large rapidly-industrialising economies. The lowest emissions (lightest shading) are in Africa and in many small or less industrialised states. The pattern is therefore very uneven: a minority of countries account for a large share of global emissions, while large parts of the map are lightly shaded.

Suggesting reasons (AO3). This uneven pattern can be explained by levels of economic development and consumption:

• High-income economies have large industrial sectors, high energy use and high consumption per person, much of it still powered by fossil fuels, producing high emissions.
• Rapidly industrialising economies show rising emissions as manufacturing and energy demand grow.
• Low-income economies have less industry, lower energy use per person and lower consumption, so their emissions are low — even where their populations are large.

A point of judgement. Care is needed in reading the map: it shows total national emissions, so a populous country can appear dark without high emissions per person, and a physically large country can be lightly shaded. The key environmental-management insight is that the countries contributing most to the problem are often not those that will suffer its worst effects — which is exactly why managing emissions is a global rather than a purely national responsibility.

Introduction. Environmental problems range in scale from a single polluted river to global climate change. Whether they 'can only be solved by global cooperation' depends largely on the scale of the problem, so this essay weighs problems that can be managed nationally against those that cannot, before reaching a judgement.

Argument that global cooperation IS essential. Many of the most serious environmental problems cross national borders, so no single country can solve them alone:

• Climate change. Greenhouse gases mix throughout the global atmosphere. Carbon dioxide emitted in North America, Europe or Asia contributes to warming felt everywhere — including the low-lying islands of Oceania threatened by sea-level rise. A country that cuts its own emissions still suffers from others' emissions, so only coordinated international action can succeed.
• Ocean and atmospheric pollution. Ocean currents carry plastic between continents; acid-forming pollutants and ozone-depleting substances drift across borders on winds. The damage is shared, so the solution must be shared.
• Shared resources and species. Migratory species, international rivers and fish stocks ignore political boundaries, so their management requires agreement between the nations that share them.

The uneven global map strengthens this case: the countries that emit the most are often not those that suffer the worst impacts, so fairness as well as effectiveness demands cooperation.

Argument that problems can be solved without global cooperation. However, not every environmental problem is global:

• Local and national problems — a single landfill site, a national park, a regional water supply, urban air quality — can often be managed effectively by national laws and local action alone.
• National policy can drive real change even before global agreement: a country can restrict vehicle use in cities, protect its own habitats, or invest in renewable energy independently.
• Global agreements can be slow, weak or unenforceable, because nations disagree over who should bear the cost. Waiting for perfect global cooperation can delay action that individual countries could take now.

Judgement. The decisive factor is the scale of the problem. For local and regional problems, national and local action is often sufficient, and global cooperation is not strictly necessary. But for truly global problems — above all climate change and ocean pollution — the science of how pollutants spread means that national action alone, however ambitious, cannot succeed; these problems can only be solved through international cooperation. The statement is therefore largely true for the greatest environmental threats, but an overstatement for smaller-scale problems. The most effective approach combines both: strong national action and binding global cooperation, with each reinforcing the other.