Natural resources are materials found on Earth that are useful to humans. They include minerals, metals, water, and people's labor skills. Renewable resources can replenish themselves, like forests, but must be properly managed. Non-renewable resources like fossil fuels exist in finite quantities. Uranium extraction and use produces radioactive waste that remains hazardous for long periods, posing environmental issues around disposal. Rapid population growth and increased consumption have led to overexploitation of resources and changes in land use patterns, threatening natural ecosystems.

1. Natural Resources Essay
Natural Resources
A natural resource is defined as a natural material found on earth that is useful for humans in some
way. It is often processed of manufactured in order for it to meet the needs of a society. Resources
then differ spatially, as different people have different needs and therefore require different
resources, and temporally as a society grows and advances their needs will change and so to their
resources. Natural resources range from minerals and metals to people (their labor and skills).
(Kleeman 1997, Pashley 1996, Plant 1998)
In this response 2 major sample studies will be used, these are, water and energy (in the form of
uranium) on a variety of scales....show more content...
Renewability is then often dependent on proper management over time. Recyclable resources are
also renewable but can recycled indefinitely through reprocessing. These resources will not always
come back in the same form after undergoing recycling. Glass bottles can be recycled into furniture,
windows, ornaments, etc. Continuous resources are continually renewable. Solar energy will
always exist and can be harnessed and used without concern for recycling or replenishment time. It
can be said that it will never be finite and the supply will always be greater than the demand.
Question 3
Natural Resource: Uranium
A variety issues arise when uranium is found, extracted, processed, consumed, and disposed of.
Management strategies are in place to combat these issues.
Environmental Issues
The use of uranium produces waste has an impact on the environment. Waste produced is
radioactive and therefore hazardous, depending on the waste's level of radioactivity and half life it
will remain hazardous for a long period of time. The environmental issue effecting uranium is
waste disposal. The view below is from Pangia Resources, a US company that seeks to dispose of
nuclear waste in outback Australia. "nuclear waste is a problem that won't go away, that the best
known way of dealing with it is putting it somewhere in stable rocks, that these rocks must be away
from population centres"
(Campaign for a Nuclear Free Future – Update 17 Dec
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2. Unit 2 Natural Resources Research Paper
UNIT 2: Natural Resources 2.1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 RENEWABLE AND NON–RENEWABLE
RESOURCES 2.2.1 Natural resources and associated problems 2.2.2 Non–renewable resources 2.2.3
Renewable resources a. Forest Resources: Use and over–exploitation, deforestation, case studies.
Timber extraction, mining, dams and their effects on forests and tribal people b. Water Resources:
Use and over–utilisation of surface and ground water, floods, drought, conflicts over water, dams–
benefits and problems. c. Mineral Resources: Use and exploitation, environmental effects of
extracting and using mineral resources, case studies. 16 20 20 22 22 23 26 30 32 d. Food
Resources: World food problems, Changes in landuse by agriculture and grazing, Effects of modern
...show more content...
Large stretches of land such as forests, grasslands and wetlands have been converted into intensive
agriculture. Land has been taken for industry and 16 Environmental Studies for Undergraduate
Courses Chapter2.p65 16 4/9/2004, 5:07 PM the urban sectors. These changes have brought about
dramatic alterations in land–use patterns and rapid disappearance of valuable natural ecosystems.
The need for more water, more food, more energy, more consumer goods, is not only the result of a
greater population, but also the result of over–utilization of resources by people from the more
affluent societies, and the affluent sections of our own. Industrial development is aimed at meeting
growing demands for all consumer items. However, these consumer goods also generate waste in
ever larger quantities. The growth of industrial complexes has led to a shift of people from their
traditional, sustainable, rural way of life to urban centers that developed around industry. During the
last few decades, several small urban centers have become large cities, some have even become
giant mega–cities. This has increased the disparity between what the surrounding land can produce
and what the large number of increasingly consumer–oriented people in these areas of high
population density consume. Urban centers cannot exist without resources such as water from rivers
and lakes, food from agricultural areas, domestic animals from pasture lands and timber, fuel wood,
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3. Natural Resources Essay
Introduction
Natural resources are the elements that are found naturally and useful. Natural resources include
fuels, oil, natural gas, materials and timber. Natural resources could be renewable or non–renewable.
Renewable are those resources that are substituted in nature e.g. animals plants and forests.
Non–renewable are those resources that exist in set/limited/calculated amounts e.g. fossil fuels, coal
etc
Discussion
The Natural resources are playing a key role to support and enhance the economy. As far as theBrazil
concern, It is rich in natural resources and the new discovery(s) further fueling its growth and
development towards the prosperous economy and future.
Brazil is rich in the following natural resources such as: Metal...show more content...
Because "Brazil's success in selling raw materials and other basic products pushes up the real, which
makes other Brazilian exports less competitive and exposes industry to cheap imports, especially
from China. This is leading to talk of deindustrialization and "Dutch disease". We're competitive
where nature has helped." (Economist , 2007)
So far there is slight evidence of extensive deindustrialization. The exports share that are based on
natural resources raise between 1989 and 2005, but noticeably half of the profit came from petroleum
and making of medium & high technology goods that also augmented their shares somewhat.
According to the BNDES (national development bank) expressed that there was no wide–ranging
shift in production to those industries that are based upon natural–resources. Another belated
realization that fossil fuels overheat the earth, are managed by dodgy regimes and cost too much. In
January USA President George Bush announced an USA version of "ProГЎlcool". He wanted to cut
petrol utilization by 1/5th and has since done an agreement with President Lula to increase
production and utilization of ethanol globally. (Economist , 2007)
The USA is the global largest economy. According to the CIA World Fact book, 2007 GDP is
thought to 13.84 trillion US dollar. This is thrice in size of the subsequently largest economy, Japan,
which has 4.4 trillion US dollar GDP. US supremacy has been wrinkled by the formation of the
European Union
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