R.DEV. 6205.

RURAL RESOURCE ANALYSIS

This course introduces students to the growing concern about natural resources,
development and the environment within the broad context of the ecology and their
effects on the rural economy. The components of the course include the concept
and classification of resources, population resource relationship/scarcity debate,
resource processes and the environment, techniques of natural resource surveys, an
overview of natural resource sectors: mineral and energy resources; food and
agriculture resources. Resource concerns/patterns and development; environment
and the issue of sustainability and development; and resources and environmental
policy/strategy in Sierra Leone – land tenure reforms, agrarian reforms,
environmental impact assessment procedures in Sierra Leone.

Concept and classification of resources

Classification of resources:
The resources may be classified in a number of ways: 1. According to Continual
utility: It is seen that some resources are going on depleting where as others are
continuing in the environment despite of their uses. So basing on continual utility
the resources are divided in to two categories:
(a) Renewable resources (Flow resources): The resources which can be renewed
along with their exploitation and can be always available for use are known as
renewable resources. That is, these resources have natural regeneration and these
are inexhaustible. Some examples of renewable resources are forests, air, solar
energy etc.
(b) Non-renewable resources (Stock resource): The resources which are present in
finite quantities and cannot be renewed along with their exploitation are known as
non-renewable resources. That is, if these resources are used in large scale, these
will exhausted soon. So these are also known as exhaustible resources. Some
examples of such type of resources are coal, minerals, fossil fuels etc.
(c) Cyclic resources: The resources which can be used again and again passing
through some processes are known as cyclic resources. An example of cyclic
resource may be water.
2. According to origin: The resources can also be classified according to their
origin i.e., whether a resource is having biological origin or not. So on this basis,
resources are of two types:
(a) Biotic resources: When a resource is living organism or originated from living
organisms, it is known as biotic resource i.e., it is obtained from the biosphere.
Some examples of such type of resources are coal, mineral oil, forest etc.
(b) Abiotic resources: When a resource is neither derived from living organism nor
living organism, it is termed as abiotic resource i.e., such resources are composed
of nonliving inorganic matter. Some examples of such type of resources are air,
land, water, minerals etc. Land resources or soil resources: Land or soil is the
upper most part of the earth’s surface which is used for the production of crops and
other biological materials needed for food, fodder, medicine and associated
material. The stones, sand and gravels are used in the construction work.
Some micro-organisms present in the soil maintain the soil fertility through
nitrogen fixation and others are responsible for return of essential elements back to
soil by the decomposition of dead organic matter. The processes like nitrogen
fixation, antibiosis, soil formation, decomposition of organic matter etc. take place
within the soil. The surface soil also act as a feeding zone of plants.

The soil is constituted as a result of long term processes of complex interaction

leading to the production of a mineral matrix in close contact with organic matter
both living and dead after a longtime, the parent mineral matter takes the modified
shape which forms soil.
The interactions among climatic, topographic and biological factors pave the
process of transformation and modification of mineral matter in to soil. Thus, soil
has mainly the components like: (i) Mineral matter, (ii) Soil organic matter
(humus); (iii) soil water; (iv) soil air (v) Biological system
According to Dakuchayer (1889), soil is a result of the actions and reciprocal
influences of parent rocks, climates, topography, living organisms and age of the
land. The Soil is described by the following formula S = (g.e.b) t where S is soil,
‘g’ is geology, ‘e’ is environment; ‘b’ is biological influences and ‘t’ is time. The
formation of one inch of soil takes 500 to 1000 years
The Soil is described by the following formula S = (g.e.b) t where S is soil, ‘g’ is
geology, ‘e’ is environment; ‘b’ is biological influences and ‘t’ is time. The
formation of one inch of soil takes 500 to 1000 years
Population resource relationship/scarcity debate

Malthus vs Boserup

Holly Story sizes up two theories of population growth

Humans, like members of all populations of plants and animals, are in competition

with one another for the Earth’s resources. The global human population is
growing at a rate of around 1.2 per cent per year, and as it does the competition for
resources increases.

One of those resources is food. In high-income countries food supply is relatively

secure; Britain has not experienced a widespread food shortage since the Second
World War. But as demand for food increases, supplies come under greater
pressure. In 2012 a drought in the USA caused a drop in the global production of
maize, and the effects were felt around the world as the prices of staple foods such
as bread increased. In the future will we be able to produce enough food to support
the ever-increasing human population?

While this seems like a 21st-century problem, it is actually a question that has
concerned economists for hundreds of years (and farmers since the first days of
agriculture).

Malthus’s theory

In the 18th century an economist called Thomas Robert Malthus wrote an essay
outlining his response to the problem. The work, entitled ‘An Essay on the
Principle of Population’ (1798), set out Malthus’s theory of population growth: a
theory of how and why the size of the population would change.

Malthus thought that if the human population continued to grow, food production
would not be able to keep up with demand and there would not be enough food to
go around. The result, he warned, would be a terrible famine that would kill many
people.

