Water is an inexhaustible natural resource. Summary: Exhaustible and inexhaustible resources of Russian regions. Recovery of used natural resources

13.07.2020

Content

Introduction 3
4
14
3. Sphere of natural resources use and the problem of environmental pollution 15
Conclusion 18
Bibliography 20

Introduction

The socio-economic development of mankind in the second half of the twentieth century was accompanied and continues to be accompanied at the beginning of the 3rd millennium by the depletion of natural resources, degradation and pollution of natural resources. environment, an increase in the overall level of mortality and morbidity of the population, including children. The difficult ecological situation is generated by the system of irrational, wasteful nature management and is an important characteristic and an integral element of the socio-economic, political, spiritual and cultural crisis both in our country and in the world as a whole.
The urgency of preventing an ecological crisis, ensuring the environmentally safe development of human civilization, the need to solve global problems in an interconnected world, are an objective basis for the emergence of common interests of various countries and peoples in the search for common coordinated decisions and actions.
In conditions when the scale of anthropogenic impact on the environment has reached such proportions that life on the planet is endangered, environmental protection and rational nature management come to the fore.
The purpose of my work is to study the concept of natural resources in terms of large-scale anthropogenic impact on the environment.
To achieve the goal, it is necessary to solve a number of tasks:
studying the concept of “natural resources”;
classification of natural resources;
analysis of the problem of exhaustibility of natural resources;
study of the sphere of use of natural resources and the problem of environmental pollution.

