Chapter 19: Conserving Resources Table of Contents Chapter 19: Conserving Resources Section 1: Resources

Resources 1 A. Natural Resources 1. Natural resources are the parts of the environment that are useful or necessary for the survival of living organisms. 2. You need food, air, and water. You also use resources to make everything from clothes to cars. 3. Natural resources supply energy for automobiles and power plants.

Resources 1 B. Renewable Resources 1. The Sun provides a constant supply of heat and light. Rain fills lakes and streams with water. Plants carry out photosynthesis and add oxygen to the air. 2. Sunlight, water, air, and crops are examples of renewable resources. 3. A renewable resource is any natural resource that is recycled or replaced constantly by nature.

Resources 1 C. Supply and Demand 1. Even though renewable resources are recycled or replaced, they are sometimes in short supply. 2. In some parts of the world, especially desert regions, water and other resources usually are scarce.

D. Nonrenewable Resources 1 D. Nonrenewable Resources 1. Natural resources that are used up more quickly than they can be replaced by natural processes are nonrenewable resources. 2. Earth’s supply of nonrenewable resources is limited.

D. Nonrenewable Resources 1 D. Nonrenewable Resources 3. Plastics, paint, and gasoline are made from an important nonrenewable resource called petroleum, or oil. 4. Petroleum is formed mostly from the remains of microscopic marine organisms buried in the Earth’s crust. 5. It is nonrenewable because it takes hundreds of millions of years for it to form.

Resources 1 E. Fossil Fuels 1. Coal, oil, and natural gas are nonrenewable resources that supply energy. 2. Most of the energy you use comes from these fossil fuels. 3.Fossil fuels are fuels formed in Earth’s crust over hundreds of millions of years.

Resources 1 E. Fossil Fuels 4. Gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel are made from oil. 5. Coal is used in many power plants to produce electricity. 6. Natural gas is used in manufacturing, for heating and cooking, and sometimes as a vehicle fuel.

F. Fossil Fuel Conservation Resources 1 F. Fossil Fuel Conservation 1. Because fossil fuels are nonrenewable, Earth’s supply of them is limited and the use of fossil fuels can lead to environmental problems. 2. Mining coal can require stripping away thick layers of soil and rock, which destroys ecosystems. 3. The burning of fossil fuels produces waste gases that cause air pollution, including smog and acid rain.

F. Fossil Fuel Conservation Resources 1 F. Fossil Fuel Conservation 4. You can use simple conservation measures to help reduce fossil fuel use. 5. Switch off the light when you leave a room and turn off the television when you’re not watching it. These actions reduce your use of electricity. 6. Walking or riding a bicycle uses even less fossil fuel.

G. Alternatives to Fossil Fuels Resources 1 G. Alternatives to Fossil Fuels 1. Much of the electricity used today comes from power plants that burn fossil fuels.

G. Alternatives to Fossil Fuels Resources 1 G. Alternatives to Fossil Fuels 2. Electricity is generated when a rotating turbine turns a coil of wires in the magnetic field of an electric generator. 3. Fossil-fuel power plants boil water to produce steam that turns the turbine. 4. Alternative energy resources, including water, wind, and atomic energy can be used to turn turbines.

Resources 1 H. Water Power 1. Hydroelectric power is electricity that is produced when the energy of falling water is used to turn the turbines of an electric generator. 2. Hydroelectric power does not contribute to air pollution because no fuel is burned. However, it does present environmental concerns.

Resources 1 H. Water Power 3. Building a hydroelectric plant usually involves constructing a dam across a river. 4. The dam raises the water level high enough to produce the energy required for electricity generation. 5. Many acres behind the dam are flooded, destroying land habitats and changing part of the river into a lake.

Resources 1 I. Wind Power 1. Wind turns the blades of a turbine, which powers an electric generator. 2. When wind blows at least 32 km/h, energy is produced. 3. Wind power does not cause air pollution, but electricity can be produced only when the wind is blowing.

Resources 1 J. Nuclear Power 1. Nuclear energy is released when billions of atomic nuclei from uranium, a radioactive element, are split apart in a nuclear fission reactor. 2. This energy is used to produce steam that rotates the turbine blades of an electric generator.

Resources 1 J. Nuclear Power 3. Nuclear power does not contribute to air pollution. However, uranium is a nonrenewable resource, and mining it can disrupt ecosystems. 4. Nuclear power plants also produce radioactive wastes that can seriously harm living organisms.

Resources 1 J. Nuclear Power

Resources 1 K. Geothermal Energy 1. The hot, molten rock that lies deep beneath Earth’s surface is also a source of energy. 2. The heat energy contained in Earth’s crust is called geothermal energy.

Resources 1 K. Geothermal Energy 3. Most geothermal power plants use this energy to produce steam to generate electricity.

Resources 1 K. Geothermal Energy 4. Geothermal energy for power plants is available only where natural geysers or volcanoes are found.

Resources 1 K. Geothermal Energy 5. The island nation of Iceland was formed by volcanoes, and geothermal energy is plentiful there.

Resources 1 K. Geothermal Energy 6. Geothermal power plants supply heat and electricity to about 90 percent of the homes in Iceland.

Resources 1 L. Solar Energy 1. Solar energy is an alternative to fossil fuels. It is an inexhaustible source of energy – it cannot be used up. 2. One use of solar energy is in solar-heated buildings.

Resources 1 M. Solar Cells 1. Solar-powered calculators use photovoltaic (foh toh vohl TAY ihk) cells to turn sunlight into electric current. 2. Light energy from the sun travels in tiny packets of energy called photons.

Resources 1 M. Solar Cells 3. Photons crash into the atoms of PV cells, knocking electrons loose. These electrons create an electric current. 4. Photovoltaic (PV) cells, also known as solar cells, are small and easy to use.

Resources 1 M. Solar Cells 5. But they can produce electricity only in sunlight. Batteries are needed to store electricity for use at night or on cloudy days. 6. PV cells are considered too expensive to use to make large amounts of electricity.

Question 1 1 Which is a renewable resource? A. coal B. natural gas Section Check 1 Question 1 Which is a renewable resource? A. coal B. natural gas C. oil D. water

Question 2 1 Which is NOT an alternative energy source? Section Check 1 Question 2 Which is NOT an alternative energy source? A. atomic energy B. natural gas C. water D. wind

Question 3 1 This illustration is an example of a _______. Section Check 1 Question 3 This illustration is an example of a _______.

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