NATURAL RESOURCES

NATURAL RESOURCES

The materials useful to the living organisms and present in the natural environment are called natural resources. The natural resources may be physical (e.g., air, water, minerals, coal) or biological (e.g., microbes, plants, animals).

Characteristic of Natural Resources

Natural resources are those living or non-living substances available in the normal environment which are being exploited for supporting life and meeting human requirements.

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Some examples of natural resources are:

• Land and soil resources – It includes urbanization, soil fertility, etc.
• Fresh water resources – These include water for drinking, washing, water for irrigation and hydro electricity generation, etc.
• Marine or ocean resources – Common salt, edible algae, food fish, corals, pearls, etc.
• Forest and wildlife resources
• Fossil fuels and other energy resources
• Flora and fauna

Types of natural resources

Depending upon its abundance and availability, natural resources are of two types: Inexhaustible resources

These are the resources which are unlimited in quantity and are not likely to be exhausted by human use. Example – solar energy, air, tidal energy, etc.

Exhaustible resources

These are the resources which are limited and are likely to be finished by human use. They are further of two kinds:

• Renewable resources: These resources have the ability to maintain themselves or can be replaced if managed wisely. For example, water, soil, living things like crops, forests, etc. However, they too may be lost by excessive and unwise use.
• Non-renewable resources: The non-renewable resources are lost forever as they are not restored. These include metallic minerals, fossil fuels (coal, petroleum), etc.

Management of Natural Resourses

Continuous increase in human population and unending desire of man has resulted into increasing demand for natural resources. Utilization and exploitation of resources has caused ecological crisis resulting in the depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution and has threatened the life of man on earth. The concept of management of natural resources by sustainable development encourages forms of growth that meet current basic human needs, while preserving the resources for the needs of future generations. For instance, even while making everyday choices, we can make environment friendly decisions. The three R’s can help to save the environment.

• Reduce

This means you use less. When we save electricity by switching off unnecessary lights and fans, we reduce its use.

• Recycle

Certain articles like plastic, paper, glass, metals can be recycled instead of making them fresh. For this, we need to segregate our wastes so that the material to be recycled is not dumped along with other wastes.

• Reuse

This is better than recycling because the process of recycling uses some energy. For example, the plastic bottles in which we buy certain food-items can be used for storing things in the kitchen.

So, for doing these, we need to know more about how our choices affect the environment which may be immediate or long-term. It depends upon the willingness of the people to change their perceptions of the socio-economic and environmental conditions around them, and the readiness of each individual to alter their present use of natural resources.