The topic "Geography of the World's Natural Resources" is one of the central topics in the school geography course. What are natural resources? What types of them stand out, and how are they distributed around the planet? What factors determine geography Read about this in the article.
What are natural resources?
The geography of the world's natural resources is extremely important for understanding the development of the world economy and the economies of individual states. This concept can be interpreted in different ways. In the broadest sense, it is the whole complex of natural goods, necessary for a person. In a narrow sense, natural resources mean a set of natural goods that can serve as sources for production.
Natural resources not just used in business activities. Without them, in fact, existence is impossible. human society as such. One of the most important and urgent problems of modern geographical science is the geography of world natural resources (Grade 10 high school). Both geographers and economists are studying this issue.
Classification of the natural resources of the Earth
The natural resources of the planet are classified according to various criteria. So, allocate exhaustible and inexhaustible resources, as well as partially renewable. According to the prospects for use, natural resources are divided into industrial, agricultural, energy, recreational and tourist, etc.
According to the genetic classification, natural resources include:
- mineral;
- land;
- water;
- forest;
- biological (including resources of the World Ocean);
- energy;
- climatic;
- recreational.
Features of the planetary distribution of natural resources
What features are represented by geography? How are they distributed around the planet?
It should be noted right away that the world's natural resources are distributed extremely unevenly between states. So, several countries (such as Russia, the USA or Australia) have endowed nature with a wide range of minerals. Others (for example, Japan or Moldova) have to be content with only two or three types of mineral raw materials.
As for the volume of consumption, about 70% of the world's natural resources are used by the countries of the USA, Canada and Japan, in which no more than nine percent of the world's population lives. But a group of developing countries, which account for about 60% of the world's population, consume only 15% of the planet's natural resources.
The geography of world natural resources is uneven not only in relation to minerals. According to the reserves of forest, land, water resources countries and continents are also very different from each other. So, most of The planet's fresh water is concentrated in the glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland - regions with minimal population. At the same time, dozens of African states are experiencing acute
Such an uneven geography of world natural resources forces many countries to solve the problem of their shortage in different ways. Some do this with the help of active financing of geological exploration activities, others introduce the latest technology energy saving, reduce the material consumption of their production as much as possible.
World natural resources (mineral) and their distribution
Mineral raw materials are natural components (substances) that are used by humans in production or to generate electricity. Mineral resources are important for the economy of any state. AT earth's crust Our planet contains about two hundred minerals. 160 of them are actively mined by man. Depending on the method and scope of use, mineral resources are divided into several types:
Perhaps the most important mineral resource today is oil. It is rightly called “black gold”, major wars were fought (and are still being fought to this day) for it. As a rule, oil occurs together with associated natural gas. The main regions for the extraction of these resources in the world are Alaska, Texas, the Middle East, and Mexico. Another fuel resource is coal (stone and brown). It is mined in many countries (more than 70).
Ore mineral resources include ferrous, non-ferrous and noble metals. Geological deposits of these minerals often have a clear reference to the zones of crystalline shields - ledges of the platform foundation.
Non-metallic mineral resources find completely different uses. So, granite and asbestos are used in the construction industry, potassium salts - in the production of fertilizers, graphite - in nuclear energy, etc. The geography of world natural resources is presented below in more detail. The table includes a list of the most important and sought after minerals.
