Natural resources and associated problems
Intended
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this session, students will be able to
• Explain natural resources and associated problems
Contents
• Natural resources and associated problems
Natural
resources and associated problems
Unequal consumption
of natural resources
• Major part of natural resources are today consumed in the
technologically advanced or ‘developed’ world
• Developing nations including India and China, also over
use many resources because of their greater human population
• Advanced countries produce over 75% of global industrial
waste and greenhouse gases
• Energy from fossil fuels is consumed in relatively much
greater quantities in developed countries
• Consumption of food too is much greater as well as their
waste of enormous quantities of food and other products, such as packaging
material used in the food industry
• Producing animal food for human consumption requires more
land than growing crops
• Countries that are highly dependent on non-vegetarian
diets need much larger areas for pastureland than those where the people are
mainly vegetarian
Planning Land use
• Land itself is
a major resource
needed for food
production, animal husbandry,
industry and for our growing human settlements
• Essential to evolve a rational land-use policy that
examines how much land must be made available for different purposes and where
it must be situated
• For instance, there are usually alternate sites at which
industrial complexes or dams can be built, but a natural wilderness cannot be
recreated artificially
• Scientists today believe that at least 10% of land and
water bodies of each ecosystem must be kept as wilderness for the long term
needs of protecting nature and natural resources
• Land as a resource is now under serious pressure due to an
increasing ‘land hunger’ to produce sufficient quantities of food for an
exploding human population
• Land and water resources are polluted by industrial waste
and rural and urban sewage
• They are increasingly being diverted for short-term
economic gains to agriculture and industry
• Natural wetlands
of great value
are being drained
for agriculture and other purposes
• Semi-arid land is being irrigated and overused
• Most damaging change in land use is demonstrated by the
rapidity with which forests have vanished during recent times, both in India
and in the rest of the world
• Forests provide us with a variety of services such as
maintaining oxygen levels in the atmosphere, removal of carbon dioxide, control
over water regimes and slowing down erosion and also produce products such as
food, fuel, timber, fodder, medicinal plants, etc
Need for sustainable
lifestyles
• Quality of human life and the quality of ecosystems on
earth are indicators of the sustainable use of resources
• There are clear indicators of sustainable lifestyles in
human life
• Increased longevity
• An increase in knowledge
• An enhancement of income
• These three together are known as the ‘Human development index’
• Quality of the ecosystems have indicators that are more
difficult to assess
• A stabilized population
• The long term conservation of biodiversity
• The careful long-term use of natural resources
• The prevention of degradation and pollution of the
environment
Summary
• Major part of natural resources are today consumed in the
technologically advanced or ‘developed’ world
• Land itself is a major resource needed for food
production, animal husbandry, industry and for our growing human settlements
• Land and water resources are polluted by industrial waste
and rural and urban sewage
• Quality of human life and the quality of ecosystems on
earth are indicators of the sustainable use of resources