Natural resources of the world: concept, classification

The natural resources of the world are all components of animate and inanimate nature that man can use to satisfy his needs and needs in the process of production and life activity. Being on the surface of the Earth's shell, they impress with their quantity and variety. While it is believed that the planet Earth - the only place in the universe, suitable for human life. To date, the world's natural resources are the foundation of the economy and world production. The amount of the planet's goods used by people confirms this. Significant significance in the life of modern mankind has made ordering the natural resources of the world. All of them are divided into two types.

Classification

1. Exhausted. These are natural goods, the demand for which exceeds the speed of their formation. Since there are regular inquiries from the production side, sooner or later a moment comes when the stocks of this natural resource are completely depleted. But is this position hopeless? Fortunately, no, because the exhaustible reserves, in turn, are divided into:

• Renewable;
• Non-renewable.

Renewable reserves of natural resources of the world mean by themselves that they can be used almost indefinitely, but it is important to provide the right time for their renewal, otherwise they will turn into non-renewable. The first can be attributed to the purity of air, water and soil, as well as vegetation and animal life. Non-renewable resources appear as a result of various processes of ore formation that occur in the upper layers of the earth's crust. Demand for such fossils is hundreds of times higher than their estimated amount, and since their reserves are negligibly small compared with consumption, the chances of their renewal are zero. These include the mineral reserves of the planet.

2. The inexhaustible. These are all those that are abundant in practically every inhabitant of the Earth: air, water, wind energy, tides and ebbs. They are so familiar to everyone that sometimes they just stop appreciating, but without these resources, a person's life would become impossible.

Classification of natural reserves by types of their use

All kinds of natural resources of the world people actively use in two main directions:

• Agricultural sphere;
• Industrial production.

Agricultural resources combine all kinds of natural resources, which are aimed at creating agricultural products and making profit. For example, agroclimatic reserves provide an opportunity for growing and further consumption of various crops and grazing of livestock. Without water, it is impossible to imagine the functioning of the rural industry. Here it plays a key role, as it is used for watering grain crops and other crops, as well as for watering livestock. Fortunately, most natural resources used in this field are inexhaustible (water, soil, air).

High demand for minerals

Industrial production has its own system of consumption of world reserves. The number of factories, factories and enterprises has reached the highest level today. To meet their demand, a variety of means are needed. In today's world, there is the greatest need for combustible minerals. They also have the greatest financial value. This oil, gas, coal and bitumen (refer to energy reserves).

Some types of

The group of useful natural resources also includes forest, land and water. Although they are not energy, they are all valuable, since they contribute to the expansion of industrial activity. They are also actively used in the construction industry.

Inexhaustible water resources

Most scientists agree that the World Ocean is full of reserves that are useful for humanity. This is a huge storehouse of salts, minerals and much more. It is generally accepted that the seas and oceans contain no fewer natural benefits than all dry land together. Take, for example, seawater. Every inhabitant of the Earth has almost three hundred million cubic meters of this salty water. And it's not just dry numbers. In one cubic meter of salted sea liquid contains a huge amount of salt (cookery), magnesium, potassium and bromine. It is noteworthy that even gold is present in the chemical composition of the water. It is truly precious! In addition, it serves as a continuous source for the extraction of iodine.

But the seas and oceans are rich not only with water. Countless useful mineral resources are extracted from the bottom of the world's oceans. It is well known that oil and gas play the most important role. Black gold is extracted mainly from the continental shelves. The gas also accounts for about ninety percent of the natural reserves that are extracted from the seabed.

But not only this is a value for the world industry. The main wealth of deep-sea deposits are ferromanganese nodules. These amazing materials, formed at great depth, can contain up to thirty different metals! The first attempt to get them off the seabed was undertaken by the United States of America in the seventies. The object of research they chose the waters of the Hawaiian Islands.