mineral resource | Leading countries in its production |
Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, USA, Iran |
|
Coal | USA, Russia, India, China, Australia |
oil shale | China, USA, Estonia, Sweden, Germany |
Iron ore | Russia, China, Ukraine, Brazil, India |
manganese ore | China, Australia, South Africa, Ukraine, Gabon |
copper ores | Chile, USA, Peru, Zambia, DR Congo |
uranium ores | Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Niger, Namibia |
Nickel ores | Canada, Russia, Australia, Philippines, New Caledonia |
Australia, Brazil, India, China, Guinea |
|
USA, South Africa, Canada, Russia, Australia |
|
South Africa, Australia, Russia, Namibia, Botswana |
|
Phosphorites | USA, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Iraq |
France, Greece, Norway, Germany, Ukraine |
|
Potassium salt | Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Belarus, China |
Native sulfur | USA, Mexico, Iraq, Ukraine, Poland |
Land resources and their geography
Land resources are one of the most important wealth of the planet and any country in the world. This concept means a part of the Earth's surface suitable for life, construction and maintenance. Agriculture. World land fund- this is about 13 billion hectares of area. It includes:
Different countries have different land resources. Some have at their disposal vast expanses of free land (Russia, Ukraine), while others feel an acute shortage of free land (Japan, Denmark). Agricultural land is extremely unevenly distributed: about 60% of the world's arable land is in Eurasia, while Australia is only 3%.
Water resources and their geography
Water is the most common and most important mineral on earth. It was in it that earthly life was born, and it is water that is necessary for each of the living organisms. The water resources of the planet mean all surface and underground waters that are used by humans or can be used in the future. Fresh water is in particular demand. It is used in everyday life, in production and in the agricultural sector. The maximum reserves of fresh river runoff fall on Asia and Latin America, and the minimum - on Australia and Africa. Moreover, on one third of the world's land, the problem with fresh water is particularly acute.
Brazil, Russia, Canada, China and the USA are among the richest countries in the world in terms of fresh water reserves. But the five countries least provided with fresh water look like this: Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jordan.
Forest resources and their geography
Forests are often referred to as the "lungs" of our planet. And completely justified. After all, they play the most important climate-forming, water-protective, recreational role. Forest resources include forests themselves, as well as all their useful qualities - protective, recreational, medicinal, etc.
According to statistics, about 25% of the earth's land is covered with forests. Most of them fall on the so-called "northern forest belt", which includes such states as Russia, Canada, the USA, Sweden, Finland.
The table below shows the countries that are leaders in terms of forest cover in their territories:
Percentage of area covered by forests |
|
french guiana | |
Mozambique | |
Biological resources of the planet
Biological resources are all plant and animal organisms that are used by humans for various purposes. Floristic resources are more in demand in the modern world. In total, there are about six thousand species on the planet. cultivated plants. However, only a hundred of them are widely distributed around the world. In addition to cultivated plants, a person actively breeds livestock and poultry, uses bacterial strains in agriculture and industry.
Biological resources are classified as renewable. Nevertheless, with their modern, sometimes predatory and ill-conceived use, some of them are threatened with destruction.
Geography of world natural resources: problems of ecology
Modern environmental management is distinguished by a number of serious environmental issues. Active mining not only pollutes the atmosphere and soils, but also significantly alters the surface of our planet, changing some landscapes beyond recognition.
What words are associated with the modern geography of world natural resources? Pollution, depletion, destruction… Unfortunately, this is true. Thousands of hectares of ancient forests annually disappear from the face of our planet. Poaching destroys rare and endangered animal species. Heavy industry pollutes soils with metals and other harmful substances.
It is urgent and at the global level to change the concept of human behavior in the natural environment. Otherwise, the future of world civilization will not look very rosy.
The Resource Curse Phenomenon
The "paradox of abundance" or "resource curse" is the name of a phenomenon in economics, which was first formulated in 1993 by Richard Authy. The essence of this phenomenon is as follows: states with significant natural resource potential, as a rule, are characterized by low economic growth and development. In turn, countries “poor” in natural resources achieve great economic success.
There are indeed a lot of examples in the modern world that confirm this conclusion. For the first time, the “resource curse” of countries began to be discussed back in the 80s of the last century. Some researchers even then traced this trend in their works.
Economists identify several main reasons for this phenomenon:
- lack of desire on the part of the authorities to carry out effective and necessary reforms;
- development of corruption on the basis of "easy money";
- a decrease in the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy that are not so strongly “tied” to natural resources.
