Question

What do you understand by the term natural resources?

Answer 1

Hint: These resources exist freely in nature. These are the main raw materials for the majority of the industries. They can be both biotic and abiotic components of nature.

Complete Answer: Any substance or material of the earth that can be of some use to humankind, is preferably termed as a natural resource. Both living and nonliving things can be used by man, thus they can both be termed as natural resources. The primary function of the natural resources is to provide humans with food, fuel and raw materials for production in various kinds of industries. Natural resources can both be renewable or inexhaustible and nonrenewable or exhaustible. The resources that would not tend to extinction even after tremendous reckless use, like that of wind, solar energy, tidal energy, water, trees, are termed as renewable or inexhaustible natural resources. While the resources that would get extinct after using them for a certain period of time, like those of mineral resources, fossil fuels, and the likewise, are termed as nonrenewable or exhaustible natural resources. Mineral resources are used to extract metals that become the raw materials for most of the large-scale industries. They are used in the infrastructural development of any area. On the basis of the stage of development resources can also be classified into potential resource that can be used in the future, for example, petroleum in sedimentary rocks that can be extracted in the future and can be put to use; actual resources, that are currently used in development, for example wood processing that are developing through new technology; reserve resources, that can be used as actual resource by developing profitably in the near future and stock resource, those that cannot be used at all due to lack of technology, for example, hydrogen.

Note: Though there is tremendous usefulness of natural resources, extraction of some resources is very costly and hazardous, for example extracting coal from coal mines. Some natural resources, especially burning of fossil fuels pose serious threat to the environment. Excessive use of natural resources, like deforestation leads to harmful effects of the environment.