Question 1

The first chart below shows how energy is used in an average Australian household. The second chart shows the greenhouse gas emissions which result from this energy use.

These two pie charts show information about household energy use in Australia and the resulting greenhouse emissions. While heating is the greatest use of energy, it is not the greatest producer of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are produced by water heating more than any other source.

The first pie chart displays information about the use of energy in the average Australian house. Here, heating requires the most energy, at 42% of the total, followed by water heating at a little over a third. The smallest fraction is cooling at just 2% of the total energy use.

Surprisingly, while heating uses 42% of the total energy use, it only causes 15% of the total greenhouse gases. However, water heating is more or less proportional to its total use, producing a little less than a third of the greenhouse gases emitted by the average household. Refrigeration produces 14% of the total emissions, despite only using 7% of the house’s energy.

Question 2

The tables below give information about sales of Fairtrade*-labelled coffee and bananas in 1999 and 2004 in five European countries.

The two tables present details of sales of two Fairtrade products in five different European countries in 1999 and 2004. Over the five year period, the UK spent far more money on coffee and bananas than any of the other nations.

The first table present information about sales of Fairtrade coffee, and in 1999 the highest sales took place in Switzerland, followed by Denmark, with the UK coming in third place. At this point, the UK spent only half the money on coffee that the Swiss spent; however, just five years later the UK had risen to twenty million Euros, while Switzerland had doubled to six million, which is just over a quart of the UK’s sales. Sweden spent the least on coffee in both 1999 and 2004.

In terms of money spent on Fairtrade bananas, the UK was the biggest spender by a great measure in 1999, with fifteen million Euros spent. The next highest spending nation was Sweden, which was far behind with only two million Euros. By 2004, Sweden had declined to less than one million, with Switzerland and Denmark significantly increasing their spending to five and half and four million, respectively. However, the UK was the biggest spender once again at forty-seven million Euros.