Geography
Exploitation of Natural Resources
The exploitation of natural resources refers to the utilization of Earth's resources such as water, minerals, forests, and fossil fuels for economic gain. This often involves extraction, processing, and consumption of these resources, which can lead to environmental degradation, habitat destruction, and depletion of finite resources. Sustainable management and conservation efforts are essential to mitigate the negative impacts of resource exploitation.
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eBook - ePubExploring Environmental Issues
An Integrated Approach
- David D. Kemp(Author)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Chapter 7 .PRESSURE ON LAND: RESOURCE EXTRACTION AND DEPLETION
RESOURCE EXTRACTION
Society has a long history of extracting minerals from the land, to be used in construction, to make tools or in many cases for decoration. They are essential components of modern industrial economies, and since individual countries seldom have all of the mineral resources they need, they have always been important elements in international trade. With the earth/atmosphere being a closed system in material terms, the survival of the developed nations at their current level and the economic advancement of the developing nations requires that these resources continue to be extracted from the land. The mining and mineral extraction industries of the future will continue to share some of the characteristics of the past, but they are also compelled to consider the broader environmental impact of their activities. The search for high-grade raw materials has always been part of the mining industry and is unlikely to change. For many minerals, if not most, the better-quality resources have been found, however, and are already being worked or in some cases have been exhausted. As a result, the industry is working with lower-quality deposits, which are more costly to extract, often have marginal profitability and require the extraction of greater volumes of unwanted crustal material. The resulting waste is a source of a number of environmental problems and the modern mining industry has evolved to deal with such problems, often under the pressure of environmental legislation. Environmental impact assessments are required before major mineral extraction projects are allowed and the results of the assessment may lead to the abandonment of the project, or its modification to reduce the perceived impact. In theory, a project should be allowed to proceed only if the impact statement indicates minimal environmental disruption, but in some cases, often for political or socio-economic reasons, a potentially disruptive development is permitted. In developing countries, for example, it is not uncommon for a higher level of environmental pollution than would be allowed by an environmental impact assessment to be traded off against reduced unemployment and poverty.
- Navale Pandharinath(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
CHAPTER - 3Natural Resources
Scientists are of the opinion, “life will cease on the earth when the energy resources of the planet earth are exhausted.”3.1 NATURAL RESOURCES - (A) LAND RESOURCESThe basic needs of man are Roti (food), Kapda (clothes) and Makan (habitat). Man is a social being and hence developed villages, towns and cities. Ever since man learnt to eat cooked food, he is dependent on fire and now on various types fuels. For all this requirements, man is dependent on natural resources mainly fertile soil (for agriculture), sufficient water, green forests and rich minerals & biological diversity.Natural resources may be categorized as inorganic (like air, water, mineral fuels etc) and organic (like plants, animals, microbes & their products). Besides the above two categories some are renewable and others are non-renewable. Thus environment weighs for man’s safety and wellbeing. It is the duty of every citizen to safeguard the environment. Natural resources/environmental management must be catering (i) food security (ii) water security (iii) energy security and (iv) sustainable development.Food security depends on land resources, which include 1. Land use, 2. Waste land mapping and updating 3. Corridor survey and 4. Land cover dynamics.
