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Antarctica's Future
Factfile |
 Antarctica's Future |
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The Earth's Resources |
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If you go into any large supermarket you can buy food and drink. But some supermarkets are so big, that you can also buy furniture, electrical goods and gadgets, such as computers. Think for a minute! Does it ever seem that such supplies of goods and products are endless. But are they? And where do they come from?
Supermarket - Chris Carey
They come from our planet. Our planet provides us with the raw materials and sources that we need or use in our daily lives. These are called Earth's natural resources and we obtain them from within, on or above our planet.
Some of these natural resources are essential to us for survival and include the air that we breathe, the food we eat or the water we drink. Other natural resources help to make life comfortable for us, but are not necessary for survival. Oil (crude oil or petroleum) is probably Earth's most adaptable natural resource and it has lots of uses from fuel for jets to oil based products being used for road surfaces and plastic manufacture.
But Earth's resources fall into two types:
Renewable resources - Some natural resources are renewable, which means they are continually being made or replaced through natural processes. On Earth, there is a continuing supply of energy from wind and the water we have goes round and round, as part of a natural water cycle.
Waterfall - Steve Canipe
Non-renewable resources - These resources are not replaced by nature as fast as they are being used. Oil is a good example. Oil is formed over millions years by natural processes. But over the last 100 years, people have used so much oil that today's rate of oil use is greater than the rate of oil formation.
Predictions for how long Earth's natural resources will last vary considerably. Oil supplies for example, have been estimated to last between 40 and 200 years because although in some areas of the world demand has dropped because people have adopted energy-saving measures, demand has rocketed in other areas.
Alaska - Chris Carey
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