What Extraction Costs the Place It Happens · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Who pays for what comes out of the ground

Geography · People & Environments · ages 16-18
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. Where do the costs and benefits of extraction usually fall?

    • Both always in one street
    • Benefits locally, costs nowhere
    • Costs locally, benefits far away

  2. What does open cast mining do to the local land?

    • Strips soil and plants across valleys
    • Plants new forests by itself
    • Freezes rivers into safety

  3. Waste rock from mines can pollute streams for decades.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. A town gets poisoned wells while shareholders in a far city profit. Why does the fight feel bitter?

    • Wells enjoy being poisoned
    • One place pays while distant places gain
    • Shareholders live beside the mine

  5. A coal train coats towns in dust along its route. What does this show?

    • Transport stretches damage from pit to plant
    • Harm stays only inside the pit
    • Trains clean the air they cross

  6. A plant scrubs its smoke but the mine and ash ponds remain. What has the control done?

    • Removed every harm at once
    • Moved harm around rather than removing it
    • Closed the mine by magic

  7. Someone calls a fuel clean by pointing only at the power station. What is missing?

    • The colour of the station walls
    • The full ledger: mine, transport, burn, and ash
    • The names of the station staff

  8. A city swaps petrol cars for electric cars and claims extraction is solved. What is the honest check?

    • Accept the claim without checking
    • Ban counting lithium and copper
    • Ask which extraction shrinks and which grows
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Who pays for what comes out of the ground W1-mt_diS2vBXcV4-s1

  1. Costs locally, benefits far away · The mining town pays while distant cities gain.
  2. Strips soil and plants across valleys · Whole valleys lose soil and vegetation to the pit.
  3. True · Leached metals keep fouling water long after digging.
  4. One place pays while distant places gain · The split between who pays and who gains drives the anger.
  5. Transport stretches damage from pit to plant · Moving the resource spreads harm along the line.
  6. Moved harm around rather than removing it · Cleaning one stage leaves the mine and the ash behind.
  7. The full ledger: mine, transport, burn, and ash · A fair verdict counts every stage from pit to plant.
  8. Ask which extraction shrinks and which grows · The swap cuts petrol but grows demand for battery metals.
Worksheet · LightMySky