eBook - ePubEconomic Growth
International Edition
- David N. Weil(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
In the world today, the two most important resources in this category are the ocean and the atmosphere. In recent years, countries have extended economic exclusion zones far beyond their coastlines in an effort to claim property rights over ocean fish—indeed, in 1975, Britain and Iceland came to the brink of war over Iceland’s declaration of a 200-mile (320-kilometer) exclusion zone for cod fishing. Despite such efforts, many fish that swim in international waters are being overexploited. The total quantity of wild fish harvested worldwide rose from 20 million tons in 1950 to 96 million tons in 2009. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 53% of world fish stocks are currently being exploited at the maximum sustainable yield, and 28% are being exploited beyond that level. 6 In the case of the atmosphere, the problem is not the depletion of a resource but rather pollution. As we will see later in this chapter, however, the economic analysis is the same. Because no one “owns” an unpolluted atmosphere, there is a tragedy of the commons in which producers abuse their ability to dump pollutants into the atmosphere. Resources and production Our interest in natural resources stems from the fact that resources are used in the production of output. Without land to grow food, raw materials from which to make goods, and energy to power machines, economic activity would cease altogether. Table 16.2 looks at the use of a particularly important resource, energy, by countries grouped according to income. (The data are for the year 2008). The table shows, not surprisingly, that energy consumption rises with income per capita. When we compare the richest with the poorest group of countries, per capita energy use differs by a factor of 14. Using Table 16.2, we can do a simple calculation: Suppose that everyone in the world used the same per-capita quantity of energy as people in the high-income group of countries
eBook - ePubA Planet of 3 Billion
Mapping Humanity's Long History of Ecological Destruction and Finding Our Way to a Resilient Future | A Global Citizen's Guide to Saving the Planet
- Christopher Kevin Tucker(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Atlas Observatory Press(Publisher)
What kinds of data might be available to help us understand the impacts of the industrialization of our global landscape? It is important to acknowledge that this chapter could be endless were we to account for every single change to Earth’s surface that humans have unleashed at industrial scale. In the interest of brevity, however, we will attempt to provide a rigorous geographical accounting of only five layers of activity.First, building on the earlier discussion of deforestation in pursuit of fuel, fiber, and building materials, we will focus on industrial-scale extraction of resources from Earth and their use in combustion, in particular. Second, we will reconstruct the major waves of industrialized agriculture that have swept the global landscape and seascape, feeding the growing human civilization at the expense of historical ecosystems. Third, we will explore where and when factories, broadly interpreted, were created to manufacture goods at scale to serve both the needs of the urban populations that grew to support the mass manufacturing enterprise and the needs of others outside of cities. Fourth, we will explore the expansion of infrastructure of various types across the globe, the proximate ecological impacts of different classes of infrastructure, and how infrastructure has enabled access to previously inaccessible lands for settlement and resource exploitation. Fifth, and last, we will view all of this accounting through the lens of urbanization, and particularly through the lens of urban sprawl, suburbanization, and the informal settlements that have come to decimate countrysides around the world—all due to a failure to preemptively plan and strategically invest in sustainable urbanization.11Certainly there are more dimensions to the human ecological footprint that was made so boldly during the past few centuries of industrialization. I am confident, however, that these five dimensions, when addressed geographically, will make the point that humanity has done so much to industrialize the landscape of our planet that we will have to take concerted actions to lighten this footprint if we are to hope to escape the ecological trap that we have set for ourselves.
eBook - ePub- Rongxing Guo(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Elsevier(Publisher)
Chapter 6Exploiting Natural Resources in Cross-Border Areas
Abstract
Naturally and institutionally, the Exploitation of Natural Resources in cross-border areas can be classified into at least four categories including: (1) solid resources, fixed boundaries; (2) fixed boundaries, fluid resources; (3) solid resources, uncertain boundaries and (4) uncertain boundaries, fluid resources. Over the course of the past decades, various bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements have been successfully arranged for the cross-border Exploitation of Natural Resources throughout the world. Considered in terms of the sophistication of institutional arrangements from the simplest to the most complex, five cross-border development models will be discussed in this chapter: (1) solo-development model, (2) parallel-development model, (3) joint venture model, (4) joint authority model and (5) political trusteeship model. These models vary in terms of institutional complexity, participatory status and ease in implementation, as well as in terms of the features of disputed areas designated for development and of the states interested in the disputed areas.Keywords
Natural resource; fluid resource; uncertain boundary; border area; cross-border exploitation; joint venture; joint authority; political trusteeship6.1 Solid Resources, Fixed Boundaries
6.1.1 Depletion of Natural Resources
Large-scale exploitation of mineral and energy resources has been growingly conducted since the Industrial Revolution was initiated in the second half of the 18th century in England. Now, in the 21st century, advanced technologies have enabled humans to dig deeper and to make those lower grades of ore that were once treated as of uselessness economically profitable. As a result, most industrial metals (copper, iron, bauxite, etc.), as well as other minerals and natural resources that are crucial to human survival, are facing production output limitations from.
