NATURAL RESOURCES

RESOURCE: Anything useful or can be made useful to humans to meet their needs and wants

NATURAL RESOURCE:

·         A resource available directly /indirectly from nature in raw form

·         Goods and services supplied by nature or environment

Examples: Fresh air, water, soil, land, forest etc.

·         Natural resources are differentiated from manufactured goods. For example, trees, fish are natural resources, but furniture and prepared meals are not natural resources.

·         Solar energy, coal, wind and water are natural resources while electricity is not a natural resource

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TYPES OF NATURAL RESOURCES:

·         Living and Nonliving

·         Renewable: Solar energy, winds, tides

·         Non-renewable: Minerals (metallic and non-metallic) and fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas)

NATURAL RESOURCES DEPLETION:

Resources are utilized at a faster rate than they are replaced

NATURAL REPLACEMENT RATE/ SUSTAINABLE YIELD (SY)

·         Sustainable yield or natural replacement rate is the highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used without decreasing its potential for natural replacement.

·         If sustainable yield is more than the base supply of natural resources that resource starts declining and gradually it leads to degradation of resource.