“Of all the environmental challenges we face, soil degradation is the most serious.” Discuss this statement.

A good response may define the term “soil degradation”, which includes erosion (wind, water), or nutrient depletion, salinization, duricrust growth, loss of soil structure, and others.

There are a number of possible responses as the environmental challenges in the syllabus relate to soil and also to climate change, water, biodiversity and sustainability in general. The focus of the answer should be on assessing the importance of soil degradation, but reference to other issues is needed as well in discussing the statement as it calls for some evaluation. However, a candidate cannot dismiss soil and write an essay on climate change; they must answer the question posed and use their knowledge of soil degradation to explain why it is serious or why it is less serious than other challenges we face.

Responses must develop a substantiated argument that agrees or disagrees with the statement (either by saying other challenges are more important or that soil degradation does not prevent all forms of food production, for example, aquaculture).

Responses demonstrating a thorough knowledge and understanding of soil degradation with specific and accurate case study material and offering some evaluation of the statement will reach levels E and F.

Marks should be allocated according to the markbands.

Some candidates who answered the question had, generally speaking, little knowledge and understanding of soil degradation, hence scored very low marks. Those who did possess a good basic knowledge of soil degradation wavered on the evaluation part. There were some responses that ignored the question completely and wrote about deforestation.