Unit 3: Natural Resources:

Renewable and Non-

renewable Resources

• Land resources and land use change; Land degradation, soil erosion and
desertification.
• Deforestation: Causes and impacts due to mining, dam building on
environment, forests, biodiversity and tribal populations.
• Water : Use and over-exploitation of surface and ground water, floods,
droughts, conflicts over water (international & inter-state).
• Energy resources : Renewable and non-renewable energy sources, use
of alternate energy sources, growing energy needs, case studies.
 Natural resources
• Our environment provides us with a variety of goods and services
necessary for our day to day lives.
• Natural resources include, air, water, soil, minerals, which form the
non-living or ‘abiotic’ part of nature.
• The ‘biotic’ or living parts of nature consists of plants and animals,
including microbes.

• Renewable- which can be generated again- water, forest

• Non-renewable- which cannot be generated/produced again-
minerals,
 Renewable resources
• Water and biological living resources are renewable.
• Renewable only within certain limits.
• Fresh water - overused or wasted , heavily polluted by sewage and toxic substances
that it becomes impossible to use the water.
• Forests, once destroyed take thousands of years to regrow- can be non-renewable
resources if overused.
• Fish - over-harvested - incapable of breeding successfully to replenish the population.
• Agricultural land if mismanaged drops drastically.
• Population of a species of plant or animal is reduced by human activities, until it
cannot reproduce fast enough to maintain a viable number, the species becomes
extinct.
• Many species are probably becoming extinct without us even knowing, and other
linked species are affected by their loss.
 Non-renewable resources
• Formed in the lithosphere over millions of years
• Once used, remain on earth in a different form and, unless recycled,
become waste material.
• Fossil fuels such as oil and coal - will soon be totally used up.
Over-utilization and
degradation of resources
• Mankind - overusing and depleting natural resources.
• Over-intensive use of land - exhaust the capability of the
ecosystem to support the growing demands of more and more
people, all requiring more intensive use of resources.
• Industrial growth
• Urbanisation
• Population growth
• Enormous increase in the use of consumer goods – Led to
stresses on the environment.
• Create great quantities of solid waste.
• Pollution of air, water and soil have begun to seriously affect
human health.
Natural resources and associated problems

• The unequal consumption of natural resources

• Technologically advanced or ‘developed’ world, usually termed ‘the
North’ while the ‘developing nations’ of ‘the South’
• Consumption of resources per capita of the developed countries is 50
times greater than in most developing countries.
• Advanced countries produce over 75% of global industrial waste and
greenhouse gases.
• USA for example with just 4% of the world’s population consumes
about 25% of the world’s resources
LAND RESOURCE & LAND USE
CHANGE
• Landforms such as hills, valleys, plains, river basins and wetlands
include different resource generating areas that the people living in
them depend on.
• If land is utilized carefully it can be considered a renewable resource.
The roots of trees and grasses bind the soil. If forests are depleted, or
grasslands overgrazed, the land becomes unproductive and wasteland is
formed.
• Intensive irrigation leads to water logging and salination, on which
crops cannot grow. Land is also converted into a non-renewable
resource when highly toxic industrial and nuclear wastes are dumped
on it
Man needs land for building homes, cultivating food, maintaining pastures
for domestic animals, developing industries to provide goods, and supporting
the industry by creating towns and cities.

Equally importantly, man needs to protect wilderness area in forests,

grasslands, wetlands, mountains, coasts, etc. to protect our vitally valuable
biodiversity. Thus a rational use of land needs careful planning
 Land Degradation:
Farmland is under threat due to more and more intense utilisation. Every year,
between 5 to 7 million hectares of land worldwide is added to the existing
degraded farmland.
When soil is used more intensively by farming, it is eroded more rapidly by
wind and rain. Over irrigating farmland leads to salinisation, as evaporation of
water brings the salts to the surface of the soil on which crops cannot grow.
Over irrigation also creates water logging of the topsoil so that crop roots are
affected and the crop deteriorates.
The use of more and more chemical fertilizers poisons the soil so that
eventually the land becomes unproductive.
As urban centers grow and industrial expansion occurs, the agricultural land
and forests shrink. This is a serious loss and has long term ill effects on human
civilisation
Soil erosion: The characteristics of natural ecosystems such as forests and
grasslands depend on the type of soil. Soils of various types support a wide
variety of crops. The misuse of an ecosystem leads to loss of valuable soil
through erosion by the monsoon rains and, to a smaller extent, by wind.