1. The concept of “natural resources” and their classification

The main components of the environment are natural ecological systems: the earth, its subsoil, surface and ground waters, atmospheric air, animal world, nature reserves and national parks - all that is commonly referred to as the natural environment.
Natural resources are the bodies and forces of nature, which at a given stage in the development of the productive forces of society can be used as commodities or means of production, and whose social utility changes (directly or indirectly) under the influence of human activity.
The main types of natural resources are solar energy, intraterrestrial heat, water resources, land, mineral, forest, fish, plant, animal world resources, etc.
Natural resources are an important part of a country's national wealth and a source of wealth and services. The reproduction process is essentially a continuous process of interaction between society and nature, in which society subjugates the forces of nature and natural resources to meet needs. Natural resources largely predetermine not only the socio-economic potential of the country and region and the efficiency of social production, but also the health and life expectancy of the population.
Natural resources are the object of research in two aspects: as the most important part of the socio-economic potential realized in the process of creating the gross domestic product, part of the country's national wealth; as the basis of the natural environment to be protected, restored and reproduced.
The main components of natural resources are:
Water resources - water reserves used as a source of water supply for industrial and domestic needs, hydropower, as well as transport routes, etc.
Land resources - resources used or intended for use in agriculture, under buildings in settlements, for railways and highways, as well as other structures, for nature reserves, parks, squares, etc., occupied by minerals and other land resources, which until recently were considered a non-reproducible element of natural resources.
Forest resources - raw materials (used to obtain wood), as well as forests for various purposes - health-improving (sanitary-resort), field - and forest protection, water protection, etc.
Mineral resources - all natural components of the lithosphere used or intended for use in the production of products and services as mineral raw materials in their natural form or after preparation, enrichment and processing (iron, manganese, chromium, lead, etc.) or energy sources.
Energy resources - the totality of all types of energy: the sun and space, nuclear energy, fuel and energy (in the form of mineral reserves), thermal, hydropower, wind power, etc.
Biological resources are all living environment-forming components of the biosphere with the genetic material contained in them. They are sources of material and spiritual benefits for people. These include commercial objects (fish stocks in natural and artificial reservoirs), cultivated plants, domestic animals, picturesque landscapes, microorganisms, i.e. this includes plant resources, resources of the animal world (stocks of fur-bearing animals in natural conditions; stocks reproduced in artificial conditions), etc.
Natural resources are used as means of labor (land, waterways, water for irrigation); energy sources (fossil fuels, hydro and wind energy, nuclear fuel, biofuels, etc.); raw materials and materials (minerals, timber, bioresources, technical water reserves); direct consumption items (air oxygen, medicinal plants, food - drinking water, wild plants, mushrooms, hunting and fishing products), recreational objects, environmental protection objects. Due to the dual nature of the concept of "natural resources", reflecting their natural origin, on the one hand, and economic, economic significance - on the other hand, several classifications have been developed and are widely used in special and geographical literature.
There are different approaches to the classification of natural resources:
I. Classification of natural resources by origin. Natural resources (bodies or natural phenomena) arise in natural environments (water, atmosphere, vegetation or soil cover, etc.) and form certain combinations in space that change within the boundaries of natural territorial complexes. On this basis, they are divided into two groups: resources of natural components and resources of natural-territorial complexes.
1. Resources of natural components. Each type of natural resource is usually formed in one of the components of the landscape envelope. It is controlled by the same natural factors that create this natural component and influence its features and territorial distribution. By belonging to the components of the landscape shell, resources are distinguished: 1) mineral, 2) climatic, 3) water, 4) vegetable, 5) land, 6) soil, 7) wildlife. This classification is widely used in domestic and foreign literature.
When using the above classification, the main attention is paid to the regularities of the spatial and temporal formation of certain types of resources, their quantitative and qualitative characteristics, the features of their regime, and the volumes of natural replenishment of reserves. A scientific understanding of the whole complex of natural processes involved in the creation and accumulation of a natural resource makes it possible to more correctly calculate the role and place of one or another group of resources in the process of social production, the economic system, and most importantly, it makes it possible to identify the maximum volumes of withdrawal of a resource from the natural environment, preventing its depletion or deterioration. For example, an accurate understanding of the volume of annual wood growth in the forests of a certain area allows you to calculate the allowable felling rates. With strict control over compliance with these norms, depletion of forest resources does not occur.
2. Resources of natural-territorial complexes. At this subdivision level, the complexity of the natural resource potential of the territory, which follows from the corresponding complex structure of the landscape shell itself, is taken into account. Each landscape (or natural-territorial complex) has a certain set of diverse types of natural resources. Depending on the properties of the landscape, its place in overall structure landscape shell, combinations of types of resources, their quantitative and qualitative characteristics change very significantly, determining the possibilities for the development and organization of material production. Often there are such conditions when one or several resources determine the direction of economic development of the whole region. Almost any landscape has climatic, water, land, soil and other resources, but the possibilities of economic use are very different. In one case, favorable conditions may develop for the extraction of mineral raw materials, in others - for the cultivation of valuable cultivated plants or for the organization of industrial production, a resort complex, etc. On this basis, natural resource territorial complexes are distinguished according to the most preferred (or preferred) type of economic development. They are divided into: 1) mining, 2) agricultural, 3) water management, 4) forestry, 5) residential, 6) recreational, etc.
The use of only one classification of types of resources according to their origin is not enough, since it does not reflect the economic significance of resources and their economic role. Among the systems of classification of natural resources, reflecting their economic significance and role in the system of social production, classification according to the direction and forms of economic use of resources is more often used.
II. Classification by types of economic use. The main criterion for the division of resources in this classification is their assignment to various sectors of material production. On this basis, natural resources are divided into industrial and agricultural production resources.
1. Resources of industrial production. This class includes all types of natural raw materials used by industry. Due to the very large branching of industrial production, the presence of numerous industries that consume different types of natural resources and, accordingly, put forward various requirements for them. Types of natural resources are differentiated as follows:
1) energy, which include various types of resources used at the present stage of development of science and technology for energy production: a) combustible minerals (oil, coal, gas, uranium, bituminous shale, etc.); b) hydropower resources - the energy of freely falling river waters, tidal energy sea waters and etc.; c) sources of bioconversion energy - the use of fuel wood, the production of biogas from agricultural waste; d) nuclear raw materials used to produce atomic energy;
