3 reasons why natural resoures are importance?

Answer 1

There are hundreds, if not thousands of reasons why natural resources are of critical importance to human beings. Here's a couple of the more important and obvious ones:

1. Mining ores. The resources which are stored in the earth as ores are dug up, processed and converted into just about any product which you care to name, from cars (which are made of iron, steel, copper (the wires), magnesium (a component of the alloys of which modern engines are made)) to plastics (a byproduct of the mining of crude oil).

2. Timber. This is an incredibly valuable natural resource which allows most humans to have a permanent shelter. Without the wise use of timber, we're going to face a situation where there will not be any forests left for us to use for not only harvesting of timber but as a place to enjoy and as a home for most animals which cohabit with us.

3. Water. Often overlooked as a natural resource, without it we (and every other species) would simply be unable to survive.

The abuses which we are subjecting such resources are getting out of hand. If you think of the planet's store of resources as "money in the bank", we are taught that if you have such an account and it's what you are relying on to live, you only spend the interest which your money accumulates. The way we are living our lives at the moment (especially in the West) is more akin to spending the capital, which is not renewable! Once the hypothetical person above exhausts their capital, they would die, because they have no way to accumulate further capital. This is the same with our planet - once we run out of a natural resource (like oil, which has been predicted to occur within 50 years), where are we going to get more??

We MUST seriously look at the way we are using such resources in light of their rapid depletion and the predictions that we are heading for a crisis of epic proportions through the effects of, amongst other things, pumping vast quantities of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.

Hope this helps!

Love and Light,

Jarrah