Conclusion
The geography of the world's natural resources is extremely uneven. This applies to almost all their types - mineral, energy, land, water, forest.
Some states own large reserves of minerals, but the mineral resource potential of other countries is significantly limited by just a few of their types. True, the exceptional endowment with natural resources does not always guarantee a high standard of living, the development of the economy of a particular state. A striking example of this are such countries as Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and others. This phenomenon has even got its name in the economy - "resource curse".
Inexhaustible natural resources are such resources, the amount of which does not significantly decrease in the process of even prolonged consumption or use.
These resources are divided into the following groups:
- Conditionally inexhaustible resources.
- Inexhaustible resources of the planet.
Conditionally inexhaustible resources
- 1. Climatic. The term "climate" means a combination of light and thermal radiation and energy, providing the living organisms of the planet with optimal conditions for existence and having a certain territorial location. The resource is important for humanity, since the weather directly affects the maturation of plants and determines the number of their species. Destruction or exhaustion of climatic conditions cannot occur, but deterioration of their quality indicators may occur. This happens as a result atomic explosions, environmental disasters, improper conduct of recreational activities, pollution of territories.
- 2. Water. include fresh water and ocean waters. The situation with this resource is the same as with the climate: you cannot destroy it, but you can significantly reduce the quality in the process of thoughtless use. The result may be a significant decrease in the volume of non-saline industrial water and clean drinking water, taking into account the fact that the volume of fresh water on Earth is only 4% of the total volume of moisture (including ice).
Inexhaustible resources of the planet
- 1. Sun (solar energy). This resource is a huge accumulation of energy, daily radiated into outer space in the form of radiation exceeding the needs of people by several tens of thousands of times. Human use of this resource occurs through the creation of solar and photovoltaic installations.
- 2. Wind (strength of the wind). Wind is a derivative of the solar resource, as it is formed as a result of uneven heating earth's surface. The creation of wind pumps and power plants is a promising industry.
- 3. Tides (energy of ebbs and flows). This type of resource includes the power of the waves of the oceans and seas. It is used by man in the operation of tidal power plants, dams.
- 4. Soil and internal heat. The inexhaustibility of this resource is relative. Today, people are sufficiently provided with them, but due to the deterioration of the ecological state of the planet, the renewability of the soil cover may cease. The results of human activity negatively change the qualitative and structural properties soils: erosion occurs, there is an increase in acidity and salt content.
Planet Earth has characteristic features which makes it a gem of the cosmos. The natural environment and natural resources determine the state of the world economy. In turn, the development and use of peculiar "gifts" environment depend on the socio-economic needs of the population, as well as the natural properties of each region. scale - land, mineral, water and forest reserves. In addition, the reserves of the World Ocean can also be attributed to this category: both flora and fauna, and water and the elements contained in it.
AT present time distinguish the following types of natural resources: inexhaustible and exhaustible. The latter, in turn, are divided into renewable and non-renewable. Let's take a closer look at these categories.
An exhaustible natural resource is a source of energy that can run out in a relatively short period of time. An example is oil, coal, peat, biomass. This category can be further divided into two groups. The first includes natural reserves of a non-renewable nature, that is, those whose consumption and use a person cannot replenish. The second group consists of This includes resources that a person restores as needed.
An inexhaustible natural resource can be attributed to a separate group. It is a source of energy that a person can use almost indefinitely due to its so-called "huge reserves". To this species include the energy of the Sun, space, geothermal and wind energy and others. Such resources are named because humanity hopes that over time they will be able to replace exhaustible resources.
The quantity and quality of world reserves are greatly influenced by the ecological situation observed on the planet as a whole. such as soil pollution, discharge Wastewater, irrational economic activity, reduce the possibility of using energy sources.
Depending on the economic viability, all natural resources can be divided into:
1. Non-production. This group includes everything that is used by a person, but is not produced by him. For example, drinking water, game animals or wild flora.