2) non-energy resources, including a subgroup of natural resources that supply raw materials for various industries or are involved in production due to technological necessity: a) minerals that do not belong to the group of caustobioliths; b) water used for industrial water supply; c) land occupied by industrial facilities and infrastructure facilities; d) forest resources supplying raw materials for wood chemistry and the construction industry; e) fish resources are referred to this subgroup conditionally, since at present the fishing and processing of the catch have acquired an industrial character.
2. Resources of agricultural production. They combine the types of resources involved in the creation of agricultural products: a) agro-climatic - resources of heat and moisture necessary for the production of cultivated plants or grazing; b) soil and land resources - land and its top layer - soil, which has a unique property to produce biomass, are considered both as a natural resource and as a means of production in crop production; c) plant food resources - resources of biocenoses that serve as a food base for grazing livestock; d) water resources - water used in crop production for irrigation, and in animal husbandry - for watering and livestock.
Quite often, natural resources of the non-productive sphere or direct consumption are also allocated. These are, first of all, resources withdrawn from the natural environment (wild animals that are an object of commercial hunting, wild medicinal plants), as well as recreational resources, resources protected areas and a number of others.
Sh. Classification on the basis of exhaustibility. When taking into account the reserves of natural resources and the volumes of their possible economic withdrawal, they use the concept of the depletion of reserves. All natural resources are depleted into two groups: exhaustible and inexhaustible.
1. Exhaustible resources. They are formed in the earth's crust or landscape sphere, but the volumes and rates of their formation are measured on the geological time scale. At the same time, the need for such resources on the part of production or for the organization favorable conditions habitats of human society significantly exceed the volume and speed of natural replenishment. As a result, depletion of natural resource reserves inevitably occurs. The exhaustible group includes resources with different rates and volumes of formation. This allows them to be further differentiated. Based on the intensity and speed of natural formation, resources are divided into subgroups:
1. Non-renewable, which include: a) all types of mineral resources or minerals. As is known, they are constantly formed in the bowels of the earth's crust as a result of a continuously ongoing process of ore formation, but the scale of their accumulation is so insignificant, and the formation rates are measured in many tens and hundreds of millions of years (for example, the age of coal is more than 350 million years), which is practically they cannot be taken into account in economic calculations. The development of mineral raw materials takes place on a historical time scale and is characterized by ever-increasing volumes of withdrawal. In this regard, all mineral resources are considered as not only exhaustible, but also non-renewable. b) Land resources in their natural form are the material basis on which the life of human society takes place. The morphological arrangement of the surface (i.e. relief) significantly affects economic activity for the possibility of developing the territory. Once disturbed lands (for example, by quarries) during large-scale industrial or civil construction, they are no longer restored in their natural form.
2. Renewable resources, which include: a) flora and b) animal world resources. Both of them are restored quite quickly, and the volumes of natural renewal are well and accurately calculated. Therefore, when organizing the economic use of accumulated timber reserves in forests, herbage in meadows or pastures, and hunting for wild animals within the limits not exceeding the annual renewal, it is possible to completely avoid the depletion of resources.
3. Relatively (not completely) renewable. Although some resources are restored in historical periods of time, their renewable volumes are much less than the volumes of economic consumption. That is why these types of resources are very vulnerable and require particularly careful human control. Relatively renewable resources also include very scarce natural resources: a) productive arable soils; b) forests with stands of mature age; c) water resources in the regional aspect. There are relatively few productive arable soils (according to various estimates, their area does not exceed 1.5-2.5 billion hectares). The most productive soils belonging to the first class of fertility occupy, according to FAO estimates, only 400 million hectares. Productive soils are formed extremely slowly - it takes more than 100 years to form a 1 mm layer, for example, of chernozem soils. At the same time, the processes of accelerated erosion, stimulated by irrational land use, can destroy several centimeters of the upper, most valuable arable layer in one year. Anthropogenic destruction of soils has been so intense in recent decades that it gives grounds to classify soil resources as "relatively renewable".
The fact of the practical inexhaustibility of water resources on a planetary scale is well known. However, fresh water reserves are unevenly concentrated on the surface of the land, and there is a shortage of water suitable for use in water management systems over vast areas. Arid and subarid areas are particularly affected by water shortages, where irrational water consumption (for example, water withdrawal in excess of the amount of natural replenishment of free water) is accompanied by a rapid and often catastrophic depletion of water resources. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately record the amount of allowable withdrawal of water resources by region. P. Inexhaustible resources. Among the bodies and natural phenomena of resource significance, there are those that are practically inexhaustible. These include climatic and water resources.
A) climatic resources. The most stringent climate requirements are imposed by agriculture, recreational and forestry, industrial and civil construction, etc. Usually, climate resources are understood as the reserves of heat and moisture that a particular area or region has. The total heat reserves supplied per year per 1 sq.m. surface of the planet are equal to 3.16 x 10 J (average radiation budget for the planet). Geographically and seasonally, heat is distributed unevenly, although the average air temperature for the Earth is about + 15°C. The land as a whole is well provided with atmospheric moisture: an average of about 119 thousand cubic meters falls annually on its surface. km of precipitation. But they are distributed even more unevenly than heat, both in space and time. On land, areas are known that receive more than 12,000 mm of precipitation annually, to vast areas where less than 50-100 mm falls per year. On a long-term average, both the heat reserves and the volumes of falling atmospheric moisture are quite constant, although significant fluctuations in the provision of heat and moisture to the territory can be observed from year to year. Since these resources are formed in certain links of the thermal and water cycles, constantly operating over the planet as a whole and over its individual regions, the reserves of heat and moisture can be considered as inexhaustible within certain quantitative limits, precisely established for each region.
B) Water resources of the planet. The earth has a colossal volume of water - about 1.5 billion cubic meters. km. However, 98% of this volume is made up of salty waters of the World Ocean, and only 28 million cubic meters. km - fresh water. Since technologies for desalination of salty sea waters are already known, the waters of the World Ocean and salt lakes can be considered as potential water resources, the use of which is quite possible in the future. Annually renewable fresh water reserves are not so large, "according to various estimates, they range from 41 to 45 thousand cubic km (resources of total river flow). world economy consumes for its needs about 4-4.5 thousand cubic meters. km, which is equal to approximately 10% of the total water supply, and, therefore, subject to the principles of rational water use, these resources can be considered as inexhaustible. However, if these principles are violated, the situation can sharply worsen, and even on a planetary scale, there may be a shortage of clean fresh water. In the meantime, the natural environment annually "gives" humanity 10 times more water than it needs to meet a wide variety of needs.