The roots of the trees in the forest hold the soil. Deforestation thus leads to
rapid soil erosion. Soil is washed into streams and is transported into rivers and
finally lost to the sea. The process is more evident in areas where deforestation
has led to erosion on steep hill slopes as in the Himalayas and in the Western
Ghats. These areas are called ‘ecologically sensitive areas’.
To prevent the loss of millions of tons of valuable soil every year, it is essential
to preserve what remains of our natural forest cover.
 Desertification
• desertification is a reduction in the productivity of the land that is
not reversible. In other words, land is desertified when it can no
longer support the same plant growth it had in the past, and the
change is permanent on a human time scale.
• Many things can cause desertification. Drought, overgrazing, fire,
and deforestation can thin out vegetation, leaving exposed soil. If
the nutrient-rich top soil blows or washes away, plants may not
be able to return.
• Overfarming or drought can change the soil so that rain no longer
penetrates, and the plants lose the water they need to grow.
• If the changing force is lifted—drought ends or cattle are
removed, for example—but the land cannot recover, it is
desertified.
• The loss of productive land for a season or even a few years is
one thing, but to lose it effectively for ever is clearly far more
serious.
Desertification isn’t the march of sand dunes through inhabited areas.
Rather, it is the permanent degradation of previously fertile land.

Human causes of desertification include overgrazing, the buildup of salt in

irrigated soils, and topsoil erosion.

Permanent changes in climate, particularly rainfall, are responsible for

natural desertification.

Extended droughts may mimic desertification, but vegetation may recover

when seasonal rains return. Scientists compare long-term satellite
measurements of vegetation with rainfall data to help determine where
desertification is occurring
 Forest Resources

• Use and overexploitation:

• India should ideally have 33 percent of its land under forests.
• Today we have only about 20 percent.
• People who live in or near forests know the value of forest resources first hand
because their lives and livelihoods depend directly on these resources.
• Rest of us also derive great benefits from the forests which we are rarely aware
of.
• Water depends - forests, watersheds
• Furniture and paper Wood/Timber
• Medicines NTFS Non-Timer Forest Product-
• Oxygen, removal of carbon dioxide.
FOREST FUNCTIONS
• Watershed protection:
• Reduce the rate of surface run-off of water.
• Prevent flash floods and soil erosion.
• Produces prolonged gradual run-off and thus prevent effects of drought.
• Atmospheric regulation:
• Absorption of solar heat during evapo-transpiration.
• Maintaining carbon dioxide levels for plant growth.
• Maintaining the local climatic conditions.
• Erosion control:
• Holding soil (by preventing rain from directly washing soil away).
• Land bank:
• Maintenance of soil nutrients and structure.
FOREST FUNCTIONS
• Local use –
• Consumption of forest produce by local people who collect it for subsistence –
(Consumptive use)
• Food - gathering plants, fishing, hunting from the forest. (In the past when wildlife was
plentiful, people could hunt and kill animals for food. Now that populations of most wildlife
species have diminished, continued hunting would lead to extinction.)
• Fodder - for cattle.
• Fuel wood and charcoal for cooking, heating.
• Poles - building homes especially in rural and wilderness areas.
• Timber – household articles and construction.
• Fiber - weaving of baskets, ropes, nets, string, etc.
• Sericulture – for silk.
• Apiculture - bees for honey, forest bees also pollinate crops.
• Medicinal plants - traditionally used medicines, investigating them as potential source for
new modern drugs
FOREST FUNCTIONS
• Market use - (Productive use)
• Most of the above products used for consumptive purposes are also
sold as a source of income for supporting the livelihoods of forest
dwelling people.
• Minor forest produce - (non-wood products): Fuelwood, fruit, gum,
fiber, etc. which are collected and sold in local markets as a source of
income for forest dwellers.
• Major timber extraction - construction, industrial uses, paper pulp,
etc. Timber extraction is done in India by the Forest Department, but
illegal logging continues in many of the forests of India and the world.
 Deforestation
• clearance, clearcutting or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand
of trees from land which is then converted to a non-forest use
• Timber extraction Commercial logging
• Agriculture – Cash crops- Tea estate, coffee, Palm oil, Bioenergy crops
• Cattle ranching- large scale cattle rearing
• Developmental activities- Mining, industries, Dam
• Forest Degradation- quality of the forest deteriorates
Joint forest Management JFM
• Arabari model of Joint forest management
• Joint Forest Management originated in West Bengal in 1980's in Asia and Africa .
• The major hardwood of Arabari is sal, a commercially profitable forest crop. ‘’Ajit Kumar
Banerjee, a silviculturalist, working for the Forest Department as the Divisional Forest Officer,
was conducting trials which were constantly being disturbed by grazing and illegal harvesting
by the local populace.
• At the time there were no initiatives for sharing of forest resources between the government
and the locals, with the government considering many of the locals no more than "thieves".
• The initial program involved 612 families managing 12.7 square kilometres of forests classified
as "degraded".
• 25% of profits from the forests were shared with the villagers.
• The experiment was successful and was expanded to other parts of the state in 1987. JFM is
still in force at Arabari.
Water resources
• A renewable Resource
Use OF WATER
• Consumptive Use- Domestic, Industrial, Agricultural
• Non-consumptive Use – Navigation, Hydro-electricity, Fish culture
• Ecosystem use