In ecological terms, Malthus was arguing that the human population was at risk of
outgrowing its carrying capacity (the number of individuals that can be supported
by a specific habitat). There are examples of this happening to particular
populations of animals and insects, such as the reindeer on St Matthew Island.

Malthus reasoned that this disastrous outcome could only be avoided if the
population stopped growing. He described two types of ‘checks’ that could stop
population growth: a negative check that would cause a drop in the birth rate (e.g.
increased use of contraceptives) and a positive check that would increase the death
rate (e.g. disease or war). These checks, he argued, were more likely to take effect
as the population got closer to its carrying capacity, either because governments
would take steps to stop the population getting any bigger or because of increased
competition and hardship within the population. This, Malthus thought, was what
would save us from large-scale starvation.

But the population has not stopped growing. Since Malthus’s lifetime the number
of humans on the planet has continued to increase, and in 2011 the population
reached 7 billion. According to Malthus’s theory, this should not have been
possible. Where did he go wrong?

Malthus’s theory was based on the assumption that the population would grow
exponentially (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) whereas food production would grow linearly (1,
2, 3, 4, 5), much more slowly. At the time when he was writing the Industrial
Revolution had not yet arrived, and without developments such as pesticides and
fertilisers the amount of food that could be produced per acre of land was much
smaller than it is today.

Over the 250 years since Malthus published his essay, advances in technology and
innovations in farming methods have allowed food production to grow quickly
enough that we can now, in theory at least, provide sufficient food for the world’s
7 billion inhabitants. Malthus did not account for these advances in his population
theory, but another economist, Ester Boserup, did.

Boserup’s theory

Ester Boserup (1910–1999) was a Danish economist who specialised in the

economics and development of agriculture. She worked for the United Nations and
her experience working in low- and middle-income countries such as India helped
to shape her theory of the relationship between human population growth and food
production.
In her work ‘The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The economics of agrarian
change under population pressure’ (1965), Boserup challenged Malthus’s
conclusion that the size of the human population is limited by the amount of food it
can produce. She suggested that food production can, and will, increase to match
the needs of the population.

Drawing on her knowledge of farming in the developing world, where populations

were growing quickly, Boserup argued that the threat of starvation and the
challenge of feeding more mouths motivates people to improve their farming
methods and invent new technologies in order to produce more food.

Boserup described this change as ‘agricultural intensification’. For example, a

farmer who has four fields to produce food for his family might grow crops in
three of the fields, but leave the fourth field empty as the ground is dry and his
crop will not grow there. However if the farmer has two more children, the
pressure to produce more food might drive him to build irrigation canals to bring
water to the fourth field or to buy a different type of seed that will grow in drier
ground. He would change the way he farms to make sure that he has enough food
to support a larger family.

Is there a limit?

Boserup’s theory seems to provide a model for continuous population growth, but
there are those who argue that Malthus was right and that there is a limit to the
amount of humans the planet can support.

As modern environmentalists, scientists and politicians debate the future of the

world’s climate and resources, we must hope that Boserup was right to believe that
human beings are capable of remarkable ingenuity in the face of a problem.

Population Growth and Migration: The Challenge of Resource Scarcity

Entrepreneur Dick Smith recently launched a $1 million dollar advertising

campaign, to spread the message that the Australian government has to cut the
number of immigrants arriving to our shores. The call has reignited the debate
surrounding Australia’s immigration policies and proposed carrying capacity.
Smith’s message is that recent years of increased migration puts Australia at risk of
having an unsustainable population, with millions of them living in poverty.
Migration trends are increasing both outward and within countries. Currently, there
is an all-time high of about 244 million migrants residing in a country other than
the one where they were born. A core reason for this is the global increase in
population, rather than conflict.

Global population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Most of this growth
will be in the developing world; China and India together already account for over
3 billion. However, the region with the highest birth rate today is Africa, where
women have a birth rate of 4.7. These statistics are alarming due to the already
precarious environmental and sustainability issues that exist in the region. Despite
massive development aid designed to incentivise economic growth in the region,
neo-Malthusian levels of famine and drought remain a possibility. Resource
scarcity is compounded by problems such as desertification and the population
pressures. There are already up to 30 million people currently at risk in East
Africa, and with this birth rate that number can be expected to rise.

The relationship between population growth and resource scarcity is a key driver
of migration that is often overlooked in public debates surrounding migration. As
the population grows, the resources that are needed to sustain them also increases.
This leads to attempts by armed groups to achieve resource security, and is a major
underlying source of conflict in many developing countries. Countries
neighbouring conflict areas in the Middle East, such as Lebanon, Jordan, and
Turkey, have become the main hosts for migrants, placing increased pressure on
their own resources. Turkey alone has an estimated 3 million Syrian refugees. As a
result outward migration trends are increasingly visible as they try to secure
personal safety in European countries.

