Our Needs and Wants… and the Environment

Learning Goals: Describe how people use natural resources to meet their own needs Explore different perspectives on using natural resources Describe some responses to the challenges of natural resource use Analyze the interrelationships among the location of natural resources and how they are used

Often, we buy things without thinking about where they come from and their impact on the environment. Example: Tea Plantations

Types of Natural Resources: Natural Resources: Materials that are found in nature. Renewable Resources: Resources that can replace themselves as long as we use them carefully. Flow Resources: Resources that must be used when and where it is found or it is lost. They come back without us having to do anything. Non Renewable Resources: Resources that are limited in supply. Once we use these them, they are gone. Cannot be replaced. Sustainable: An approach to using resources in a way that does not use them up or destroy them for a long time.

Natural Resources Renewable Non Renewable Flow

Natural Resource

Non Renewable Resource

Flow Resource

Sustainability: Farmers need to rotate their crops Growing different plants in the same location This uses different kinds of nutrients in the soil to help preserve the land If a single type of plant is grown in the same spot, the soil becomes unusable

Remember Plate Tectonics? The movement of the Earth’s plates help free up the oil and gas This movement brings these resources closer to the Earth’s surface Extract: This means to remove the resource from its natural environment

Physical Environment Climate in the different environments around the globe determine what natural resources can be found there

Global Products- The Life of a Computer pg. 143