Exhausted and inexhaustible resources. What happens to the inexhaustible riches of the Earth?

Man has long learned to enjoy all the benefits that the planet provides him. Since our appearance, the number of people has increased hundreds of thousands of times. Our "appetites" are growing, consumption of resources, too. Sometimes people forget that they are not eternal. What happens to the inexhaustible riches of the Earth? What types of resources exist?

Types of resources

The constituent elements of the surrounding world, which people use in economic activities, are called natural resources. Over time, people's perceptions of resources have changed. Discovering new elements, developing technology, more and more components of nature, people turned into their resources.

By origin or by type of natural components, they are divided into mineral, animal, land, water, soil, climatic and vegetable. Depending on the scope of application, they are divided into agricultural, industrial, recreational, scientific and aesthetic. In terms of importance, allocate interchangeable and irreplaceable components. The first include fuel and mineral resources, the latter - air and drinking water.

All living beings use the components of nature, the greatest extent is covered by man. Their number is not always unlimited, based on this, they are divided into exhaustible and inexhaustible. More details about them we learn further.

Exhaustion resources

The reserves of some resources are strictly limited. In this case, they are called exhaustible. Usually they are divided into recoverable and non-renewable. The latter include the wealth that man extracts from the depths of the earth. They include mineral and fuel resources, for example, oil, gas, metal ores, precious and semiprecious stones.

According to calculations, metals, such as tin, copper and lead, a man will be exhausted for 50 years. Iron and aluminum will last from 300 to 500 years. For oil and gas - the resources on which many countries depend heavily, the forecasts are also disappointing. Researchers claim that their reserves will end after 200 years.

Soils, flora and fauna are recoverable resources. They interact closely with each other and with other resources, so their condition affects the environmental situation.

What happens to the inexhaustible riches of the Earth?

Resources are called inexhaustible if their number practically does not change with time. Even after prolonged use, they do not stop. These include solar, light, thermal and wind energy, tides. Sometimes the list gets water, air and soil.

These resources are considered inexhaustible. It is difficult to imagine that you can fully use the energy produced by the forces of nature or destroy all water and soil on the planet. However, there is a nuance here too. What happens to the inexhaustible riches of the Earth? They lose their quality.

Unsustainable human activity leads to their contamination. In this case, the effectiveness of resources is significantly reduced. It is more correct to call them conditionally inexhaustible, since even the sun will someday go out.

Climate

The climate is a long-term weather regime, formed in a certain area. It includes solar and thermal energy, pressure, humidity, etc. The totality of its properties is used for agricultural activities.

They create conditions for the existence of various plant and animal species, and are therefore widely used in agriculture. An important factor is the number of light days per year, the mode of precipitation and winds, the thickness of the snow cover in winter.

On the territory of our planet they are distributed unevenly. The most favorable conditions for agricultural activity are temperate belts, the least suitable are the northern regions.

The climatic riches of the Earth are used to create solar and wind power stations. In the tropical latitudes, the sun is more active, so there are installed photovoltaic cells for energy production. In places with constant strong winds (Baltic, North Sea) are placed windmills.

Water resources

Water is the main wealth of the Earth. Water resources can include both groundwater and surface water. They cover all the rivers, seas, lakes that people use. Their total number on the planet is approximately 1,400 million cubic kilometers. Canada, Brazil and Russia have the largest number. There are also extremely arid regions, where water bodies or precipitation are a rarity.

This wealth of the Earth people use everywhere for domestic purposes, also water is used in agriculture and industry. In this case, certain manipulations with natural water bodies are often carried out. For their needs, people often desalinate or change the direction and boundaries of objects, for example, in the construction of reservoirs.

The resource is used for irrigation, for steam generation, heating of premises. In industry, water is used for cooling. Mineral water man uses for treatment and recreation. In everyday life, it is necessary for sanitary and hygienic purposes, as well as for drinking.

Human influence on resources

Anthropogenic activities are a major factor in the depletion of resources. With the development of humanity consumption only increases. People often do not realize what is happening with the inexhaustible riches of the Earth.

Considering their eternal resources, a person forgets about the gradual deterioration of their quality. Reckless consumption of water without the use of cleaning stations leads to its contamination. Every year the planet becomes less water, suitable for drinking.

Exhaust gases, industrial emissions from factories and plants change the composition of the atmosphere. It contains more impurities of nitrogen, methane and carbon dioxide. Deforestation, in turn, reduces the amount of oxygen that plants produce.

All this is reflected not only in the state of nature. The quality of human life also becomes lower. This does not mean that a person should stop using resources. It's enough just to change your approach and technologies for their consumption.