4GEO - Sustainable Resources: Home

Try using these keywords when searching Encyclopedia Britannica or other websites:

• Water
• Wood
• Timber
• Minerals
• Fossil fuels
• Sustainability
• Alternative energy
• Water conservation
• Forest conservation
• Natural resources
• Renewable resources

A natural resource is anything we use that comes from the Earth – like plants, animals, water, wood, oil and metals. We use natural resources to make electricity, to grow our food and to drive our cars. In fact, everything that we eat, use or buy has been made from, or is, a natural resource.

Natural resources are all around us and we are using them up quickly. Many resources are being used up faster than they can be replaced. It is a worry that some natural resources will run out soon if their consumption is not reduced. This is a serious problem, as all life depends on these resources.

To use natural resources sustainably we need to rethink which resources we use and how we use them. We should also ask ourselves if we really need to use them in the first place.

Sustainable resource use occurs when our rate of consumption can continue forever without damaging the environment. To do this we should try to:

• use renewable resources, like wind, solar energy instead of non-renewable resources, like fossil fuels.
  • use those resources which cause less harm to the environment.
  • cut back on the amount of natural resources, and in particular non-renewable resources we use, by reducing, reusing and recycling.

Humans will always need natural resources to live, so when we consume resources we should keep in mind the needs of future generations.

https://www.olliesworld.com/planet/aus/info/info/sr_nr05.htm

• Rating: 

  E       Production Year:  2013    Duration: 3:23

• We all share a planet that gives us water, air, food, raw materials... But all of these things are not eternal or inexhaustible. They must be used in a sustainable way. Do you know what sustainability means?

• Rating: 

  E    Production Year: 2014     Duration: 2:36

• This unit introduces concepts such as water as a limited resource and water footprints; explaining to students what the impact on the environment of the production of goods has.

• Rating: 

  E     Production Year: 2014   Duration: 3:28

• Understand the important role that forests play in the natural environment and the ways that humans must protect forests.

The machines that make modern life easier require energy to make them run. About 90 per cent of that energy comes from burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuels include petroleum (oil), coaland natural gas. These materials are called fossil fuels because, like fossils, they are the remains of organisms that lived long ago. Organisms are plants, animals and other living things.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019