2. The problem of the exhaustibility of natural resources

Exhaustible resources are those whose volume with a certain degree of accuracy can be established and limited, the reserves of which, as they are exploited, have decreased to such an extent that their further exploitation threatens their complete disappearance. In turn, exhaustible resources are divided into renewable and non-renewable natural resources. Renewable natural resources are those that can be restored either by the forces of nature themselves ( naturally), or with the help of purposeful human activity, but only if the conditions and speed of recovery are preserved for this. Renewable resources usually include: land (elements of soil fertility), water (fresh groundwater zones of active water exchange) and biological (forests, natural forage lands, land, aquatic fauna, flora and fauna, etc.).
Non-renewable natural resources primarily refer to most minerals (fossil fuels, metallic and non-metallic mineral raw materials), species composition plants and animals, i.e. that part of natural resources that cannot be revived or restored in the foreseeable future. These types of resources are taken into account and evaluated separately, the availability of their production is determined at one or another level of their extraction and use, as well as the possibility of replacement. Available stocks of non-renewable resources should be used especially carefully and economically.

3. Sphere of natural resources use and the problem of environmental pollution

The basis for the interaction of the natural environment and human society in the process of production of material goods is the growth of mediation in the production relation of man to nature. Step by step, a person places between himself and nature, first the substance transformed with the help of his energy (tools of labor), then the energy transformed with the help of tools and accumulated knowledge (steam engines, electrical installations, etc.) and, finally, with recently between man and nature, the third major link of mediation arises - information transformed with the help of electronic computers. Thus, the development of civilization is ensured by the continuous expansion of the sphere of material production, which first embraces the tools of labor, then energy, and, finally, in recent times, information.
Naturally, the natural environment becomes more and more widely and thoroughly involved in the production process. The need for conscious control and regulation of the totality of anthropogenic processes, both in society itself and in the natural environment, is becoming more acute. This need increased especially sharply with the beginning of the scientific and technological revolution, the essence of which is, first of all, the mechanization of information processes and the widespread use of control systems in all areas of public life.
The danger of an ecological crisis coincided with the scientific and technological revolution not by chance. The scientific and technological revolution creates conditions for the removal of technical restrictions on the use of natural resources. As a result of the removal of internal restrictions on the development of production, a new contradiction has assumed an exceptionally sharp form - between the internally unlimited possibilities for the development of production and the naturally limited possibilities of the natural environment. This contradiction, like the ones that have arisen before, can be resolved only if the natural conditions of the life of society are increasingly embraced by artificial means of regulation on the part of people.
Measures to upgrade production technology, waste treatment, noise control, etc., which are now being organized in developed countries, only delay the onset of the catastrophe, but are not able to prevent it, since they do not eliminate the root causes of the ecological crisis.
The ecological content of the scientific and technological revolution and its contradiction are also manifested in the fact that in the course of its deployment, the necessary technical prerequisites arise for ensuring a new nature of the relationship to nature (the possibility of switching production to closed cycles, the transition to machine-free production, the possibility of efficient use of energy up to the creation of technical autotrophic systems, etc.).
Along with the numerous advantages inherent in industrial societies, they are characterized by both the emergence of new and the aggravation of already existing environmental and resource problems. According to the scale of distribution, these problems that threaten human well-being can be divided into:
- local: pollution of groundwater with toxic substances,
- regional: damage to forests and degradation of lakes as a result of atmospheric deposition of pollutants,
- global: possible climate change due to an increase in the content of carbon dioxide and other gaseous substances in the atmosphere, as well as the depletion of the ozone layer.
The combined impact of intensive agriculture, increased mining and urbanization has greatly increased the degradation of potentially renewable resources - topsoil, forests, pastures, and wildlife and plant populations. Recall that exactly the same reasons led to the death of ancient civilizations.
Industrialization greatly increased the power of people over nature and at the same time reduced the number of people living in direct contact with it. As a result, people, especially in industrial developed countries, became even more convinced that their purpose was to conquer nature. Many serious scientists are convinced that as long as such a worldview persists, the life support systems of the Earth will continue to collapse.

