Natural Resource Conservation

Natural Resource Conservation

14 January 09, Wednesday RNR 1001

Natural Resource Conservation
This course is about Natural Resources

Types of resources:
1. Perpetual resources: a resource that is inexhaustible on a human scale

a. Wind power - a rapidly growing industry, a very clean technology, some problem with wildlife (birds), could add lights and sound to correct this problem
b. Geothermal – technology is expensive, steam produced from pumping water into contact with the heat in the earth’s crust
c. Solar – technology is rapidly improving, is the best perpetual energy source
d. Tidal – tides in Massachusetts average 12 ft, in some areas of Canada average 30 ft, these generate power we can use, non-polluting
Discussion: All we lack is technology for perpetual resources. Developing technology is the basis for better use of these energy sources.

2. Non-renewable resources:
Oil
Coal
Minerals
Discussion: It takes millions of years to make and hundreds of years to use it.
These resources must be used with efficiency and recycling efforts. Ninety to 95% of energy used to drive a car is lost as heat- very inefficient.

3. Renewable resources:
a. Soil hundreds of years to form 1” of top soil and hours to lose it to erosion
b. Forests
c. Rangeland important in developing countries, grassland grazing ecosystem
d. Wetlands provide many ecological services, often lost due to filling in for agricultural use
89% of wetland have been lost in Iowa, 91% in California
e. Wildlife Human impact due to expansion of urban areas leaves wildlife less and less habitat
We must decide what level of biodiversity we want to sustain.
f. Fisheries Stocks are being used at a rapid rate.

The health and productivity of resources depends on:
Conservation: “a philosophy of managing the environment in a way that does not despoil, exhaust, or extinguish”

Example: Conserving the resource of sockeye salmon
A complex set of variables:
The...