Since life arose on earth, all organisms, including human beings, have depended on the things that exist freely in nature to survive. These essential things include elements such as water, sunlight, soils, forests, plants, animals, etc. Other things present in nature have also been used for our benefit, for example, to materials to manufacture tools, clothing, medicines and, in general, anything else that contributes to our development.
Do you want to know more about what natural resources are and what profits have? Maybe also know about the types of natural resources that exist? You will discover it throughout this illustrative ecology article about What is the importance of natural resources. We hope you enjoy it!
What are natural resources and what are they for
The resources of which nature provides us They are called natural resources and play a fundamental role in the environment and in our society. We can define them as the Material goods and services which provides nature without being altered by the human being and that they are valuable for human societies and the environment that surrounds them.
The Useful of natural resources It is, therefore, Sustain life and contribute to well -being and development, either directly (minerals, food and other raw materials) or indirect (ecological services). It is clear, consequently, the great Economic and social importance of natural resourcessince these have allowed society to be as it is currently and those that will allow it to remain the same or better, as long as good use of them is made.
There are several ways to classify natural resources, but what matters most to us is to know if we and the next generations can continue to use them and how to manage them, the most appropriate and functional classification is what distinguishes between non -renewable resources and renewable resources. We will examine them below.
The importance of non -renewable natural resources
We begin with the definition of non -renewable resources. The non -renewable or exhaustible resources They are the natural resources that cannot be produced, cultivated, regenerating or reusing at a pace that can endure its consumption rate by people. That is, the consumption of non -renewable resources is superior to the time it takes for nature to recreate or replace them, or exist in fixed quantities.
The Importance of non -renewable natural resources It resides in the scope of its use as raw materials and energy sources. The most used as energy sources are fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil) and radioactive elements that give rise to nuclear energy. As raw materials we can mention, for example, the minerals and some rocks (used, for example, in construction) such as limestone, although many oil derivatives have uses not intended to generate energy, for example, plastics, synthetic fibers, paintings, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. All these non -renewable resources are very present in our day to day, our society has grown using them, however, they have their disadvantages. We will see them later.
If you want to learn more about what are non -renewable resources and examples, here you can find an article about it.
The importance of renewable natural resources
Unlike non -renewable resources, renewable resources can restore their levels by natural processes at a speed higher than that of consumption by human beings and, consequently, are not exhausted.
What are renewable resources for? Renewable resources play an essential role in the maintenance of life, since sunlight, as well as air, water, soil, etc., are basic for it to exist. We also have the agricultural resourcesthat allow us to supply and also feed our cattle or livestock resources. In addition, we also have for our food with Fisheries resources And we use forest resources to, among other things, obtain firewood, wood or resins. However, the single presence of forest resources gives us a series of ecological services of incalculable value: they house high biodiversity, they set CO2, store water and prevent droughts and floods, prevent erosion, etc.
In addition, we can use some of these renewable resources such as Energy sources. Thus, we can benefit from the wind energy provided by the wind, of the solar energy of our nearest star and the potential energy that drives water on its path from the mountains to the sea (hydroelectric energy). Other renewable and low environmental impact energies are: the energy of biomass, geothermal energy, mareomotriz and that can provide hydrogen as fuel (the abundance of hydrogen is such that it can be considered an “eternal” fuel).
To learn more about these, here you can read about what renewable resources and examples are. In addition, below you can watch a video about natural resources to have more information.
Consequences of the overexploitation of natural resources
We commented previously that Non -renewable resources They had some disadvantages and are associated with their Excessive use or overexploitation. The most obvious is that they are resources that will be exhausted and that, therefore, we will have to replace before this happens so that society does not paralyze. The other disadvantage is that there is a great risk caused by its combustion, with which gases and particles are generated that increase pollution (problem that directly affects our quality of life). But the most significant is the large amount of CO2 that is emitted to the atmosphere in this combustion, contributing to the increase in the greenhouse effect and climate change.
As to Renewable resourceswe must be very careful so that they continue to be. If we make a massive or uncontrolled use of them, they could cease to be renewable. Let’s look at some examples:
- Water has in nature a capacity for self -decuration, but if we contaminate it and do not treat it later we correctly risk not being able to access water resources as a basic resource for survival. We recommend this other post on why water is a renewable but limited resource.
- Something similar occurs with the air we breathe in the cities, especially when we have for several days conditions of much atmospheric stability and neither the rain nor the wind contribute to the “cleanliness” of the atmosphere.
- Fishing resources are also vulnerable to overexploitation, reaching some cases to the disappearance of some species in certain marine ecosystems. Therefore, fishing must be properly regulated.
- They also suffer from overexploitation forest resources when millions of hectares are deforested for cultivation, grazing, obtaining wood and urban development, until they reduce them to a third of their original surface.
After learning all this about the importance of natural resources, we encourage you to read these other ecology articles about the causes and consequences of the overexploitation of natural resources (you can also see the video below that deals with this issue), the conservation of natural resources and how to take care of natural resources.
If you want to read more articles similar to What is the importance of natural resourceswe recommend that you enter our category of other environment.