Conclusion

The logic of the development of life on Earth defines human activity as the main factor, and nature can exist without man, but man cannot exist without nature. Preserving the harmony of man and nature is the main task facing the present generation. This requires a change in many previously established ideas about the commensurability of human values. It is necessary to develop an “environmental consciousness” in every person, which will determine the choice of options for technologies, the construction of enterprises and the use of natural resources.
Man as a social being initially had two kinds of needs: biological (physiological) and social (material and spiritual). Some are satisfied as a result of labor costs for the production of food, material and spiritual values, others, a person is used to satisfy for free; these are the needs for water, air, solar energy, etc. Let's call the latter ecological, and the former - socio-economic needs. Human society cannot refuse to use natural resources. They have always been and will be the material basis of production, the meaning of which lies in the transformation of various natural resources into consumer goods. The question of the “greening” of consumption can be approached from different positions: physiological, moral, social, economic. For any society, the management of the value orientation of consumption is one of the most difficult social tasks. At present, civilization is going through a crucial period of its existence, when habitual stereotypes are broken, when it comes to understanding that the satisfaction of countless requests modern man comes into sharp conflict with the fundamental needs of everyone - the preservation of a healthy environment. The difficulties generated by the development of civilization, the growing degradation of the natural environment and the deterioration of people's living conditions give rise to the need to act, to look for new concepts of social development.

Bibliography

Bigon M. Ecology.- M.: Mir, 2003.
Kormilitsyn M.S. Fundamentals of ecology. - M.: MPU, 2002.
Vorontsov A.I., Shchetinsky E.A., Nikodimov I.D. Protection of nature. - M.: Agropromizdat, 2004.
Makevnin S. G., Vakulin A. A. Nature Protection. - M.: Agropromizdat, 2002.
Ecology and nature management. Textbook / Ed. Aleskina A.A. - M.: Infra-M, 2003.
Ecology. Textbook. E.A. Kriksunov. - M.: Infra-M, 2005.
etc.................

Now a person uses for his needs an increasing part of the planet's territory and an increasing amount of mineral resources. The biological, including food, resources of the planet determine the possibilities of human life on Earth, while the mineral and energy resources serve as the basis for the material production of human society.

sewage treatment natural resource

Among the natural wealth of the planet, inexhaustible and exhaustible resources are distinguished.

Inexhaustible resources. Inexhaustible natural resources are divided into space, climate and water. This is the energy of solar radiation, sea waves, wind. Taking into account the huge mass of the air and water environment of the planet, atmospheric air and water are considered inexhaustible. Selection is relative. For example, fresh water can be seen as a finite resource because in many regions globe there was an acute shortage of water. Already in question about the uneven distribution of it, and the impossibility of its use due to pollution. Atmospheric oxygen is conventionally considered an inexhaustible resource. Modern environmental scientists believe that with the current level of technology for the use of air and water, these resources can be considered as inexhaustible only in the development and implementation of large-scale programs aimed at their restoration.

A) climatic resources. The most stringent climate requirements are Agriculture, recreational and forestry, industrial and civil construction, etc. Usually, climate resources are understood as the reserves of heat and moisture that a particular area or region has. The total heat reserves supplied per year per 1 sq.m. surface of the planet are equal to 3.16 x 10 J (average radiation budget for the planet). Geographically and seasonally, heat is distributed unevenly, although the average air temperature for the Earth is about + 15°C. The land as a whole is well provided with atmospheric moisture: an average of about 119 thousand cubic meters falls annually on its surface. km of precipitation. But they are distributed even more unevenly than heat, both in space and in time. On land, areas are known that receive more than 12,000 mm of precipitation annually, as well as vast areas where less than 50-100 mm falls annually. On a long-term average, both the heat reserves and the volumes of falling atmospheric moisture are quite constant, although significant fluctuations in the provision of heat and moisture to the territory can be observed from year to year. Since these resources are formed in certain links of the thermal and water cycles, constantly operating over the planet as a whole and over its individual regions, the reserves of heat and moisture can be considered as inexhaustible within certain quantitative limits, precisely established for each region.
B) water resources. Water resources mainly include the waters of the world's oceans, although fresh waters too. For example, in Lake Baikal, if it happens that there is no water, there will be enough in Baikal fresh water for 100 years! And for everyone! But despite this, it is still necessary to protect nature, and especially fresh water, because a person is 90% water, and therefore, in my opinion, fresh water should be classified as an exhaustible resource.

All natural resources are depleted into two groups: exhaustible and inexhaustible.

Exhaustible resources.

