Karen Chan 6S 22

2 Human exploitation of natural resources has modified the environment. Give examples of renewable and non-renewable resources. What are the appropriate attitudes and practice in the wise use of our natural resources?

Natural resources refer to all materials in nature that are required by humans for their well-beings. In other words, humans are totally dependent on natural resources for survival. Natural resources are customarily classified into renewable resources and non-renewable resources.

Renewable resources are resources that can be regenerated rapidly through natural processes. Theoretically, these resources are renewed naturally and are always available. However, if the rates of use exceed the rates of renewal, the resources will become depleted. Three of the renewable resources: timber, fish and fresh water.

Timber is a very useful raw material in our daily lives. We obtain timber by removing forests in various parts of the world. Forests cover about 25% of the land surfaces on the earth. They have a special role in the conservation of biodiversity and provide homes for more than half of the world’s plant and animal species.

As timber is very important to human, we need to go conservation of it. We should have good forest management to increase the rate of regeneration of timber and reduce the rate of destruction of forest. In addition, afforestation is very important to increase the amount of forest i.e. the planting of trees. We can also reduce ht consumption of timber.

Water covers about 70%of the surface of the earth. This huge biological system comprises very diverse habitats and very great biodiversity. The oceans are very important for human existence. It is a regulator of atmospheric composition and a site for nutrient cycling. The oceans, of course, are important in supplying humans with food; the most important ones are fish.

Governments are taking up more and more roles in the management of fishing activities, to maintain the fish resources. Fishermen should adopt some concepts and practices. For example, by-catch and under-sized fishes, use of heavy bottom-trawl gears. Consumers can exert their influence by buying only fish with labeling or other forms of information about the sources.

Although water is abundant on the earth, most of it is unavailable for human use due to salinity or unreliability. Only less than 3% of water on earth is fresh water, and about three-quarters of which is tied up in glaciers, ice caps, and snowfields. Nevertheless, ground water is another important source of fresh water. It is held underground in porous, water-bearing layers of sand, gravel and rocks.

Non-renewable resources are resources that are limited in availability. They are fixed in total quantity in the earth’s crust and are not replenished by natural processes in short time scales. Notable examples include fossil fuels. They are essential for humans for various purposes. If these materials continue to be extracted rapidly, their exhaustion will be speeded up. Thus, wise utilization of non-renewable resources and the adoption of substitutions of these resources are essential.

Fossil fuels include petroleum, coal and natural gas. They are formed from the fossilized remains of prehistoric organisms. The processes of formation take millions of years and thus fossil fuels are regarded as non-renewable resources.

A mineral resource is an inorganic substance that has a definite chemical composition. Geologists have discovered over 3000 different types of minerals. Minerals, such as iron, copper, lead, tin, aluminium and gold, are non-renewable resources. They are extracted from ores and converted to different forms for use. The ores cannot be replenished after extraction.

The ways to solve the problems of the exploitation of the non-renewable resources is recycling and reusing them.

Renewable and non-renewable resources are very important to us. So we need to treasure all of these resources. Many of them cannot rebuild with a short period so we should not waste any of the resources and limit the amount of using them.