They are not living things, and they are sometimes hard to find. They don't regrow and they are not replaced or renewed. They include the fossil fuels we burn for energy natural gas, coal, and oil.
Minerals, used for making metals, are also nonrenewable natural resources. Nonrenewable natural resources are things that take longer than a person's lifespan to be replaced. In fact, they can take millions of years to form.
Fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas will not last forever. They are nonrenewable. People are trying hard to find new fuels that are clean and will provide the power we need. Wind, solar, and hydrogen power are renewable resources that offer hope for the future. People use both types of natural resources to produce the things they need or want.
Our homes, clothing, plastics, and foods are all made from natural resources. Let's look at each one of these to be sure. Your home is in a building. Buildings are made out of wood and minerals. Wood is from trees. Minerals are mined from the ground. Bricks, cement, and metals are made from minerals. How about your clothes? Most of your clothing is made from cotton, polyester, or nylon.
Cotton comes from cotton plants. Polyester and nylon are made from oil. Plastics are made from oil too. How about your food? People eat grains, fruits, and other parts of plants. You may also enjoy dairy products and meat from animals.
Everything we have or use is made from a natural resource. Which of those mentioned here are renewable? Which are nonrenewable? All natural resources should be used wisely. We must conserve natural resources. Conserve means to not use up, spoil, or waste things. This is especially true for the nonrenewable resources. However, even some renewable natural resources can run out if they are all killed or overused.
We must also protect our natural resources from pollution. Pollution occurs when people put harmful chemicals and other things into nature. Oil spilled in water, toxic chemicals in the air, or garbage dumped on the side of the road are examples of this problem. You can reduce, reuse, and recycle! For example, turn off the lights when you are not in a room. This will reduce the use of fossil fuel used to make electricity.
Ride your bicycle and walk more, to reduce the amount of gasoline used to transport you. You can reuse things. Things like plastic jugs, jars, paper, and bags can be reused. Each time you reuse something, you conserve the natural resources that would have been used to make new ones. Finally, you can recycle. Recycle means to reuse a natural resource or product to make something new.
It also means to collect and send these things for reuse. Items that can be easily recycled include: glass, some plastics, paper, cardboard, aluminum, and steel. Some plastics and metals are hard to recycle. They are often made from mixtures of materials. Mixtures can be hard to separate. Try to buy and use things that you can recycle. Where does your garbage go when you throw it away? One place it goes is to a landfill. A landfill is a place made for safely putting garbage.
Garbage must stay closed in the landfill so it doesn't pollute the ground, air, or water. Another place that garbage can go is into an incinerator.
An incinerator is a large oven that burns garbage down to ashes. The ashes are then put in a landfill. A third place that some types of garbage can go is into a compost pile. A compost pile is made from natural garbage such as food scraps, leaves, and grass clippings.
Compost piles help this garbage rot. After it rots, it can be put back on the earth to fertilize plants. The movement of garbage from a home or community to one of these places, like a landfill, is called the waste stream. Natural resources, both renewable and nonrenewable, are important to all of us. We must conserve and carefully use natural resources. Our future depends on them. Written by Sanford S.
Deeter, undergraduate student. Support for the production and printing of this document was provided by the U. Let's Stay Connected. By entering your email, you consent to receive communications from Penn State Extension. Wind power requires average wind speeds of at least meters per second because power dramatically drops off as speed decreases by the speed cubed 5. Though this slightly limits possible construction sites, wind power still has robust geographical flexibility compared to other sources.
However, energy storage is also needed to handle intermittent wind during peak usage. Hydroelectric energy extraction is limited to regions with flowing and falling water, which, in conjunction with its many environmental costs 6 , severely limits scalability such that it will likely always be relegated as a supplementary resource.
Biomass has also become a controversial renewable because any land used to produce biofuel could also be used for food supply 7. This will become an increasingly divisive political issue as the global population strains Earth's carrying capacity. Finally, fossil fuels depend on access to underground stores. Dramatically increased consumption since the industrial revolution has drained all the easy-to-reach fields, so more money and technology is required to reach unconventional sources or those in extreme climates, such as the Alaskan and Siberian fields.
As more money is spent to extract from these sources, the price of oil will increase, making other energy sources more competitive. We can see that not all renewables are created equally. The key properties we need to consider are 1 the rate at which we consume a given source compared to its renewability timescale and 2 how accessibility limits a source's scalability. The former depends on how long it takes for the initial light energy to transform to the final form used, and the latter depends on how this final energy source is localized in the environment.
In general nomenclature, renewable resources are those with timescales short enough that we can replenish their stocks in reasonable amounts of time. This explains the nonrenewability of fossil fuels - they are technically renewable over the course of millions of years, as new organic material anaerobically decomposes and traps carbon far beneath the Earth's surface. But this timescale is only sustainable if we consumed energy at a rate equal to this renewal, which could never happen!
Their accessibility was also an extreme advantage in the last two centuries, but this benefit is waning as sources diminish. Certain renewables have advantages only in timescale or accessibility, but not both.
Biomass is often touted as a potential renewable source, but its competition with land use for food production will likely limit its large-scale accessibility. Similarly, hydroelectric production has a short renewability timescale but its accessibility is limited by its use in rivers and streams.
Climate change will lead to drought and change in river volumes, factors that need to be considered before using significant capital to construct hydroelectric facilities. Considering the balance of renewability and accessibility, solar and wind energy sources appear most promising. Their immediate renewability combined with geographic flexibility make them prime candidates to replace coal-fired power plants that supply energy to most of our electrical grid.
The current obstacles for implementation are 1 improving battery and supercapacitor performance so power from these sources can be consistently provided to the grid at peak hours, and 2 improving photovoltaic efficiency, which is currently limited to less than 30 percent in single-junction cells 8. Wind energy is reaching parity with coal prices 9,10 and its share of total energy production should continue to grow. All renewables will be an important component to a diversified energy portfolio, but understanding the physical origins of each provides information about consumption rates and scalability, limiting factors which we should keep in mind when considering them as replacements for our fossil fuel economy!
Science , 6 , Energy Information Administration. Short-Term Energy Outlook , Accessed Jan 16, Renewable and Sustainable Enegy Reviews, 27, January 21, By: Kate Whittington. Aa Aa Aa. Ode to the Sun. January 22, AM. Posted By: Jonathan Walter. Posted By: Nathan E. Thank you for this great post! This really helped me with some of the basic science behind renewables - it was also very digestible. I also thought the comment that the effect of climate change will make certain renewables more or less predictable was a great point Particularly with the upcoming struggles for land and water, it's really important to consider the political implications of investing in infrastructure that keeps our world as peaceful as possible, especially as it gets hotter.
As a self-described liberal, I am confused by the science and not sure what I support; all the while, it's happening despite my ignorance!
It'd be nice to be more informed about the science that informs policies that I can then support or not from an educated stance! Email your Friend. Submit Cancel. July 08, Goodbye and thank you! June 16, Desert dust increases harmful marine bacteria June 09, The greening of Vancouver June 03, Phosphorescent concrete could light the way home.
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