Introduction To Natural Resources

Introduction To Natural Resources (NR)

Ever since the earth was inhabited, humans and other life forms have depended on things that exist freely in nature to survive. These things include water (seas and fresh water), land, soils, rocks, forests (vegetation), animals (including fish), fossil fuels and minerals. They are called Natural Resources and are the basis of life on earth.

All these mentioned above are natural, and they exist in nature. No human created them. We tap into their supply to survive and also to function properly. Natural resources are all connected in a way. Therefore if one is taken away, it will affect the supply or quality of all others. For example, if water is eliminated from an area, the vegetation, soils, animals and even the air in that area will be affected negatively.

Below is a simple illustration of some great things that we get from some natural resources.
Natural resources can be consumed directly or indirectly. For instance, humans depend directly on forests for food, biomass, health, recreation and increased living comfort. Indirectly forests act as climate control, flood control, storm protection and nutrient cycling.

Raw materials
Sometimes, natural resources can be used asraw materials to produce something. For instance, we can use a tree from the forest to produce timber. The timber is then used to produce wood for furniture or pulp for paper and paper products. In this scenario, the tree is the raw material.

Every item in your home was made from a raw material that came from a natural resource. The tea mug, electricity at home, bread, clothes, you name them: each of them came from a natural resource.

Natural resources come in many forms. It may be a solid, liquid or gas. It may also be organic or inorganic. It may also be metallic or non-metallic. It may be renewable or non-renewable. Click next to see what each category is made up of.



Types of Natural Resources

All Natural Resources fall under two main categories:Renewable and Non-renewable Resources. The table below will help us understand this better.
Renewable resources
Renewable resources are those that are constantly available (like water) or can be reasonably replaced or recovered, like vegetative lands. Animals are also renewable because with a bit of care, they can reproduce offsprings to replace adult animals. Even though some renewable resources can be replaced, they may take many years and that does not make them renewable.

If renewable resources come from living things, (such as trees and animals) they can be calledorganic renewable resources.

If renewable resources come from non-living things, (such as water, sun and wind) they can be calledinorganic renewable resources.

Non-renewable resources
Non-renewable resources are those that cannot easily be replaced once they are destroyed. Examples include fossil fuels. Minerals are also non-renewable because even though they form naturally in a process called the rock cycle, it can take thousands of years, making it non-renewable. Some animals can also be considered non-renewable, because if people hunt for a particular species without ensuring their reproduction, they will be extinct. This is why we must ensure that we protect resources that are endangered.

Non-renewable resources can be called inorganic resources if they come from non-living things. Examples include include, minerals, wind, land, soil and rocks.

Some non-renewable resources come from living things — such as fossil fuels. They can be called organic non-renewable resources.

Metallic and Non-metallic Resources
Inorganic resources may be metallic or non-metallic. Metallic minerals are those that have metals in them. They are harder, shiny, and can be melted to form new products. Examples are iron, copper and tin. Non-metallic minerals have no metals in them. They are softer and do not shine. Examples include clay and coal.




Why are Natural Resources so important?

Natural resources are available to sustain the very complex interaction between living things and non-living things. Humans also benefit immensely from this interaction. All over the world, people consume resources directly or indirectly. Developed countries consume resources more than under-developed countries.

The world economy uses around 60 billion tonnes of resources each year to produce the goods and services which we all consume. On the average, a person in Europe consumes about 36kg of resources per day; a person in North America consumes about 90kg per day, a person in Asia consumes about 14kg and a person in Africa consumes about 10kg of resources per day.

In what form do people consume natural resources? The three major forms include Food and drink, Housing and infrastructure, and Mobility. These three make up more than 60% of resource use.

Food and drink:
This includes agricultural products as well as naturally occurring foods such as game, fish from fresh water and seas, seeds and nuts, medicines, herbs and plants. They also include drinking water, as well as water for sanitation and household use. Think of ceramic plates, silverware (spoons, forks and knives), cans, milk packages, paper and plastic cups — they are all made from raw materials which come from our natural resources.

Mobility:
This includes automobiles, trains, water vessels, airplanes, together with all the fuel that powers them. Can you imagine where all the raw materials used in their production came from?

Housing and infrastructure:
Think about all the houses, public places, roads and constructed objects you have in your city or town. Think about all the energy for heating and cooling that we consume in our homes — can you imagine where all the wood, metals, plastic, stone and other materials came from?

Beyond these three major areas of resource consumption, we consume much more resources from our environment on a daily basis. The role of natural resources in sustaining life on earth is extremely important and we must ensure that we protect the environment and also make it easy for it to replenish itself naturally.




Distribution of Natural Resources

Natural resources are not evenly distributed all over the world. Some places are more endowed that others — for instance, some regions have lots of water (and access to ocean and seas). Others have lots of minerals and forestlands. Others have metallic rocks, wildlife, fossil fuels and so on.

For example, The US has the world's largest coal reserves with 491 billion short tons accounting for 27% of the world's total. Australia is the world's largest net exporter of coal accounting for 29% of global coal exports

China remains the largest producer of gold with a 14% share of the global production.
The United States, Russia, and Canada are the leading producers of timber and pulp. Annual exports of primary and secondary wood products from tropical forests have exceeded US$ 20 billion in recent years and further increases are anticipated.

Many countries have developed their economies by using their natural resources. Some also get a lot of income from their resources in the form of tourism and recreation. Brazil and Peru for example, make a lot of money from The Amazon Forests, which is super diverse in trees and animals.

Crude oil is another important natural resource. From Crude oil, we get many petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and gas. We use these to fuel our cars and provide energy to warm and cool our homes. But Crude oil is not evenly distributed all over the world. Below is an illustration of how much each region of the world produces.



International and local trade has its roots in the fact that resources are not evenly distributed on the earth’s surface. Regions with crude oil can drill oil and sell to regions without oil, and also buy resources such as timber and precious metals (gold, diamonds and silver) from other regions that have them in abundance.

The uneven distribution is also the root of power and greed in many regions. Some countries use their wealth in resources to control and manipulate regions with fewer resources. Some countries and regions have even gone to war over the management, ownership, allocation, use and protection of natural resources and related ecosystems.




Threats to Natural Resources

A. Overpopulation
This is probably the most significant, single threat that natural resources face. The world’s population is increasing at a very fast rate. In the USA, a baby is born every 8 seconds, and a person dies every 13 seconds The increase in populations mean there will be pressure on almost all natural resources. How?
Land Use: With more mouths to feed and people to house, more land will need to be cultivated and developed for housing. More farming chemicals will be applied to increase food production. Many forest or vegetative lands will be converted to settlements for people, roads and farms. These have serious repercussions on natural resources.

Forests: Demand for wood (timber), food, roads and forest products will be more. People will therefore use more forest resources than they can naturally recover.

Fishing: Fresh water and sea food will face problems too as we will continue to depend heavily on them. Bigger fishing companies are going deeper into sea to catch fish in even larger quantities. Some of the fishing methods they use are not sustainable, thereby destroying much more fish and sea creatures in the process.

Need for more: Human's demand for a comfortable life means more items (communication, transport, education, entertainment and recreation) will need to be produced. This means more industrial processes and more need for raw materials and natural resources.

B. Climate Change
The alteration in climate patterns as a result of excessive anthropogenic is hurting biodiversity and many other abiotic natural resources. Species that have acclimatized to their environments may perish and others will have to move to more favorable conditions to survive.

C. Environmental Pollution
Land, water and air pollution directly affect the health of the environments in which they occur. Pollution affects the chemical make-up of soils, rocks, lands, ocean water, freshwater and underground water, and other natural phenomena. This often has catastrophic consequences.