• At a global level 70% - agriculture, 25% - industry and only 5% -

domestic use.
• India uses 90% - agriculture, 7% - industry and 3% - domestic
use.
One of the greatest challenges facing the world in this century - need to
rethink the overall management of water resources.
Water needs to increase significantly during the next few decades.
Total annual fresh-water withdrawals today are estimated at 4000 cubic
kilometers, twice as much as just 50 years ago
A person needs a minimum of 20 to 40 liters of water per day for drinking
and sanitation.
More than one billion people world-wide have no access to clean water
Local conflicts are already spreading to states.
Eg. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the waters of the Cauvery.
Indus water treaty
Ground water
 Water crisis/ conflict
• India is expected to face critical levels of water stress by 2025.
• At the global level 31 countries are already short of water and by 2025 there will be 48
countries facing serious water shortages.
• The UN has estimated that by the year 2050, 4 billion people will be seriously affected by
water shortages.
• This will lead to multiple conflicts between countries over the sharing of water. Around 20
major cities in India face chronic or interrupted water shortages.
• There are 100 countries that share the waters of 13 large rivers and lakes.
• The upstream countries could starve the downstream nations leading to political unstable
areas across the world.
• Examples are Ethopia, which is upstream on the Nile and Egypt, which is downstream and
highly dependent on the Nile.
• India and Bangladesh already have a negotiated agreement on the water use of the Ganges.
 Overutilization and pollution
• Growth of human population - larger amounts of water to fulfill a variety of
basic needs.
• Use more water than they really need.
• bath by using a shower
• during washing of clothes.
• Agriculturists
• use less water without reducing yields - drip irrigation systems.
• Pollutes - surface water and underground water (chemical fertilizers and pesticides)
• Use of biomass as fertilizer and non toxic pesticides such as neem products and using
integrated pest management systems reduces the agricultural pollution of surface and
ground water.
• Industry
• liquid waste and releasing it into streams, rivers and the sea.
• Polluting industry - caught, punished and even closed down.
• Public awareness – Buy products of eco-friendly products
Water for Agriculture and Power
Generation
• Water demand in increasing:
• Intensive irrigated agriculture,
• Generating electricity,
• Consumption in urban
• Industrial centers,
• Dams.
• Irrigated areas increased from 40 million ha. in 1900 to 100 million ha. in 1950 and to
271 million ha. by 1998.
• Dams support 30 to 40% of this area.
• Dams ensure a year round supply of water for
• domestic use,
• agriculture,
• industry,
• hydropower generation,
• Problems:
• Alter river flows,
Sustainable water management
• ‘Save water’ campaigns - create awareness
• Building several small reservoirs instead of few mega projects.
• Develop small catchment dams and protect wetlands.
• Treating and recycling municipal waste water for agricultural use.
• Preventing leakages from dams and canals.
• Preventing loss in Municipal pipes.
• Effective rain water harvesting in urban environments.
• Water conservation measures in agriculture such as using drip irrigation.
• Pricing water at its real value makes people use it more responsibly and
efficiently and reduces water wasting.
Dams
• Today > 45,000 large dams around the world
• 30-40% of irrigated land worldwide relies on dams.
• Hydropower - supplies 19% of the world’s total electric power supply
• The world’s two most populous countries – China and India – have built around 57% of the
world’s large dams.
• Dams problems
• Fragmentation and physical transformation of rivers.
• Serious impacts on riverine ecosystems.
• Social consequences of large dams due to displacement of people.
• Water logging and salinisation of surrounding lands.
• Dislodging animal populations, damaging their habitat and cutting off their migration routes.
• Fishing and travel by boat disrupted.
• The emission of green house gases from reservoirs due to rotting vegetation and carbon inflows from the
