Topic 2: 2.6 Rapid economic growth results in significant positive and negative impacts on people and environment in the emerging country — Edexcel GCSE Geography B
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Topic 2: 2.6 Rapid economic growth results in significant positive and negative impacts on people and environment in the emerging country explained
Topic 2: 2.6 Rapid economic growth results in significant positive and negative impacts on people and environment in the emerging country covers 3 specification points, including A.
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How rapid economic change has contributed… and B. Positive and negative impacts of economic…. Open a point below for its explanation and revision guidance.
a. How rapid economic change has contributed to demographic change (fertility and death rates), caused urbanisation (rural- urban migration, city growth) and created different regions with different socio-economic characteristics.
This statement asks you to show how rapid economic change in your chosen emerging country has altered its population and its places. Start with demographic change: economic growth often brings better healthcare, nutrition and education, so death rates fall first, and fertility rates later fall as families choose fewer children. Next, urbanisation: rural-urban migration occurs when people move to cities seeking jobs and higher wages, and city growth follows as industry concentrates there. Finally, economic change creates different regions with different socio-economic characteristics, such as affluent business districts with good services beside informal settlements lacking clean water or sanitation. A strong answer names each process, links it to economic change, and uses an example from the chosen country.
b. Positive and negative impacts of economic development and globalisation on different age and gender groups.
This statement asks you to explain how economic development and globalisation bring positive and negative impacts that differ between age and gender groups. Development creates factory and service jobs, while globalisation brings foreign investment and links to world markets. Positive impacts can include higher incomes, better access to education and greater independence for many young women working in factories. Negative impacts include long hours and unsafe conditions for workers, children leaving school to earn money, and older people losing family support as younger adults migrate. For each impact, name the group, state whether it is positive or negative, and explain the link to development or globalisation.
c. Impacts of economic development and globalisation on the environment (air, water and land pollution, greenhouse gases) at a variety of scales (human health and global climate change).
This statement asks you to explain how development and globalisation cause air, water and land pollution and greenhouse gas emissions at local and global scales. At local scale, smoke from coal-fired power and factories can cause respiratory illness, and untreated industrial effluent can contaminate rivers that people use for drinking water. Land pollution can come from waste dumps and contaminated soils near industrial zones. At global scale, rising emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from energy use, transport and manufacturing contribute to climate change. Link each pollutant to its source and to its effect on health or climate, not just list types.
Your focus
- Explain how falling death rates and fertility rates follow economic development.
- Describe push and pull factors behind rural-urban migration.
- Identify contrasting socio-economic characteristics of regions in the chosen country.
Show all 9 objectives
- Identify positive and negative impacts of development and globalisation on named age and gender groups.
- Explain why the same process affects different groups in different ways.
- Support each explained impact with a relevant example.
- Identify air, water and land pollution linked to economic development and globalisation.
- Explain how greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global climate change.
- Describe a human health impact at local scale with a named cause.
Topic 2: 2.6 Rapid economic growth results in significant positive and negative impacts on people and environment in the emerging country exam tips
Marking Points
- Explains that economic growth improves healthcare, nutrition and education, which lowers death rates.
- Explains how rising incomes and education lead to falling fertility rates, linking this to the demographic transition.
- Explains rural-urban migration as movement driven by the pull of jobs and higher wages in cities.
- Describes city growth as the result of migration and natural increase concentrated in urban areas.
- Explains how economic change creates contrasting regions, such as business districts and informal settlements.
- Uses a named example from the chosen country to support each process.
- Links all three processes to rapid economic change rather than describing them as separate facts.
- Identifies a positive impact and names the age or gender group it affects.
- Identifies a negative impact and names the age or gender group it affects.
- Links each impact to economic development or globalisation as its cause.
- Explains why impacts differ between groups, such as differing access to factory work or to schooling.
- Uses a relevant example to support each explained impact.
- Identifies an air, water or land pollution impact linked to economic development or globalisation.
- Identifies greenhouse gas emissions as a driver of global climate change.
- Describes an impact at local scale on human health, such as respiratory illness from air pollution.
- Describes an impact at global scale on climate change, naming a greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide or methane.
- Explains the causal chain from the source of pollution to its effect on people or the climate.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Structure each answer around the three processes named in the statement and cover all of them.
- 💡Use the chosen country's name and a specific example in each paragraph to show detailed knowledge.
- 💡For multiple-choice questions, check which process each option describes before choosing, and do not select an option that covers only one process.
- 💡Plan two columns, positive and negative, and fill each with a named group before you write.
- 💡Use a different age or gender group for at least two of your points to show variation.
- 💡Finish each point by stating the cause, so the link to development or globalisation is explicit.
- 💡Sort your points into local scale and global scale before you write.
- 💡Name one pollutant, its source and its effect for each point you make.
- 💡Use carbon dioxide or methane when you discuss greenhouse gases, rather than the word pollution alone.
Common Mistakes
- Assumes that fertility rates rise as the economy grows; correct this by explaining that they typically fall as incomes and education increase.
- Describes urbanisation only as population growth, without explaining rural-urban migration; add the push and pull factors that cause people to move.
- Lists regional differences without naming the socio-economic characteristics; name specific features such as housing, services and employment.
- Treats all people in a country as affected in the same way; show how at least one impact differs by age or gender.
- Lists impacts without naming who is affected; name the age or gender group for each point.
- Describes only positive impacts or only negative ones; include both to cover the statement fully.
- Assumes globalisation has no effect on local employment; explain how foreign investment creates jobs and changes working conditions.
- Lists pollution types without linking them to a source; add the industrial, transport or energy cause for each point.
- Confuses local health effects with global climate change; keep the scale clearly labelled in each answer.
- Treats air, water and land pollution as interchangeable; describe the specific pathway for each type.
- Refers only to pollution in general terms without naming a pollutant or greenhouse gas; name the specific substance.