الوسم: Resources

Introduction:
Natural Resources…did you know that natural resources make-up the world around us? They are the AIR we breathe, the SOIL we walk on, the WATER we drink, the PLANTS we enjoy, the WIND that blows, the ANIMAL LIFE surrounding us and the SUN that warms our world, the gasoline that runs our cars and the minerals that we use in industry. Some of these resources are renewable and the others aren’t. Let’s know more through this report.
What is the difference between renewable and non- renewable resources?
Renewable resources:
A natural resource that can be used to benefit people and can then be replaced for other people to enjoy is called a renewable resource. Solar radiation, tides, winds and hydroelectricity are perpetual resources that are in no danger of long-term availability. Renewable resources may also mean commodities such as wood, paper, and leather, if harvesting is performed in a sustainable manner.
Non-renewable resources:
Natural resource, such as coal, oil, or natural gas that takes millions of years to form naturally and therefore cannot be replaced once it is consumed; it will eventually be used up. The main energy sources used by humans are non-renewable. Non-renewable resources have high carbon content because their origin lies in the photosynthetic activity of plants millions of years ago.
Examples of Non-renewable resources:
Mineral resources:
A mineral, by definition, is any naturally occurring, inorganic substance, often additionally characterized by an exact crystal structure. Its chemical structure can be exact, or can vary within limits. Elements that occur naturally are also considered minerals. Mineral resources are those economic mineral concentrations which have undergone enough scrutiny to quantify their contained metal to a certain degree. None of these resources are ore, because the economics of the mineral deposit may not have been fully evaluated.
Fossil fuel:
Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fossil source fuels, that is, carbon or hydrocarbons found in the earth’s crust. Fossil fuel range from volatile materials with low carbon: hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Fossil fuels are formed from the preserved remains of organisms including phytoplankton and zooplankton that have settled to the sea (or lake) bottom in large quantities under anoxic conditions. Fossil fuel resources includes: coal, natural gas, diesel and petroleum derivatives.
Examples of renewable resources:
Water resources:
Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful to humans. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water.
97.5% of water on the Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water of which over two thirds is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen fresh water is mainly found as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air.
Fresh water is a renewable resource, yet the world’s supply of clean, fresh water is steadily decreasing. Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world and as the world population continues to rise, so too does the water demand. Awareness of the global importance of preserving water for ecosystem services has only recently emerged as, during the 20th century, more than half the world’s wetlands have been lost along with their valuable environmental services.
Trees resources:
Trees are also very important for us as a renewable resource. Trees are a natural resource that can be renewed – by the planting of trees – replacing the trees that are harvested for use by people. We depend on forest products for things like the wood we burn for heat and the wood we use to make houses and furniture. We use trees for the paper to make books and letters we write. Actually, there are more than 5,000 things made from trees. Trees give us baseball bats, shoe polish, and even tooth paste that comes from tree extracts.
Today, the people and companies that manage our nation’s forests recognize that trees are a valuable resource and that it is in the best interest of each of us to conserve them.
Solar resources:

Solar energy is the energy derived directly from the Sun. Along with nuclear energy; it is the most abundant source of energy on Earth. The fastest growing type of alternative energy, increasing at 50 percent a year, is the photovoltaic cell, which converts sunlight directly into electricity. The Sun yearly delivers more than 10,000 times the energy that humans currently use. A partial list of solar applications includes space heating and cooling through solar architecture, potable water via distillation and disinfection, day lighting, hot water, thermal energy for cooking, and high temperature process heat for industrial purposes.
Wind power:
Wind power is derived from uneven heating of the Earth’s surface from the Sun and the warm core. Most modern wind power is generated in the form of electricity by converting the rotation of turbine blades into electrical current by means of an electrical generator. In windmills (a much older technology) wind energy is used to turn mechanical machinery to do physical work, like crushing grain or pumping water.

Why renewable resources are the best choice?

There are lots of reasons to use natural renewable resources! Two good reasons are suggested by the name.
First, natural renewable resources are good to use because they are renewable.
Let’s think about the gasoline we use in cars. Gasoline is a non-renewable resource, which means that we’re going to run out! Someday, there won’t be any gasoline left. We’ll have to think of something else to use to run our cars!
Now let’s think about trees and wood. Wood is a renewable resource. So long as we take good care of the forests, we will never run out of wood!
This brings us to an important point. You can’t just use renewable resources any old way you want to and think it will always come back! You have to manage your renewable resources! Managing resources just means taking care of them.
For instance, managing forests and trees means that you have to take care of forest soils and water, harvest the trees correctly, and most times replant the trees you took.

Conclusion:

Nature around us provides us all of things that we need, but we continue destroying and
Using it without wisdom. We must think about the following generations so we must keep these resources by managing the usage of them. If we do this we can insure that our life will be empty of problems.

Resources:
1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_resource
2-www.scs.sk.ca/vol/grades/gr7/renewable_resources.htm – 27k
3-www.springer.com/earth+sciences/hydrogeology/journal/11268 – 32k
4-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_resource_classification
5-http://www.kidsface.org/pages/resource.html