Chemistry plays an important role in improving agricultural and industrial…

The idea

Chemistry underpins how we obtain and use resources. In agriculture, chemists develop fertilisers such as ammonium nitrate to replace nutrients removed by crops, and pesticides to protect yields, so more food can be grown on the same land. In industry, catalysts and improved processes raise efficiency and reduce waste, while new materials replace scarce natural ones. Sustainable development means meeting present needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs. A useful test is to ask whether a process depletes a finite resource or harms the environment for later users.

For example: Using renewable feedstock and recycling reduces demand on finite crude oil, whereas burning it releases carbon dioxide and uses a resource that cannot be replaced on a human timescale.

What earns the marks

• Chemistry improves agricultural processes by producing fertilisers that replace nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium removed from soil by crops.
• Chemistry improves industrial processes by developing catalysts and new materials that increase efficiency and reduce waste.
• New products from chemistry include synthetic polymers, medicines and fuels that supplement or replace natural products.
• Sustainable development meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• A process is not sustainable if it uses finite resources faster than they can be replaced or causes lasting environmental harm.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating sustainable development as simply recycling.

  Put it right: It is about balancing present needs with future needs, which may involve reducing use, reusing or using renewable resources.

• Assuming all synthetic products are worse than natural ones.

  Put it right: Synthetic products can reduce demand on finite natural resources and can be made more efficiently.

• Confusing renewable with sustainable.

  Put it right: A renewable resource can still be used unsustainably if it is consumed faster than it is replaced.

Exam tips

• Define sustainable development in full, including both present needs and future generations, because partial definitions lose credit.
• Link each example to a resource type, stating whether the resource is finite or renewable and why.
• Use comparative language such as more efficient, less waste or lower demand when explaining how chemistry improves a process.