Saturday, April 24, 2010

meaning of natural resources


A natural resource is a material that comes from the Earth and in its raw or "natural" state is of value for one reason or another. A natural resource is not man made and is already on the Earth. Some examples of natural resources would be oil, timber, and water, as well as a variety of minerals, metals and ores like salt, coal, and metals like gold, iron, aluminum. Water in a high lake is a natural resource. Even living things and materials like grasslands, forests, herds of animals, flocks of birds, and schools of fish can be considered natural resources. And if you guessed that wind and sunlight are natural resources, you'd be correct.
If you want to go with the definition of the way the United States Geological Survey, go for it. The USGS suggests that our nation's natural resources include minerals, energy, land, water and living things (biota). Natural resources are the things that Earth provides us that we can use, but which must be managed to maintain their viability. A general divisor of the natural resources is into renewable and non-renewable forms. The term natural resources probably originated with E.F. Schumacher as he used it in his book Small is Beautiful, which came out in 1973. A link can be found below to allow the curious investigator to learn more.

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