They are formed in the earth's crust or landscape sphere, but the volumes and rates of their formation are measured on the geological time scale. At the same time, the need for such resources on the part of production or for the organization of favorable living conditions for human society significantly exceeds the volumes and rates of natural replenishment. As a result, depletion of natural resource reserves inevitably occurs. The exhaustible group includes resources with different rates and volumes of formation. This allows them to be further differentiated. Based on the intensity and speed of natural formation, resources are divided into subgroups:

1. Non-renewable, which include: a) all types of mineral resources or minerals. As is known, they are constantly formed in the bowels of the earth's crust as a result of a continuously ongoing process of ore formation, but the scale of their accumulation is so insignificant, and the formation rates are measured in many tens and hundreds of millions of years (for example, the age of coal is more than 350 million years), which is practically they cannot be taken into account in economic calculations. The development of mineral raw materials takes place on a historical time scale and is characterized by ever-increasing volumes of withdrawal. In this regard, all mineral resources are considered as not only exhaustible, but also non-renewable. b) Land resources in their natural form are the material basis on which the life of human society takes place. The morphological structure of the surface (i.e., relief) significantly affects economic activity and the possibility of developing the territory. Once disturbed lands (for example, by quarries) during large-scale industrial or civil construction, they are no longer restored in their natural form.

2. Renewable resources, to which belong: a) the resources of the plant and b) the animal world. Both of them are restored quite quickly, and the volumes of natural renewal are well and accurately calculated. Therefore, when organizing the economic use of accumulated timber reserves in forests, herbage in meadows or pastures, and hunting for wild animals within the limits not exceeding the annual renewal, it is possible to completely avoid the depletion of resources.

3. Relatively (not completely) renewable. Although some resources are restored in historical periods of time, their renewable volumes are much less than the volumes of economic consumption. That is why these types of resources are very vulnerable and require particularly careful human control. Relatively renewable resources also include very scarce natural resources: a) productive arable soils; b) forests with stands of mature age; c) water resources in the regional aspect. There are relatively few productive arable soils (according to various estimates, their area does not exceed 1.5-2.5 billion hectares). The most productive soils belonging to the first class of fertility occupy, according to FAO estimates, only 400 million hectares. Productive soils are formed extremely slowly - it takes more than 100 years to form a 1 mm layer, for example, of chernozem soils. At the same time, the processes of accelerated erosion, stimulated by irrational land use, can destroy several centimeters of the upper, most valuable arable layer in one year. Anthropogenic destruction of soils has been so intense in recent decades that it gives grounds to classify soil resources as "relatively renewable".

TABLES ON THE AVAILABILITY OF EXHAUSTABLE AND INEXHAUSTABLE NATURAL RESOURCES

Russia is a country richly endowed with a wide variety of natural resources. In terms of the reserves of many of them, Russia holds the first place in the world. Foreign travelers, scientists and diplomats have long admired the fabulous wealth of Russian mineral resources. The main wealth of Russia is its generous nature: endless forests, fields, seas. These are its regions, each of which plays its irreplaceable role in the life of the country, giving it some oil and gas, some machines and scientific discoveries. The earth, its subsoil, forests, wildlife and other resources form the basis of people's life and activities.

At present, almost all over the world every year there is a gradual global deterioration of the state of the environment. This is especially evident in our country, since the level of technical development leaves much to be desired, and the degree of protection of enterprises is no good. This happens under the influence of various factors, mainly due to vital necessity, the ever-increasing activity of a person to adapt the environment for himself and his needs. And all this leads to the need to take measures to preserve both the lands themselves and their valuable qualities.

I believe that every person is obliged to rationally use natural resources, since they are not unlimited. The classifications of natural resources based on their genesis and method of use are of the most fundamental nature. By genesis, land, water, biological, mineral resources, resources of the World Ocean, energy resources, atmospheric, climatic, resources of the lithosphere, resources of consumers, resources of decomposers, reactionary-anthropological-ecological, cognitive-recreational, labor resources, resources of space and time.

Exhaustible resources. They are formed in the earth's crust or landscape sphere, but the volumes and rates of their formation are measured on the geological time scale. At the same time, the need for such resources on the part of production or for the organization of favorable living conditions for human society significantly exceeds the volumes and rates of natural replenishment. As a result, depletion of natural resource reserves inevitably occurs. The exhaustible group includes resources with different rates and volumes of formation. This allows them to be further differentiated. Based on the intensity and speed of natural formation, resources are divided into subgroups:

1. Non-renewable which include: a) all types of mineral resources or minerals. As is known, they are constantly formed in the bowels of the earth's crust as a result of a continuously ongoing process of ore formation, but the scale of their accumulation is so insignificant, and the formation rates are measured in many tens and hundreds of millions of years (for example, the age of coal is more than 350 million years), which is practically they cannot be taken into account in economic calculations. The development of mineral raw materials takes place on a historical time scale and is characterized by ever-increasing volumes of withdrawal. In this regard, all mineral resources are considered as not only exhaustible, but also non-renewable. b) Land resources in their natural form are the material basis on which the life of human society takes place. The morphological structure of the surface (i.e., relief) significantly affects economic activity and the possibility of developing the territory. Once disturbed lands (for example, by quarries) during large-scale industrial or civil construction, they are no longer restored in their natural form.