2. Production. This includes every natural resource produced or grown by man. The results and means of agriculture (forage plants, forage and game animals, soil, water used for irrigation), as well as industrial products (metals and alloys, wood, fuel) have a similar quality.
In addition, there are economic importance. There are balance and off-balance minerals. Among the first are the reserves that are currently being used. Their development is cost-effective and expedient. The latter, on the contrary, require the investment of additional funds, since they are located in difficult areas for extraction, require special processing conditions and have a relatively small number of deposits.
Natural resources and their use
What are natural resources and what is their role in human life and activities?
Give examples of exhaustible and inexhaustible, renewable and non-renewable resources.
What is a resource cycle?
Give examples of resource cycles (according to the concept of IV Komar).
Natural resources - These are the objects and forces of nature used by man to maintain his existence. These include sunlight, water, soil, air, minerals, tidal energy, wind power, plant and animal world, internal heat, etc.
A person uses natural resources as sources of energy, commodities, means and objects of labor, etc.
Against the background of the growth in the scale of production, the question of the limited natural resources necessary to meet the needs of civilization, and the ways of their rational use, comes to the fore.
Mankind cannot exist without using natural resources, without affecting their quantity and quality, and, consequently, without making changes to its natural environment.
Iguazu Falls. Latin America
Natural resources are classified according to a number of criteria:
on their use- for production (agricultural and industrial), health (recreational), aesthetic, scientific, etc.;
by affiliation to certain components of nature - to land, water, mineral, as well as to the animal and plant world, etc .;
by substitutability- replaceable (for example, fuel and mineral energy resources can be replaced by wind, solar energy) and irreplaceable (air oxygen for breathing or fresh water there is nothing to replace for drinking);
by exhaustibility- into exhaustible and inexhaustible.
To inexhaustible natural resources include mainly processes and phenomena that are external to our planet and inherent in it as space body. First of all, these are resources of cosmic origin, for example, the energy of solar radiation and its derivatives - the energy of moving air, falling water, sea waves, ebbs and flows, sea currents, and intraterrestrial heat.
To exhaustible resources includes all natural bodies located within the globe as physical body having a specific mass and volume. The composition of exhaustible resources includes flora and fauna, mineral and organic compounds contained in the bowels of the Earth (minerals).
According to the ability to self-renewal, all exhaustible resources can be conditionally classified into renewable, relatively renewable and non-renewable (see diagram).
Renewable resources are resources that can be restored through various natural processes
For a time commensurate with the terms of their consumption. These include vegetation, wildlife and some mineral resources that are deposited on the bottom of modern lakes and sea lagoons.
non-renewable resources - these are resources that are not recoverable at all or the rate of their recovery is so low that their practical use by a person becomes impossible.
These include, first of all, ores of metals and non-metals, groundwater, solid building materials (granite, sand, marble, etc.), as well as energy carriers (oil, gas, coal).
A special group is land resources . The soil is a bio-inert body that has arisen as a result of various forms of weathering (physical, chemical, biological) of rocks in an environment of different climates, topography and under the conditions of terrestrial gravity.
The soil-forming process is long and complex. It is known that a layer of the chernozem horizon 1 cm thick is formed
for about a century. Thus, being in principle a renewable resource, the soil is restored over a very long period of time (many decades and even centuries), which gives grounds to evaluate it as a relatively renewable resource.
Two most important natural bodies, which are not only natural resources , but at the same time the main components of the habitat of living organisms ( natural conditions): atmospheric air and water. Being quantitatively inexhaustible, they are qualitatively exhaustible (according to at least, in some regions). There is enough water on Earth, however, fresh water reserves suitable for use are 0.3% of the total.
A similar situation is also typical for atmospheric air, which in a number of large cities and industrial centers
so heavily polluted that the impurities it contains have a harmful effect on humans and other living organisms.
