Natural Resources

English Work Teacher LIZ BENAVIDEZ STUDENT ANGELIKA Y NATALIA

NATURAL RESOURCES -MEANING -EXAMPLES Natural resources are resources that exist without the actions of humankind. This includes all val ued characteristics such as magnetic, gravitational, and electrical properties and forces. On eart h it includes; sunlight, atmosphere, water, land, air (includes all minerals) along with all vegetatio n and animal life that naturally subsists upon or within the heretofore identified characteristics an d substances.

Natural resources are materials and components (something that can be used) that can be foun d within the environment. Every man-made product is composed of natural resources (at its fund amental level). A natural resource may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water, and air, as well as a living organism such as a fish, or it may exist in an alternate form which must be proces sed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, petroleum, and most forms of energy.

Renewable resources — Renewable resources can be replenished naturally. Some of thes e resources, like sunlight, air, wind, water

Non-renewable resources – Non-renewable resources either form slowly or do not naturall y form in the environment. Minerals are the most common resource included in this category. By the human perspective, resources are non-renewable when their rate of consumption exceeds th e rate of replenishment/recovery; a good example of this are fossil fuels, which are in this catego ry

EXAMPLES resources non-renewable

Earth minerals and metal ores

Earth minerals and metal ores are examples of non-renewable resources. The metals themselves are present in vast a mounts in Earth's crust, and their extraction by humans only occurs where they are concentrated by natural geological processes (such as heat, pressure, organic activity, weathering and other processes) enough to become economically viable to extract. These processes generally take from tens of thousands to millions of years, through plate tectonics, te ctonic subsidence and crustal recycling.

Fossil fuels Natural resources such as coal, petroleum (crude oil) and natural gas take thousands of years to form naturally and can not be replaced as fast as they are being consumed. Eventually it is considered that fossil-based resources will become too costly to harvest and humanity will need to shift its reliance to other sources of energy such as solar or wind power, see renewable energy.

Nuclear fuels the World Commission on Environment and Development an organization set up by but independent from the United Nations classified fission reactors that produce more fissile nuclear fuel than they consume -i.e. breeder reactors, and when it is developed, fusion power, among conventional renewable energy sources, such as solar and falling water. Th e American Petroleum Institute likewise does not consider conventional nuclear fission as renewable, but that breeder r eactor nuclear power fuel is considered renewable and sustainable, before explaining that radioactive waste from used spent fuel rods remains dangerous, and so has to be very carefully stored for up to a thousand years.With the careful m onitoring of radioactive waste products also being required upon the use of other renewable energy sources, such as g eothermal energy

Renewable resources

BIOMASS

Biomass resources include trees, food crops, algae, agricultural and forestry byproduct s, and even Methane fumes from landfills. These biomass resources provide fuels, po wer production and products typically made from nonrenewable fossil fuels. Such biopr oducts include plastics, insulation, adhesives and fabric. Energy production from bioma ss is important because it can help reduce dependence on foreign oil. In addition, it ha s the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Geothermal

Geothermal energy comes from harnessing heat from the Earth. A large utilit y company, for example, can directly use a geothermal reservoir to drive ge nerators and produce electricity for their municipality. In contrast, residenti al heat pumps use the shallow ground temperature of the Earth to heat and cool a home on a smaller scale.

Wind

Wind is just moving air created as the sun heats the Earth's surface. As long as the sun is shining, the wind remains an infinite, renewable resource. Wind powe r is clean energy because wind turbines do not produce any emissions