This is a description of each of the earths natural resources, how they work, and how they affect the environment.

2. What are Natural Resources?
Natural resources are useful raw materials that we get from the Earth. They
occur naturally, which means that humans cannot make natural resources.
Instead, we use and modify natural resources in ways that are beneficial to us.
(The materials used in man-made objects are natural resources.) There are
different ways to classify natural resources, including where they come from
and if they are renewable or not. They can also be sorted into two
categories: biotic and abiotic. Biotic resources are gathered from the biosphere
or may be grown. Abiotic resources are non-living, like minerals and metals.

3. Some examples of different Natural
Resources are:Biotic Natural Resources
• Birds
• Flowering plants
• Fruits
• Fungi
• Insects
• Mammals
• Microbes
• Mosses
• Natural gas
• Petroleum
• Reptiles
• Shrubs
• Trees
• Worms
Biotic Resources Grown as
Crops
• Basil
• Brussels sprouts
• Carrot
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Cotton
• Corn
• Garlic
• Oat
• Okra
• Peanuts
• Peas
• Rice
• Squash
• Sugarcane
• Sunflower
• Wheat
Biotic Resources in the Ocean
• Crustaceans and lobsters
• Fish
• Octopi
• Seaweed and kelp
• Shrimp
• Whales and dolphins
Abiotic Natural Resources
• Coal
• Copper
• Diamond
• Gravel
• Gold
• Iron Ore
• Lead
• Marble
• Limestone
• Nickel
• Platinum
• Salt
• Sand
• Silver
• Zinc
• Natural Energy Resources
• Biofuels - Fuels made from plants and animals
• Geothermal energy - Energy generated from and stored in the earth
• Hydroelectric power - Water drives the turbines that produce
electricity either in dams or tides
• Natural gas - This is a fossil fuel
• Nuclear energy - Created by splitting the atom
• Solar energy - The sun’s rays heat solar cells that make electricity
• Wind power - The wind turn the turbines that make electricity

4. Renewable Resources
Any resource, such as wood or solar energy, that can or will be replenished
naturally over the course of a lifetime. Some examples are trees, animals, water,
crops, wind, etc.

5. Solar Energy
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the sun harnessed using a range of
ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, solar
photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture and artificial
photosynthesis.

6. Wind Energy
Wind power in the form of windmills has been used for centuries for such tasks
as grinding grain and pumping water. Modern commercial wind
turbines produce electricity by using rotational energy to drive a generator
using kinetic energy of the wind going through the giant blades of the windmill.

7. Hydroelectric Power
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower;
the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of
falling or flowing water through a dam.

8. Biomass
Biomass is biological material resulting from living, or recently living organisms.
In the context of biomass for energy this is often used to mean plant based
material, but biomass can equally apply to both animal and vegetable derived
material. The matter is burned in factories and plants to create energy.

9. Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth,
created by pumping water deep into the ground near hot rocks and magma. As
the water comes out as water vapor, it creates energy.

10. Ocean Energy
Ocean energy refers to various forms of renewable energy harnessed from the
ocean. There are two primary types of ocean energy: mechanical and thermal.
Mechanical energy is derived from the earth's rotation. The rotation creates
wind on the ocean surface that forms waves, while the gravitational pull of the
moon creates coastal tides and currents. This motion allows energy to be
captured and converted to electric power. Thermal energy is resulting from the
sun, which heats the surface of the ocean while the depths remain colder. This
temperature difference allows energy to also be captured and converted to
electric power.

11. Non-Renewable Resources
A natural resource such as coal, gas, or oil that, once consumed, cannot be
replaced. Most energy resources currently in use today are non-renewable such
as natural gas, coal, oil, petroleum, minerals, etc. These are also known because
they take millions of years to replenish.

12. Petroleum/Crude Oil
Petroleum (also known as crude oil or simply oil) is a fossil fuel that was formed
from the remains of ancient marine organisms. Millions of years ago, algae and
plants lived in shallow seas. After dying and sinking to the seafloor, the organic
material mixed with other sediments and was buried. Over millions of years
under high pressure and high temperature, the remains of these organisms
transformed into what we know today as fossil fuels. Coal, natural gas, and
petroleum are all fossil fuels that formed under similar conditions. Today oil is
extracted out of the ground with giant drilling machines. Petroleum is used to
make gasoline, benzene, and various other flammable liquids. It is also used to
make tires and other rubbers, and all plastic products.

13. Coal
Coal is a chalky, black or brown rock, created very similar to the way oil and
natural gas was. Coal us used for electricity generation, steel production,
cement manufacturing, and liquid fuel. Around 6.6 billion tons of hard coal were
used worldwide and 1 billion tons of brown coal were used in 2014. Since 2000,
global coal consumption has grown faster than any other fuel.

14. Natural Gas
Natural gas is a flammable gas, consisting largely of methane and other
hydrocarbons, created very similar to the way oil and coal were made. Natural
gas is widely used as fuel for water heaters, cooking, heating housed and many
more purposes.

15. Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy is the energy in the nucleus of an atom. Atoms are the smallest
particles that can break a material. At the core of each atom there are two types of
particles (neutrons and protons) that are held together. Nuclear energy is the energy
that holds neutrons and protons. Nuclear energy can be used to produce electricity.
This energy can be obtained in two ways: nuclear fusion and nuclear fission.
In nuclear fusion, energy is released when atoms are combined or fused together to
form a larger atom. The sun produces energy like this. In nuclear fission, atoms are
split into smaller atoms, releasing energy to generate electricity.

16. Tar Sand
Tar sands (also referred to as oil sands) are a combination of clay, sand, water,
and bitumen, a heavy, black, sticky oil. Tar sands can be mined and processed to
extract the oil-rich bitumen, which is then refined into oil. The bitumen in tar
sands cannot be pumped from the ground in its natural state; instead tar sand
deposits are mined, usually using strip mining or open pit techniques, or the oil
is extracted by underground heating with additional upgrading. A large
amount of water required for tar sands processing; currently, tar sands
extraction and processing require several barrels of water for each barrel of oil
produced, though some of the water can be recycled. Tar sands are useful, but
take a huge toll on the environment and landscape. The photo you see in the
back once used to be a lush forest with a long river running through.
Before

17. Oil Shale
The term oil shale generally refers to any sedimentary rock that contains solid
bituminous materials (called kerogen) that are released as petroleum-like
liquids when the rock is heated in the chemical process of pyrolysis. Oil shale
was formed millions of years ago by deposition of silt and organic debris on
lake beds and sea bottoms. Over long periods of time, heat and pressure
transformed the materials into oil shale in a process similar to the process that
forms oil; however, the heat and pressure were not as great. Oil shale generally
contains enough oil that it will burn without any additional processing, and it is
known as "the rock that burns". Oil shale can be mined and processed to
generate oil similar to oil pumped from conventional oil wells; however,
extracting oil from oil shale is more complex than conventional oil recovery and
currently is more expensive. The oil substances in oil shale are solid and cannot
be pumped directly out of the ground. The oil shale must first be mined and
then heated to a high temperature (a process called retorting); the resultant
liquid must then be separated and collected. Oil shale too takes a large toll on
the environment

18. Uranium
A chemical element that is naturally radioactive. An isotope
of uranium, uranium 235, is the main fuel for nuclear reactors and atomic
bombs. It is very radioactive and harmful for the environment, but provides a
large source of fuel.