In 1957, P. Dansereau formulated the law of irreversibility of the interaction "Man - Biosphere", according to which a part of renewable natural resources (animals, plants) can become exhaustible, non-renewable, if a person, through irrational agricultural, hydrotechnical, industrial and other measures, makes it impossible for them to live and reproduce.
Thus, the uncontrolled hunting of the Steller's cow led to its disappearance as species. The same thing happened with some other animal species.
In general, over 160 species of mammals and birds have disappeared from the face of the Earth over the past 400 years. Currently, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as a result of human activity, one species of animals and plants disappears annually.
The division of resources according to some attribute is very conditional, since the same resource, for example, water in a lake, can be used both for industrial, agricultural and fish farming needs, as well as for recreational purposes, or simply has a great aesthetic value. In this case, often comes into play material resource rule , according to which the use of a resource for one purpose makes it difficult or precludes use for others. If waste from an industrial enterprise, even if it has been largely purified, is dumped into the lake, the use of water for fish farming and the improvement of the population becomes difficult or impossible.
In this regard, in each specific case, it is necessary to consider a whole network of natural relationships and determine the best option that is acceptable both for nature and for society.
The process of exploiting natural resources in order to meet the material and cultural needs of society is called nature management.
Mankind intensively changes the processes of circulation of all chemicals, not only at the local, but also at the biospheric (global) level.
In order to create the necessary products, to obtain energy, raw materials, a person finds and extracts natural resources, transports them to processing sites, and produces the necessary items from them. Thus, a person involves natural resources in resource cycle.
Under the resource cycle understand the totality of transformations and spatial movements of a certain substance (or group of substances) at all stages of its use by a person (including its identification, preparation for operation, extraction from the natural environment, processing, transformation and return to nature).
The word "cycle" implies a closed process. It is known that in nature all chemicals (water, gases, metals) move in a closed cycle. The resource cycle as a cycle is actually not closed.
The concept of resource cycles was proposed by IV Komar. He singled out the following resource cycles: a cycle of energy resources and energy with hydropower and energy-chemical sub-cycles; cycle of metal ore resources and metals with a coke-chemical subcycle; a cycle of non-metallic fossil raw materials with sub-cycles of mining-chemical and mineral building materials; cycle of soil-climatic resources and agricultural raw materials; cycle of forest resources and timber products; cycle of resources of wild fauna and flora.
As you can easily see, the first three cycles are associated with non-renewable resources, and the rest - with renewable natural resources.
As for non-renewable resources, their depletion is inevitable over time, and the task is not so much to stretch these resources over a longer period, but to find a substitute for natural or artificial origin before the exhaustion of a particular natural resource, or to find the possibility of its regeneration through the use of secondary raw materials.
All living organisms on the planet, for normal existence and functioning, need certain natural resources, including: water (sea and fresh), territory, soil, mountains, forests (vegetation), animals (including fish), fossil fuels and minerals.
All of the above resources are natural and they exist in nature. No man has created them, but humanity uses them for its own benefit. It must be taken into account that all the natural resources of the world are interconnected, for example, if water disappears in a certain area, this will negatively affect the local flora, fauna, soil and even climate.
Earth's natural resources can be used directly or indirectly. For example, people are directly dependent on forests for food and biomass, health, recreation, living standards and comfort. Indirectly, forests act as climate control, protect against floods and storms, and provide nutrient cycling.
forest resources
Forest resources are extremely important natural resources that are used by people to meet the needs of life (food, shelter and building materials). Forests occupy about 1/3 of the land area or 4 billion hectares and are considered dominant, because they are common throughout the world. Forest resources contain about 80% of the Earth's plant biomass.
Land resources
Land resources include areas that are located on land and can be used for the needs of people. Their total area is about 14.9 billion hectares. This resource is limited in space and subject to anthropogenic impact. Land resources are an integral part of the planet, necessary for the existence and functioning of most living organisms.
