Natural Resources: Definition, Types, and Importance

Natural Resources: We must be aware that our solar system contains eight planets, but only the Earth has life and all of the necessary conditions for species to survive. It is because some resources are found in the environment that are developed without any intervention from humans, they are known as renewable resources. We have to devote financial and human resources to developing non-renewable resources of energy.

What are these conditions and resources, and how do we obtain them? Will they exist forever? In this article, you will get answers to all these questions. We will study in detail the types of natural resources, their importance, uses, and examples. Read the following paragraphs to know more.

What are Natural Resources?

Natural resources are materials available on the planet that can be used to keep people alive and meet their needs.

A natural resource might be any natural substance that humans utilise. This includes oil, coal, natural gas, metals, stone, sand, air, sunlight, soil, and water. Natural resources may also include animals, birds, fish, and vegetation.

Food, fuel, and raw materials for manufacturing are all made from natural resources. Plants and animals provide all of the food that people consume. Heat, light, and power are provided by natural resources such as coal, natural gas, and oil.

Natural resources are strongly intertwined. Therefore, removing one item would have an impact on the availability or quality of the others. If water is removed from a region, the vegetation, soils, animals, and even the air in that region will suffer.

Raw Materials for Natural Resources

Natural resources can also be used as the raw materials used to make common items such as toothbrushes and lunch boxes and clothing, automobiles, televisions, and computers. Natural resources examples are air, sunlight, water, plants, animals, soil, stone, and fossil fuels.

Natural resources are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can be solids, liquids, and gases as well as they can be both organic and inorganic. They might be metallic or non-metallic as well.

What are the Different Types of Natural Resources?

Natural Resources can be categorised into two main categories — Renewable and Non-renewable resources of energy.

Renewable Resources

Renewable resources are those that are either always available like water, air, and sun or can be replaced or recovered in a reasonable amount of time like vegetative lands. Animals can also be considered renewable since they may produce young ones to replace adult animals.

Organic renewable resources are renewable resources that originate from living things like trees and animals. Inorganic renewable resources are renewable resources that originate from non-living sources such as water, sunlight, and wind.

Non-renewable Resources

Non-renewable resources are resources that can’t be replenished once they’ve been depleted or can not be recovered in a reasonable amount of time. Fossil fuels, and minerals are examples of non-renewable resources because, while they form naturally through a process known as the rock cycle, the process can take thousands of years, making them non-renewable.

If non-renewable resources come from non-living entities, they are referred to as inorganic resources. Minerals, wind, land, dirt, and rocks are examples.

Some non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels, are derived from living things. They’re classified as organic non-renewable resources.

Importance of Natural Resources

Natural resources are available to support the incredibly complex relationship between the living and non-living things. This interaction is also extremely beneficial to humans. There are three ways that we consume natural resources, which include food, living, and mobility.

Food

Agricultural products, as well as naturally occurring foods like freshwater and sea fish, seeds and nuts, medicines, herbs, and plants. They also include water for sanitation and home use, as well as drinking water. Ceramic plates, silverware, cans, milk containers, paper, and plastic cups are all created from raw materials that come from natural resources.

Living

Houses, public spaces, roads, and man-made things are all included. All of the energy, wood, metals, plastic, stone and other materials are obtained from natural resources.

Mobility

It includes automobiles, trains, water vessels, airplanes, together with all the fuel that powers them can also be derived from natural resources.

We take considerably more resources from our environment on a daily basis than these three key areas of resource consumption. Natural resources play a critical role in sustaining life on Earth, and we must ensure that we safeguard the environment while also allowing it to regenerate itself naturally.

Threats to Natural Resources

As natural resources occurly in nature, people overuse them without thinking, and in doing so, they deplete these resources. Some major threats to natural resources are as follows-

Overpopulation

With more mouths to feed and people to provide homes for, more land area and forest areas are being cleared, which is destroying the natural vegetation and farms. Demands for wood and products made by wood have increased drastically, which also results in the clearing of forests.

Climate Change

Climate change caused by excessive anthropogenic activity is harming biodiversity and many other abiotic natural resources. Species that have been accustomed to their surroundings may perish, while others will be forced to relocate to more favourable settings in order to survive.

Environmental Pollution

Pollution of land, water, and air directly impacts the health and habitat of all living beings. Soils, rocks, lands, ocean water, freshwater and underground water, and other natural phenomena are all affected by pollution. It frequently has disastrous consequences.

Conservation of Natural Resources

Conservation of natural resources is very important as natural resources are essential for human survival, yet not all natural resources are renewable. The tremendous increase in climate change is due to human activity, particularly the usage of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels. By conserving our natural resources, we can have a more positive impact on our natural environment. There are several ways to conserve natural resources in our very own home, such as:

• Use less water – Taking shorter showers and turning off the taps when not in use can reduce water wastage.
• Turn off the lights – During the day or when not required, turn off any electronic device. Additionally, LED light bulbs can be used as they consume very less power.
• Walking, using bicycles and sharing vehicles for long distances help in saving fuel.
• Use renewable energy – Using solar panels, wind energy, and hydro energy can significantly reduce our dependence and cut back on resource depletion over time.
• Use the three R’s – Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

• Compost – Composting vegetable and fruit scraps act as useful materials to enrich the soil. Composting helps in attracting beneficial organisms that cut down on the need for pesticides or harmful chemicals.
• Avoid using plastics as they are non-biodegradable waste and increase environmental pollution at a much faster rate.

All the above-mentioned methods can only be successful if people are aware and readily participate in saving our environment as well as natural resources.

Summary

In this article, we studied the meaning of natural resources and their types. We also studied that these resources play a major role in our daily lives and are used as raw materials for various other resources. Now we know that the conservation of these resources is very important, and we play a major role in conserving them.

FAQs on Natural Resources