2. Renewable resources (see Appendix No. 1), which include: a) plant and b) animal world resources. Both of them are restored quite quickly, and the volumes of natural renewal are well and accurately calculated. Therefore, when organizing the economic use of accumulated timber reserves in forests, herbage in meadows or pastures, and hunting for wild animals within the limits not exceeding the annual renewal, it is possible to completely avoid the depletion of resources.

3. Relatively (not completely) renewable. Although some resources are restored in historical periods of time, their renewable volumes are much less than the volumes of economic consumption. That is why these types of resources are very vulnerable and require particularly careful human control. Relatively renewable resources also include very scarce natural resources: a) productive arable soils; b) forests with stands of mature age; c) water resources in the regional aspect. There are relatively few productive arable soils (according to various estimates, their area does not exceed 1.5-2.5 billion hectares). The most productive soils belonging to the first class of fertility occupy, according to FAO estimates, only 400 million hectares. Productive soils are formed extremely slowly - it takes more than 100 years to form a 1 mm layer, for example, of chernozem soils. At the same time, the processes of accelerated erosion, stimulated by irrational land use, can destroy several centimeters of the upper, most valuable arable layer in one year. Anthropogenic destruction of soils has been so intense in recent decades that it gives grounds to classify soil resources as "relatively renewable".

The fact of the practical inexhaustibility of water resources on a planetary scale is well known. However, fresh water reserves are unevenly concentrated on the surface of the land, and there is a shortage of water suitable for use in water management systems over vast areas. Arid and subarid areas are particularly affected by water shortages, where irrational water consumption (for example, water withdrawal in excess of the amount of natural replenishment of free water) is accompanied by a rapid and often catastrophic depletion of water resources. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately record the amount of allowable withdrawal of water resources by region. P.

Inexhaustible resources. Among the bodies and natural phenomena of resource significance, there are those that are practically inexhaustible. These include climatic and water resources.

A) climatic resources. The most stringent climate requirements are imposed by agriculture, recreational and forestry, industrial and civil construction, etc. Usually, climate resources are understood as the reserves of heat and moisture that a particular area or region has. The total heat reserves supplied per year per 1 sq.m. surface of the planet are equal to 3.16 x 10 J (average radiation budget for the planet). Geographically and seasonally, heat is distributed unevenly, although the average air temperature for the Earth is about + 15°C. The land as a whole is well provided with atmospheric moisture: an average of about 119 thousand cubic meters falls annually on its surface. km of precipitation. But they are distributed even more unevenly than heat, both in space and in time. On land, areas are known that receive more than 12,000 mm of precipitation annually, as well as vast areas where less than 50-100 mm falls annually. On a long-term average, both the heat reserves and the volumes of falling atmospheric moisture are quite constant, although significant fluctuations in the provision of heat and moisture to the territory can be observed from year to year. Since these resources are formed in certain links of the thermal and water cycles, constantly operating over the planet as a whole and over its individual regions, the reserves of heat and moisture can be considered as inexhaustible within certain quantitative limits, precisely established for each region.

B) water resources. Water resources mainly include the waters of the world's oceans, although fresh waters too. For example, in Lake Baikal, if such a thing happens that there is no water, there will be enough fresh water in Baikal for 100 years! And for everyone! But despite this, it is still necessary to protect nature, and especially fresh water, because a person is 90% water, and therefore, in my opinion, fresh water should be classified as an exhaustible resource.

Consider the exhaustibility of forest resources on the example of several economic regions:

economic region	Total area, thousand ha	Area covered with forest, thousand ha	Timber reserves, million m3	Reserves of suitable for forest exploitation, million m3
RF	1167049, 7	756088, 2	79831, 3	39835, 7
Northern	105474, 3	76048, 2	7599, 2	4447, 2
Northwestern	12671, 5	10387, 5	1625, 2	243, 1
Central	22248, 5	20328, 5	3041, 5	218, 6
Central Black Earth	1678, 2	1469, 3	181, 3	3, 5
Volga-Vyatka	14587, 3	13309, 2	1787, 1	284, 6
Volga region	5750, 0	4772, 5	572, 2	23, 8
North Caucasian	4488, 2	3663, 5	579, 6	44, 1
Ural	42088, 4	35753, 0	4850, 1	1324, 0
West Siberian	150617, 4	90095, 0	10794, 1	4343, 4
East Siberian	315383, 0	234464, 2	29314, 5	17462, 9
Far Eastern	507182, 4	280551, 8	21257, 8	11438, 4
Kaliningrad region	385, 6	266, 5	39, 4	1, 9

If a person does not come to his senses now, then we can lose everything ... forests, fields, animals, fresh water, minerals, various reserves, fertile soil, plants and oases.