Mineral resources
Mineral resources are non-renewable and include all minerals intended for further use, there are more than 200 types of them. All species are unevenly and in different quantities distributed throughout our planet. In this regard, security mineral resources depends on the availability of certain species in a particular region of the world and their use.
Climate and space resources
Climatic and space resources are inexhaustible and include: solar energy, wind energy, the energy of the earth's interior, the energy of sea tides and waves, the energy of water and air. When used, such resources do not decrease in quantity, but their qualitative characteristics may change due to anthropogenic impact.
biological resources
Biological resources include all living organisms (, etc.). This resource is renewable if the organisms are able to reproduce. biological resource can be considered a natural source of obtaining the necessary benefits (food, raw materials for industry, farm animals, etc.).
Importance of natural resources
The natural resources of the world are necessary to support the very complex interaction between living beings and inanimate nature. All over the world, people consume resources directly or indirectly, benefiting enormously from this interaction. More developed countries consume resources in larger quantities than less developed ones.
The world economy uses about 60 billion tons of natural resources every year to produce the goods and services we consume. On average, about 36 kg of resources per day are spent per person in Europe; in North America- 90 kg; in Asia - 14 kg and in Africa - 10 kg.
In what form do people consume natural resources? The three main forms include: food and drink, housing and infrastructure, and mobility. They account for more than 60% of the use of all natural resources.
Food and drink
This form includes agricultural products, natural products (e.g. meat, freshwater and marine fish), seeds, nuts, medicines, herbs and plants. This includes drinking water, as well as water for sanitary and domestic use. Just think, ceramics, silverware (spoons, forks and knives), cans, milk bags, paper and plastic cups are all made from raw materials that come from the earth's natural resources.
Mobility
Mobility includes all kinds of means of transportation, such as cars, trains, watercraft, fueled aircraft. Where do you think the raw materials used in the production and operation of vehicles come from?
Housing and infrastructure
Imagine all the houses public places, roads and other objects that are in your locality. Think about where all the energy that heats and cools rooms comes from, and where the metal, plastic, stone, and other building materials come from.
In addition to these three main areas of consumption, we use many more resources from our environment on a daily basis. The role of natural resources in sustaining life on Earth is extremely important, and we must ensure that the environment is protected and that natural renewal is made easier.
Distribution of natural resources
Natural resources are unevenly distributed around the world. Some countries are richer in them than others (for example, some regions have a lot of water resources and access to oceans and seas). Others have a lot of minerals and woodlands, and still others have metal rocks, wildlife, fossil fuels, etc.
For example, the United States ranks first in the world in terms of coal reserves, and Australia is the world's largest net exporter of coal. China remains the largest gold producer.
The United States, Russia, and Canada are the leading wood and pulp producers. Annual exports of primary and secondary rainforest wood products have exceeded $20 billion in last years and further growth is observed.
Many countries have developed their economies using existing natural resources. Some of them also receive a lot of income from tourism and recreation (for example, Brazil and Peru, they earn from tourism in the Amazon forests, where there is a very diverse flora and fauna).
Crude oil is another important natural resource. From it we get a lot of petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel and gas, used to power vehicles and provide comfortable conditions in our homes. But crude oil is unevenly distributed across the planet.
Regions where there is sufficient oil extract it and then sell it to regions where it is not available, and also buy natural resources from other regions, such as timber and precious metals (gold, diamonds and silver) that are present in them. abundance.
Unequal distribution is also the root of power and greed in many countries. Some states use their resource wealth to control and manipulate regions with fewer resources, and even engage in military conflicts.
Threats of depletion of natural resources
overpopulation
This is probably the most significant threat facing natural resources. The world population is growing at a very fast pace. According to statistics, 365 thousand children are born every day in the world, which means that the large population of the planet negatively affects almost all natural resources. How?
