Renewable resources and non- Renewable
resources
Renewable resources
Renewable resources are resources that can be regenerated fairly rapidly through natural processes. Several examples of the Renewable resources are showed as follows.
Timber
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.
The Importance
of timber to human
Humans depend very
much on timber for their well-being. The wood consumed by humans can be divided
into industrial wood and fuel wood. Industrially, people make use of timber for
construction, making furniture, and manufacturing of paper for education and
communication purposes.
Fish
Water covers about
70% of the surface 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 are important in
supplying humans with food; the important ones are fish.
The Importance
of fish to humans
The earliest use
of the oceans by humans was probably for food. People living along the oceans
captured fishes and other organisms for consumption. Fishes are an important
element of the human food supply. They account for roughly one-fifth of all
animals’ proteins in human diet. Around a billion people in the world rely on
fishes are tuna, salmon and sea bass. They are commonly consumed by humans in
different countries. Marine fishing is an important human activity. It supports
the living of about 200 million employees in related globally.
Non- Renewable resources
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 scale. A example of
non-renewable resources are discussed below.
Fossil
fuel
There are three major forms of
fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. All three were formed many hundreds of
millions of years ago before the time of the dinosaurs - hence the name fossil
fuels. The age they were formed is called the Carboniferous Period. It was part
of the Paleozoic Era. "Carboniferous" gets its name from carbon, the
basic element in coal and other fossil fuels. The
Carboniferous Period occurred from about 360 to 286 million years ago. At the
time, the land was covered with swamps filled with huge trees, ferns and other
large leafy plants, similar to the picture above. The water and seas were
filled with algae - the green stuff that forms on a stagnant pool of water.
Algae are actually millions of very small plants.
Some deposits of coal can be found during the
time of the dinosaurs. For example, thin carbon layers can be found during the
late Cretaceous Period (65 million years ago) - the time of Tyrannosaurus
Rex. But the main deposits of fossil fuels are from the Carboniferous
Period. For more about the various geologic eras, go to www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html
As the trees and plants died, they sank to the bottom of the
swamps of oceans. They formed layers of a spongy material call peat. Over many
hundreds of years, the peat was covered by sand and clay and other minerals,
which turned into a type of rock called sedimentary. More and more rock piled on top of more rock, and it weighed more and
more. It began to press down on the peat. The peat was squeezed and squeezed
until the water came out of it and it eventually, over millions of years, it turned into coal, oil or petroleum, and natural
gas.
The importance of
fossil fuel to humans
The coal
FOR
ELECTRIC POWER
Power plants burn coal to make steam. The steam turns turbines which generate electricity. Electric utility companies use
over 80% of the coal mined in the
FOR
INDUSTRY
A variety of industries use coal's heat and
by-products. Separated ingredients of coal (such as methanol and ethylene) are
used in making plastics, tar, synthetic fibers, fertilizers, and medicines. The
concrete and paper industries also burn large amounts of coal. Industrial
consumers use over six percent of the coal mined in the
FOR
MAKING STEEL
Coal is baked in hot furnaces to make coke, which is used to smelt iron ore
into iron needed for making steel. It is the very high temperatures created
from the use of coke that gives steel the strength and versatility for products
such as bridges, buildings, and automobiles.
FOR
EXPORT
The United States is the world's 4th largest coal exporter, after
The natural gas and
petroleum
Natural
gas and petroleum are an essential raw material for many common products, such
as: paints , fertilizer, plastics, antifreeze, dyes,
photographic film, medicines, and explosives. We also get propane, a fuel we use in many of our
backyard barbecue grills, when we process natural gas.
Industry
depends on it. Natural gas and petroleum have thousands of uses. It's
used to produce steel, glass, paper, clothing, brick, electricity and much
more!
Homes
use it too. More than 61.9 million homes use natural gas to fuel stoves,
furnaces, water heaters, clothes dryers and
other household appliances. It is also used to roast coffee, smoke meats,
bake bread and much more.
The right attitudes
of using natural resources
Saving Fossil Fuels
Fossil fuels take millions of years to make.
We are using up the fuels that were made more than 300 million years ago before
the time of the dinosaurs. Once they are gone they are gone.
So, it's best to not waste fossil fuels. They
are not renewable; they can't really be made again. We can save fossil fuels by
conserving energy.
Reducing
the exploitation of fish and timber
As timber and fish
are important but limited resources in our lives, over-exploitation will
acutely affect our lives. We should use and save these resources carefully.