catchment is a recently identified impact.
• Affect lives, livelihoods, cultures and spiritual existence of indigenous and tribal peoples.
• In India, of the 16 to 18million people displaced by dams, 40 to 50% were tribal people, who account for only
8% of our nation’s one billion people.
• Conflicts over dams – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka; India Bangladesh, India- China, India – Pakistan
 Energy resources
• For almost 200 years, coal was the primary
• In 20th century, oil accounted for 39% of the world’s commercial energy
consumption, followed by coal (24%) and natural gas (24%), while nuclear
(7%) and hydro/renewables (6%) accounted for the rest.
• Among the commercial energy sources used in India, coal is a predominant
source accounting for 55% of energy consumption estimated in 2001,
followed by oil (31%), natural gas (8%), hydro (5%) and nuclear (1%).
• In India, biomass (mainly wood and dung) accounts for almost 40% of
primary energy supply. While coal continues to remain the dominant fuel
for electricity generation, nuclear power has been increasingly used since
the 1970s and 1980s and the use of natural gas has increased rapidly in the
80s and 90s
Types of energy resources
• There are three main types of energy;
• non-renewable
• renewable
• nuclear energy
• Non renewable energy
• Oil
• Coal
• Natural gas
• Oil and gas resources however are likely to be used up within the next
50 years.
• Produce – CO2, SO2, NOx and CO
• Lung problems
• Affected buildings like the Taj Mahal
• Kill forests and lakes due to acid rain.
• Green house gases - global warming
Oil impacts
• India’s oil reserves- off the coast of Mumbai and in Assam
• Processes of oil and natural gas drilling, processing, transport and utilisation have
serious environmental consequences
• leaks in which air
• water are polluted
• accidental fires
• During refining oil, solid waste such as salts and grease are produced which also
damage the environment.
• Oil slicks - Exxon Valdez sank in 1989 and birds, sea otters, seals, fish and other
marine life along the coast of Alaska was seriously affected.
• Dependence on dwindling fossil fuel resources, especially oil, results in political
tension, instability and war.
• At present 65 percent of the world’s oil reserves are located in the Middle East
Coal and its environmental impacts
• World’s single largest contributor of green house gases
• Many plants are not fitted with devices such as electrostatic
precipitators to reduce emissions of suspended particulate matter
(SPM) which is a major contributor to air pollution.
• Produces oxides of sulphur and nitrogen which, combined with water
vapour, lead to ‘acid rain’. This kills forest vegetation, and damages
architectural heritage sites, pollutes water and affects human health.
• Produce waste in the form of ‘fly ash’.
• Large area are required to dispose off this waste material
Renewable energy
• Renewable energy systems use resources that are constantly replaced
and are usually less polluting.
• Hydropower
• Solar
• Wind
• Geothermal
• Tidal
• Biogas
Nuclear Power
• Dr. Homi Bhabha was the father of Nuclear Power development in India
• Contribute to roughly 2% of India’s electricity.
• Tarapur, Masharastra
• Kakrapar- Gujarat
• Kudankulam- Tamil Nadu
• Kaiga- Karnataka
• Kalpakkam- Tamil Nadu
• Rawatbhata- Rajasthan
• Narora- Uttar Pradesh
• Fatehabad- Haryana
• Major problem is Nuclear waste management and accidents
• Serious nuclear power plant accidents include the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011),
the Chernobyl disaster (1986), the Three Mile Island accident (1979),
What can you do to save electricity?
• Turn off lights and fans as soon as you leave the room.
• Use tube lights and energy efficient bulbs that save energy rather than
bulbs. A 40watt tube light gives as much light as a 100 watt bulb.
• Keep the bulbs and tubes clean. Dust on tubes and bulbs decreases
lighting levels by 20 to 30 percent.
• Switch off the television or radio as soon as the program of interest is over.
• A pressure cooker can save up to 75 percent of energy required for
cooking. It is also faster.
• Keeping the vessel covered with a lid during cooking, helps to cook faster,
thus saving energy.