Land use
With more people, it is necessary to cultivate more land for food and allocate land for housing. Many forests and lands with rich vegetation will be converted into human settlements, roads and farms. This will lead to negative consequences for natural resources.
Deforestation
Demand for timber (timber products), food and wood products will increase. Therefore, people will use more forest resources than they can naturally regenerate.
Fishing
Fresh water and seafood, on which people's livelihoods directly depend, also face threats. Larger fishing companies go to the depths of the seas and there they catch fish in huge quantities. Some of the fishing methods they use are not sustainable and thus deplete fish resources.
Need more
A more comfortable human life means greater needs (for example, communication, transportation, education, entertainment and recreation). This means that more industrial processes are needed and the need for raw materials and natural resources increases.
climate change
Climate change, as a result of excess carbon dioxide, harms biodiversity and many other abiotic natural resources of the world. Species that have become acclimatized in their environment may die, while others will have to move to more suitable territories in order to survive.
Environmental pollution
Pollution of water, soil and air have a negative impact on the environment. This affects chemical composition soils, rocks, land, ocean waters, fresh groundwater and other natural resources.
Recovery of used natural resources
In recent years, waste has begun to be seen as a potential resource rather than something that should end up in landfills. From paper, plastic, wood, metals and even wastewater, according to experts, you can do something very useful.
Recovery of natural resources (waste recovery)- the use of sorted waste products for the purpose of extracting secondary raw materials and using them again or turning them into new raw materials for the production of something.
It includes composting and disposal of waste that is sent to landfill (for example, wet organic waste such as waste from food consumption or agricultural activities). Traditionally, we collect them and send them to landfill, however, when recovering the resources used, they must be composted or processed through anaerobic digestion to produce biogas.
This concept can be applied at home. In many settlements there are places where residents can throw out the garbage that they previously sorted at home. This simplifies the organization of waste disposal before further processing.
Waste recovery is not an easy task, it involves careful planning, people's culture, community involvement, and the use of technology. Despite these challenges, waste recovery has enormous environmental and economic benefits and should therefore be seriously considered.
The restoration of the planet's natural resources benefits humanity because it reduces our need for new raw materials, thereby saving the environment (for example, by recycling used paper products, we can get new pulp, which is contained in wood. In addition, for recycling required less energy than for the production of new raw materials).
Wastewater and stormwater can be used as another example. There is a way to significantly reduce the demand for fresh water if we start recycling all waste water for reuse. Such water can be used for gardening, agriculture, domestic needs and heating.
In Victoria, Australia, purified water is used to irrigate vineyards, tomatoes, potatoes and other crops.
In Mexico City, about 174 million liters per day of treated wastewater is used to irrigate green spaces, fill recreational lakes, and for agriculture.
Ways to protect natural resources
In order to have an environmentally sustainable secure future where we can continue to use the Earth's natural resources, it is urgent to change the system of production and consumption of goods and services.
A high level of consumption of natural resources is observed mainly in major cities peace.
Worldwide, cities are responsible for 60-80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon dioxide emissions, consuming more than 75% of natural resources.
In order to change the current lifestyle, you need to use:
Public
All stakeholders should strive to provide information and raise public awareness of existing resources and the need to protect them. While there is a lot of information freely available, campaigners should try to use less scientific and complex terms. Once people realize how useful our natural resources are, they will take better care of their protection.
Individuals and organizations
People and organizations in developed countries, with high level consumption of resources should be aware of the issues of their protection. It must be understood that it is permissible to use all the necessary resources for your own benefit, but it is necessary to reduce the amount of waste and take care of proper disposal. We can achieve this in our homes and workplaces by reducing and recycling the waste we create.
Government
The government must enforce policies to protect natural resources. It is necessary to control the work of enterprises and provide incentives for those who use recycled raw materials and introduce hefty fines for those who refuse to do so. Enterprises must return part of their profits to activities that are aimed at restoring previously used resources.
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