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Week 7 EnviSci Lecture

We depend on natural resources like food, water, and energy in our daily lives. However, resources are either renewable and can replenish themselves or non-renewable and finite. Advances in technology have enabled greater exploitation of resources, sometimes unsustainably like overfishing. Overexploitation can damage ecosystems since components rely on each other. One problem is deforestation from clearing land for agriculture and materials, steadily reducing forest area. The use of renewable versus non-renewable resources is also critical for energy, as fossil fuels are limited and cause climate change while renewables like wind and solar do not deplete their source.

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15 views

Week 7 EnviSci Lecture

We depend on natural resources like food, water, and energy in our daily lives. However, resources are either renewable and can replenish themselves or non-renewable and finite. Advances in technology have enabled greater exploitation of resources, sometimes unsustainably like overfishing. Overexploitation can damage ecosystems since components rely on each other. One problem is deforestation from clearing land for agriculture and materials, steadily reducing forest area. The use of renewable versus non-renewable resources is also critical for energy, as fossil fuels are limited and cause climate change while renewables like wind and solar do not deplete their source.

Uploaded by

silvestregianneb
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES

We use many different types of natural resources in our daily lives. We


depend on food and water for survival, and we need energy for many different
purposes, from domestic cooking through to major industrial processes. Our
need for resources is vast, and it is growing as the population increases and
consumption per person increases with socio-economic progress. Depletion of
natural resources by extraction and exploitation is especially of concern for non-
renewable resources. The resources we use can be classified as renewable or
non-renewable. The fundamental difference between the two is the rate at which
they are regenerated back into a usable form, relative to how humans use them.
Non-renewable resources cannot be replenished by natural means as quickly
as the rate at which they are consumed, unlike renewable resources it
continually regenerated in a short timescale by natural processes.
Advances in technology have increased natural resource exploitation by
enabling people to reach new resources and exploit more per capita resources
(per person). For example, fishers who use traditional technologies such as small
boats are limited in the number of fish they can catch. Modern industrial fishing
fleets use huge ships covering huge ocean areas at greater depths to catch much
more fish. It can lead to overfishing, which means catching fish at a faster rate
than they can reproduce.
Overfishing and other examples of over-exploitation of natural resources
can damage or lose our entire ecosystem. An ecosystem includes all the living
organisms (humans, plants, animals, micro-organisms) and their physical
environment (soil, water, air, land) and their interactions. If one component of
the system is removed, this can have knock-on effects on the other parts of the
system. One particular problem caused by the over-exploitation of natural
resources is deforestation, which occurs when forest areas are cleared, and the
trees are not replanted or allowed to regrow.
In some countries, clearing land for agriculture to meet the growing
population’s food needs and the demand for fuel and construction materials has
resulted in a steady loss of forest area, which is continuing, as you can see in
figure 1.
The use of renewable or non-renewable resources is a critical factor when
considering energy resources. Fossil fuels have been the main energy source for
global industrialization, but because they are non-renewable, the quantity is
ultimately limited, and their use is not sustainable over the long term.
Furthermore, the burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change.
There are several renewable alternatives to fossil fuels, like the wood used
as a fuel is renewable because trees will regrow, but there are other
disadvantages such as deforestation. Windfarms are harnessing wind power to
generate electricity, and hydroelectric power is a renewable source because it
uses the energy of flowing water but does not use up the water in the process.
Another renewable energy source is solar power, using photovoltaic cells that
convert the sun’s energy into electricity.
Water resources. Water is not an endlessly renewable resource. In many
parts of the world, water demand is significantly above a sustainable water
supply. Sustainable water supply means there are adequate supplies, in both
quality and quantity, to meet people’s current and future needs and the
environment. Many countries are already experiencing water stress or scarcity,
which refers to the volume of water available relative to the use and demand for
it linked to the population served. Increasing water demand leads to
unsustainable use of water resources. The water cycle water supply’s actions are
replenished, but taking excessive amounts of water from rivers and groundwater
for domestic, industrial, and agricultural use decreases the amount of water
available for current and future generations. Agriculture and energy production
all generate wastes that can pollute the air, water, and soil. Pollution means
introducing the environment to substances liable to cause harm to humans and
other living organisms. For example, the leather industry produces large
amounts of liquid wastes from the tanning process. These wastes contain organic
materials such as fat from the hides and toxic (poisonous) chemicals, including
some human carcinogens (cancercausing agents). Another example is the release
of so-called greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous
oxide, contributing to human-induced climate change.
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