Today, we live in a world full of technological wonders. Colour televisions, supersonic jets, personal computers and mobile phones are common things. We enjoy a high level of living that our ancestors have never even dreamed of. Nowadays, natural resources have become important and vital for our life. Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified natural form. Mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, hunting and forestry are generally considered as natural-resource industries.
Natural resources are often classified into renewable and non-renewable resource. Renewable resources are the resources that can restock themselves and be used indefinitely if they are used sustainably. Natural resources that qualify as renewable resources include oxygen, fresh water, timber, biomass, soil and forests. Flow renewable resources like solar power, wind power and hydropower are used to generate electricity. On the other hand, non-renewable resources are natural resources that cannot be re-made, re-grown or regenerated on a scale comparative to their consumption. They exist in a fixed amount that are being renewed or are used up faster than they can be made by nature. Fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas are considered as non-renewable resources, as they do not naturally re-form at a rate that makes the way we use them sustainable.
Nowadays, natural resources have become more and more important in international trading. Countries export and import natural resources with one another to gain profits. Forest is one of the most important natural resources. Underdeveloped country like Papua New Guinea has huge area of reserved forest. As people in Papua New Guinea do not have the technology to process the wood from the forest, they depend on logging companies from Malaysia that use heavy machines with high technology. After processing the wood, they send the wood to other countries like Malaysia, China and European countries to be made into furniture. However, people in Papua New Guinea benefit only from manual jobs provided by logging companies with low pays. It does not contribute much to the country economically.
Petroleum is another important natural resource. Countries which are rich in petroleum like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Brunei depend on companies like Shell and Exon from developed and rich countries like America and England for oil drilling and processing the petroleum into petrol, diesel, kerosene, cooking gas, and tar. Countries with rich natural resources usually make other developed countries wealthier and politically more powerful. We have heard from news that America once invaded Iraq and exploited the oil in Iraq for personal gain and left the country poor and undeveloped.
Surprisingly, Japan with limited natural resources, emerges as the world’s second economically developed country after America because of its strong financial resources. Its car production industry, Toyota is the best car producer in the world. Japan imports its natural resources like iron, coal and petroleum from poor country like Africa. Besides Japan, Singapore which is a small country with practically no natural resources, emerges as one of the fastest economy growing country in Asia. It depends heavily on developed countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia for natural resources like water, coal, natural gas and petroleum.
In the nut shell, our world is running out of natural resources. New technologies have been invented, enabling resources that are now of little importance to replace those that people are using up. Alternative resources and new technologies alone are not enough. We as human being should also take some actions to conserve the natural resources to prevent them from vanish. As saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”.
Natural resources are often classified into renewable and non-renewable resource. Renewable resources are the resources that can restock themselves and be used indefinitely if they are used sustainably. Natural resources that qualify as renewable resources include oxygen, fresh water, timber, biomass, soil and forests. Flow renewable resources like solar power, wind power and hydropower are used to generate electricity. On the other hand, non-renewable resources are natural resources that cannot be re-made, re-grown or regenerated on a scale comparative to their consumption. They exist in a fixed amount that are being renewed or are used up faster than they can be made by nature. Fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas are considered as non-renewable resources, as they do not naturally re-form at a rate that makes the way we use them sustainable.
Nowadays, natural resources have become more and more important in international trading. Countries export and import natural resources with one another to gain profits. Forest is one of the most important natural resources. Underdeveloped country like Papua New Guinea has huge area of reserved forest. As people in Papua New Guinea do not have the technology to process the wood from the forest, they depend on logging companies from Malaysia that use heavy machines with high technology. After processing the wood, they send the wood to other countries like Malaysia, China and European countries to be made into furniture. However, people in Papua New Guinea benefit only from manual jobs provided by logging companies with low pays. It does not contribute much to the country economically.
Petroleum is another important natural resource. Countries which are rich in petroleum like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Brunei depend on companies like Shell and Exon from developed and rich countries like America and England for oil drilling and processing the petroleum into petrol, diesel, kerosene, cooking gas, and tar. Countries with rich natural resources usually make other developed countries wealthier and politically more powerful. We have heard from news that America once invaded Iraq and exploited the oil in Iraq for personal gain and left the country poor and undeveloped.
Surprisingly, Japan with limited natural resources, emerges as the world’s second economically developed country after America because of its strong financial resources. Its car production industry, Toyota is the best car producer in the world. Japan imports its natural resources like iron, coal and petroleum from poor country like Africa. Besides Japan, Singapore which is a small country with practically no natural resources, emerges as one of the fastest economy growing country in Asia. It depends heavily on developed countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia for natural resources like water, coal, natural gas and petroleum.
In the nut shell, our world is running out of natural resources. New technologies have been invented, enabling resources that are now of little importance to replace those that people are using up. Alternative resources and new technologies alone are not enough. We as human being should also take some actions to conserve the natural resources to prevent them from vanish. As saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”.
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