9. With time, as the world developed and the lifestyle of humans got more complex, our need for natural resources also kept increasing. Today, we have reached a point
where there are many threats to our natural resources.
Threatto
natural
resources
LossOf Coral
Reefs
Habitatlossof
species
Deforestation
Overpopulation
Climate
change
Environmental
pollution
10. Climatechanges:
Changes like severe rains leading to flooding or the kind of forest fires we see in California, US from the
pastfewyearsareallduetoclimatechange.
Climatechangeaffectsournaturalresourcesin thefollowingways:
Our glaciers are melting faster than ever. This is going to increase the sea level, which will further affect
thelowlyingareasandfloodthem.
Extreme events like hurricanes, forest fires will disturb crop cycles, and we might see the failure of
agriculturalcrops.. Overpopulation
• As more and more people need houses to live in, more forests are cut down for wood, food and clear land.
However, the land on Earth is finite, so over-exploitation of these resources is helping climate change in
return,andit is becominga toxiccycle.
• Thedemandforresourceslikefish,poultryanimals,freshproduceincreases.
• New industries keep coming up, or older ones become bigger and bigger. This leads to industrialization and
moredeforestation.
• Sincethedemandis moreandsupplyis limited,agriculturalpracticesbecomemoreintensive.
• They try to grow more produce in fewer resources by using fertilizers or chemicals. This creates severe
pollutioninournaturalresources.Landandwaterpollutioncreatenewthreatsto ournaturalresources
HabitatLossOf Species
Do you know, many species which existed in large numbers around 100 years ago are extinct
today?It’snot at allsafe forour planetwhen speciesgo extinctat thisspeed.
We know that, as in our family, we are all connected by blood; in an ecosystem, all animals are
connected too. One needs the other to survive as they have a unique food chain. If one species
gets affected, it can lead to a ripple effect and end up causing grave damage to our natural
resources.
11. EnvironmentalPollution
Pollutionleadsto the followingthreatsto our naturalresources:
•Land Pollution makes the soil low in productivity. It also makes it barren and infertile. So,
we can’tgrowgoodcropson it, andthisleadsto a shortageof food.
•Water pollution harms our aquatic ecosystem. Fishes and other marine animals find it
hardto breathe and slowly die as ourwaterbecomesacidic.
•Air pollution leads to several toxic gases in the air, which makes it hard to breathe in. We
willhave to wearmasksat alltimesif thisgoeson.
Deforestation
When forests are cut on a large scale to make way for human activities, it is called man-made deforestation. This type of
deforestationis a threattoournaturalresources.It is doneforthefollowingcauses:
Construction: As the need for new land keeps increasing, forests are cleared so that new buildings can be built on them.
Large areas of forests are sold to corporate houses to build their projects. Building roads and connecting different cities also
requireclearingoutforestssometimes.
Mining: As our need for natural resources like fuel is increasing; we need new ways to generate power. The whole world runs
onmineralresourceswhichcreatevariousformsof powerlikeelectricityandgasforourvehiclesetc.
Climate change affects the biodiversity of forests, and sometimes this also leads to the destruction of forests. Forests like
mangrovesandrainforestsget mostaffectedbyglobalwarming.
