The Natural World

•Renewable Resources

•Nonrenewable Resources

•Inexhaustible Resources

Try to imagine a world without the natural resources we use to fuel our cars, light

our homes and pave our highway.

Natural resources run our cars, rocket ships, video games, factories, and

practically our entire lives.

All forms of transportation-walking, riding a bus, riding your bike or

horse, or driving a car-use energy. However, some forms use energy

that can be renewed, and some use energy that can’t be renewed.

We can divide all sources of energy and materials into three categories:

inexhaustible, renewable, and nonrenewable.

Resource: Natural materials that are considered valuable.

What is a resource?

Inexhaustible Resources

Inexhaustible Resources: Resources that have no practical

limits, such as solar or hydrothermal energy.

Inexhaustible resources, such as sunlight, cannot be used

up. Water is considered inexhaustible because the Earth will always have the

same amount of water

Air, wood, cotton, food, water, land, trees, fish, fertile agriculture, soils, crops and wildlife

are renewal natural

resources.

Renewable Resources: •Resources that can be replaced over a relatively short time period, such as fresh water, hydroelectric power, or living resources. •Renewable Resources are resources that can grow again and will last (as long as they are not overexploited).

Renewable Resources

Non-renewable Resources include minerals and fossil fuels.

Aluminum, tin, copper coal, oil, and natural gas are

examples of non-renewable resources.

These exist in limited quantities and can’t be replenished by natural processes within

the foreseeable future.

For example, fossil fuels, which are the remnants of prehistoric organisms, take millions of years to form.

Non-renewable Resources

Non-renewable Resources: Resources

that accumulate over such a long period of time that they must be considered

as fixed, such as minerals or fossil fuels.