Natural Resources | its category | how to control it?

  - Natural Resources

           The term resource refers to any source of supply that is kept in reserve. Natural resources are the resources that are found in nature and are used by the human beings to support and sustain life. For example, Sun ,(ultimate source of energy), water, soil, etc. 

 Natural resources are classified on the basis of their availability and time taken for them to be replenished. Based on these criteria, natural resource are classified into the following. 

     1- Renewable resources

     2- Non-renewable resources 

  1- Renewable Resources

         Renewable resources are the ones which get replenished or restocked naturally through cycles within an adequate time frame. For example, sun, soil,water, wind, wildlife, forest, etc. 

Renewable reign are also called perpetual resources or exhaustible resources because of their continuous availability and ability to last billions of years. However, certain resources, such as water and forest, get exhausted if they are exploited too Rapidly to be replenished in adequate time interval through natural cycles. 

 Non-renewable Resources

        Non-renewable resources are the ones which cannot replenished or restocked within an adequate. For example, coal, petroleum, natural gas, etc. 

Non-renewable resources are called exhaustible resources because they cannot be easily replenished once they are lost. 

 Depletion of Natural Resources

      Coal and petroleum are formed from the dead remains of plant and animals buried under the Earth for millions of years. They are still being formed under the Earth, however, the rate of their formation is significantly low. 

As there have been immense technological advancements taking place in the world, a lot of it comes at the cost of exploiting our natural resources. Increase in population and hence, increase in demand for resources has put a tremendous pressure on the resources available to us. The rate at which they are being exploited has reached an alarming level that their restoration within adequate timeframe is threatened. Moreover, the ever-increasing demand for land has been leading to excessive deforestation which has further reduced their availability. 

Fossil Fuels 

      Fossil fuels are formed within the earth's crust from the buried plants and animals over period of millions of years. Fossils fuels include coal, petroleum, natural gas, etc. All of them essentially contain carbon. 

   Coal 

      Coal is a fossil fuel formed from the remains of plant that lived and died about 100-400 millions years ago. All living plants absorb light energy from the sun through photosynthesis. After the plant die, this energy is released as the plants decay. Under conditions favourable to coal formation. The decay process is distributed, preventing the further release  of the stored solar energy. Depending on the carbon content, coal is classified into the following types. 

   • Anthracite: contains about 95% carbon. 

   • Bituminous: contains 65-80% carbon. 

   • Sub-bituminous: contains 30-35% carbon. 

   • Lignite: contains 25-30% carbon. 

 Uses of coal

     Coal has a number of uses in the industry sector. It was used extensively during industrial revolution. It is used in steel production, power generation, as source of steam energy, etc. 

 Petroleum 

     The term 'petroleum' is derived from from combination of two Latin terms :petra meaning rock and oleum meaning oil. Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black coloured liquid found beneath the Earth's surface crude oil is refined to give useful products as mentioned in table

 Petroleum products and it's uses

Petroleum :- uses for home and industries

Petrol :- Automobile and aviation fuel

Kerosene :- Fuels for stoves

Diesel :- Heavy- motor vehicle and generator fuel

Lubricating oil :- Lubrication

Paraffin Wax :- Candles, Vaseline, etc. 

Bitumen :- Paints and building roads

 

Conservation of fossil fuels

     Given the variety of ways in which fossil fuels are used by humans, they have become indispensable for our day to day life. However as fossil fuels are non- renewable resources, their conservation is of urgent need. They can be conserved in the following ways. 

  • Use of alternative sources of energy

  • Use of biogas to generate electricity

  • Judicial use of Electricity

  • Using fuel- efficient vehicles like ines that run on CNG

Forests 

   Forests is a large area that is predominantly occupied by trees. Forests are the lungs of the Earth and are essential for continuity of life. They are am important renewable resource. However, their status is threatened due to their depletion at a fast rate. In the section given below, we shall take a look at importance and conservation of forests. 

Importance of Trees

 • We daily make use of chairs to sit, paper to make notes, tissue to clean our hands after  a meal, etc. In most of our activities, we depend on forests in an unthinkable number of ways. The importance of trees can be realised with the help of following points. 

 • The first and foremost need for having forests is the maintenance of oxygen- carbon dioxide balance. As we know that plants take in carbon dioxide and give us oxygen through the process of photosynthesis.

 • Plants release water vapours into the atmosphere through the process of transpiration. This helps in continuous movement of water cycle which helps to maintain optimum level of water in nature. 

 • Trees give us fruits which are an important source of nutrition

 • Forests are home/habitats to an abundant number of biodiversity of plants and animals 

 • Forests act as buffers during natural disasters like floods. 

Deforestation

   Deforestation is the cutting down of trees at a large scale over a short period of time. The over- exploitation of forests for most of the ecosystem and humanity as we heavily depends on forests for most of the ecological services. Following are the mains causes of deforestation. 

  • Mining 

  • Infrastructure

  • Pulp plantation 

  • Forest fires

  • Small- and large- scale agriculture

Conservation of Forests

   The following methods can be adopted to conserve forests. 

 • Afforestation:- It is the practice of establishing a forest in an area which did not have any previous tree covers. 

  • Sensible cutting of trees :- It is important that trees are cut down judiciously in order to fulfil human needs. New trees should be planted for the compensation of cut- down trees. 

 • Silviculture :- It is the execution of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forsts to meet diverse needs. 

 • Awareness :- Society should be made aware of the importance of forest and threads associated with their depletion. Society should be encouraged to make environment- friendly choices. 

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