Geographical distribution of natural goods on the surface of the Earth

The geography of the world's natural resources is quite diverse. Recent evidence has confirmed that land is most effectively used by countries such as the United States of America, India, Russia and China. Huge areas for arable land and land cultivation make it possible for these countries to make full use of the land reserves of nature. If we talk about mineral springs, then their distribution is not quite uniform. The ores are mainly located in the central and eastern parts of Europe. The largest oil deposits are in the depths of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China also have a large number of stocks of this good. Unfortunately, the natural resources of the countries of the world are rapidly drying up. For humanity, the point of no return becomes more and more real.

Problems and prospects associated with the use of natural reserves

The environment is a complex and not fully understood world. People only slightly opened the veil of secrets and mysteries of the only "living" planet. Since the dawn of human history, they have tried to conquer the elements of nature for their own good. As you can see, man has always exerted a significant influence on the ecological state of the Earth. Over time, it grew more and more. New technologies and scientific progress played a fundamental role in this. Unfortunately, the invasion of man into nature caused the problems of the world's natural resources.

New opportunities for humanity

In the first centuries, the inexhaustible biological resources of nature were used more, but now, in the age of progress, people penetrated the seabed, deep into the mountain ranges and drilled wells for tens of meters into the ground. This made it possible to find hitherto inaccessible natural resources. People carefully studied the components of the natural environment. Minerals, ore and coal deposits have opened the doors for the use of powerful energy.

Fatal errors

However, along with high scientific and technical achievements, serious environmental problems appeared. And, unfortunately, in this at most the man's hand is to blame. His active work has become the main cause of problems associated with natural resources. Recently, the word "ecology" has become more and more popular. Everyone wants to drink clean water, breathe clean fresh air and not get sick, but few people think that this requires conscious efforts of everyone. Indeed, during the years of human life on Earth, the useful components of the natural environment have significantly decreased, and the pollution of the ecology has reached its peak point. If we talk about the state of the atmosphere, its age-old shell is so thin that it can soon provoke an ecological catastrophe. The reason for this was uncontrolled emissions of waste due to robots of industrial enterprises. Toxic vapors and harmful gases cause the strongest blows on the state of the biosphere.

Water is also not in the best condition. There are very few rivers left on the planet that would be free from contamination and debris. Together with sewage, a huge amount of pesticides and other fertilizers fall into them. Most sewerage and drainage canals also bring their polluted waters to rivers and seas. This provokes a rapid growth of mud - algae, which harm the river flora and fauna. Every week thousands of cubic meters of "dead" moisture enter the World Ocean. Nitrates and other poisons are more and more seeping into the ground and underground waters.

Attempts of people to fix something

In most of the leading countries, laws to protect the environment have been enacted to date, but the threat of complete pollution of the environment has not become less relevant.

The eternal opposition of industrial companies and representatives of the international organization Greenpeace gives only temporary results. The second place in terms of the degree of contamination (after the atmosphere) is occupied by the water of the World Ocean. It has the property of self-cleaning, but in reality this process does not succeed in achieving its goal. The accumulation of debris in the waters causes a mass extinction of many species of animals.

Oil production from the ocean floor is often not crowned with success, as a result of which huge oil spills appear on the surface of the water surface. Their oily structure does not miss oxygen and millions of living creatures that live in the sea can not saturate their body with clean air.

Negative impact on wildlife

Emissions of toxic waste into rivers and seas affect even large inhabitants of water depths. Big fish confuse garbage with food and swallow various tin and plastic objects. This sad statistics shows the problems and prospects for the future.

Humanity has yet to learn how to properly handle the surrounding ecosystem. People are created for a happy, and most importantly - a healthy life on Earth. However, a number of mistakes led the world to an environmental catastrophe.

Over time, it became clear that solving the problem is fundamentally possible only thanks to the responsible approach of every inhabitant of the planet. And the expression that "one in the field is not a warrior" is inappropriate here. In fact, each person is able to make a valuable contribution to preserving the natural resources of the world. After a little reflection, you can take concrete steps towards clean ecology. A good start will be the planting of trees and garbage collection on its territory. A person can not change the world, but everyone can change himself!