Every year this becomes less and less. In my opinion, there are no inexhaustible resources, all resources are exhaustible, but people just do not fully understand this.

Classification of natural resources by renewability and intensity of use

natural resource	Renewability	Intensity of use
natural resource	(exhaustibility)	Intensity of use
1) Energy resources
a) oil	exhaustible	90 - 100%
b) coal	exhaustible	50 - 70%
c) peat	exhaustible	40 - 75%
d) natural gas	exhaustible	95 - 100%
e) wood	renewable	20 - 50%
e) wind	renewable	1%
g) Sun	renewable	1%
h) hydropower	renewable	2 - 25 %
i) hydrothermal energy	renewable	0 - 1%
j) nuclear energy	exhaustible	4 - 15 %
l) the energy of the bowels of the Earth	renewable	0%
m) gravitational energy	renewable	0%
m) tidal energy	Renewable	0, 5 - 1%
2) water resource
a) fresh water	Exhaustible	70 - 100%
B) sea salt water	Renewable	50%
3) Land resource (soils)	Renewable	90 - 100%
4) Biological resource
A) flora	renewable	10 - 30%
B) fauna	renewable	30 - 50%
B) mushrooms	renewable	10 - 20%
D) bacteria	renewable	1 - 10%
5) Information resource 5.1 anthropogenic	renewable
5.2 natural (genetic)	exhaustible	20%
6) Space resources	exhaustible	100%

Bibliography

Gladky Yu.N., Dobrosyuk V.A., Semenov S.P. Economic Geography of Russia: Textbook. M.: Gardarika, 1999.

Kopylov V.A. Geography of industry in Russia and CIS countries: Tutorial. M.: Finance and statistics, 2002.

Rodionova I.A. Economic geography and regional economy: Textbook. Moscow: Moscow Lyceum, 2002.

Reference geographic atlas. M.: GUGK, 1983.

Distribution of productive forces and regional economy / Ed. N.P. Konylova, V.V. Kistapova. M.: Economics, 1994.

Shishov S.S. Economic Geography and Regional Studies: Textbook / Ed. prof. G.G. Morozova. M., 1998.

T.F. Gurova, L.V. Nazarenko. Fundamentals of ecology and rational nature management.

Natural objects and phenomena that a person uses in the labor process are called natural resources. These include atmospheric air, water, soil, minerals, solar radiation, climate, vegetation, wildlife. According to the degree of their depletion, they are divided into exhaustible and inexhaustible.

exhaustible resources, in turn, are divided into renewable and non-renewable. To non-renewable include those resources that are not revived or are renewed hundreds of times slower what they spend. These include oil, coal, metal ores and most other minerals. The reserves of these resources are limited, their protection is reduced to careful spending.

Renewable natural resources - soil, vegetation, wildlife, as well as such mineral salts as Glauber's and table salts, deposited in lakes and sea lagoons. These resources are constantly being restored if the necessary conditions for this are maintained, and the rate of use does not exceed the rate of natural revival. Resources are restored at different speeds: animals - several years, forests - 60 - 80 years, and soils that have lost fertility - for several millennia. Exceeding the rate of expenditure over the rate of reproduction leads to the depletion and complete disappearance of the resource.

Inexhaustible resources include water, climatic and space. The total water supply on the planet is inexhaustible. They are based on the salty waters of the oceans, but they are still little used. In some areas, the waters of the seas and oceans are polluted with oil, waste from domestic and industrial enterprises, the removal of fertilizers and pesticides from the fields, which worsens the living conditions of marine plants and animals. Fresh water, necessary for man, is an exhaustible natural resource. The problem of fresh water is exacerbated every year due to the shallowing of rivers and lakes, an increase in water consumption for irrigation and industrial needs, water pollution by industrial and household waste.

Careful use and strict protection of water resources is necessary.

Climate resources - Atmospheric air and wind energy are inexhaustible, but with the development of industry and transport, the air has become heavily polluted with smoke, dust, exhaust gases. AT major cities and industrial centers, air pollution becomes dangerous to human health. The struggle for the purity of the atmosphere has become an important environmental task.

To space resources include solar radiation, the energy of sea tides and low tides. They are inexhaustible. However, in cities and industrial centers, solar radiation is greatly reduced due to smoke and dust in the air. This negatively affects people's health.