Internal migration is also a by-product of population growth. By 2050, it is

estimated that 66% of the world’s population will live in cities. The significance of
urbanisation is a structural change in resource distribution. As urban populations
rise, the share of resources for rural populations falls. Electricity, food, water, and
housing are redirected to centralised locations. Cities and informal settlements
continue to sprawl and there is less agricultural labour compared to the number of
urban residents. Urbanisation in developing nations needs a special focus because
it is different from urbanisation of most developed nations. In developing nations
this urbanisation is not necessarily linked with manufacturing jobs. Instead several
major resource export countries have an 80% urbanisation rate. In these contexts,
cities may not offer formal employment, however migrants may still choose urban
centres due to support networks available within them. As a result, undocumented
migration rises, fuelling inequality and subsequently leading to the creation of high
population density slums. A lack of a well-developed industrial sector then stands
to stagnate growth while resource consumption and population both rise. Reversing
this trend by decentralising the population and redirecting investment to regional
areas are key initiatives that can tackle this problem.

Due to our geography, Australia remains largely removed from these migration
patterns and holds a relatively small population compared to our landmass. Our
natural ocean border assists in preventing undocumented migration and urban
density is among the lowest in the world. However even with our population of
around 24 million, we still have a comparative poverty rate of 13.3%, highlighting
the importance of resource scarcity and governance. Dick Smith’s primary concern
relates to Australian resource scarcity in the face of population growth. Current
projections place Perth’s water demand to exceed supply by 85 billion litres by
2030. While we have natural buffers in place that inhibit irregular migration, the
sheer number of movements occurring globally indicate that an increase in the
Australian population is inevitable.  Focusing on the political dialogue of migration
fails to address the core issue of population growth and so efforts must be made in
advance for this growth.

Ultimately, population growth’s effect on migration will increase due to the multi-
faceted problems that are associated with it such as urbanisation, conflict, and
poverty.  Fragile states, particularly those in East Africa, are maintaining high
birth-rates coupled with poor resource security. The resulting famine and conflict
are drivers of migration. So where does that leave Australia and our populace?
Instead of the discussion on severe migration restrictions, we need to better invest
in development in regions outside of our cities and consider greater infrastructure
with a focus on food and water security as the global population grows. Failing to
adequately prepare for this will be to our detriment.

Resource processes and the environment

Natural Resource Valuation

Assessing damages to the environment can be a difficult and controversial task.
The conceptually simple task of valuing the economic value of direct use of natural
resources such as consumption of fish and game, use of wood for firewood,
construction or furniture, and use of water has proved difficult in subsistence
communities in Africa.4 Such direct use values are, however, only the starting
point for a complete valuation of natural resources. Some people question whether
it is possible to place a value on a unique vista, dead birds or a soiled beach. Yet
individuals and societies do place monetary values on such resources in a variety
of contexts. In addition to the philosophical issues raised in putting a monetary
value on natural resources, establishing an appropriate value has become more
difficult and controversial as values that are not easy to measure, such as the value
to individuals and society of the knowledge of the existence of the resource, have
been recognized as legitimate. However, placing an appropriate value on natural
resources allows courts and other institutions to assess damages for environmental
harm, create incentives to prevent future harm, and ensure protection for natural
ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Natural resources are often
defined as the individual elements of the natural environment that provide
economic and social services to human society. Traditional definitions of natural
resources were limited to resources providing quantifiable economic products,
such as timber, agricultural land, and industrial minerals. Moreover, consideration
of economic products often is limited to those traded in a market, ignoring the
economic value of subsistence use. In addition, the definition of a natural resource
has expanded to include ecosystem processes and ecological elements that provide
services, such as purification of air and water, flood control, detoxification and
decomposition of wastes, and formation and maintenance of fertile soils. For
example, a wetland provides filtration services that improve and maintain water
quality and habitats. It is also recognized that people value knowing that the
resource exists even if they are not actively using it or visiting it; such values are
often referred to as nonuse values. An appropriate value of the natural resource
would take into account all of these nonuse values, in addition to the use values.
Recognizing that penalties do not place the appropriate value on natural resources,
a recent body of law has developed in connection with “natural resource damage
assessment” (NRDA). Natural resource damage can be defined as the sum of losses
in use and nonuse values resulting from injury to the quantity or quality of service
flows of the natural resource.5 Natural resource damage provisions enhance the
common law theory “to make whole the injured plaintiff” by making the public
whole for the injuries to natural resources. The objective of natural resource
damage provisions is to restore the injured resources to the condition in which they
would have been but for the incident and compensating the public for the interim
loss.6 Interim losses refers to the period that it takes to restore, replace or acquire
the equivalent resources lost.
“Command and control” environmental laws, where penalties are imposed upon
those who violate environmental statutes, are not sufficient to ensure that the
polluter internalizes the costs of his activities. A key goal of environmental
regulations is to eliminate externalities, forcing the polluter to internalize costs so
the price of the product or service reflects all costs that go into making the product,
such as destruction of wetlands, forests or crop land, and pollution of water.
Externalities are costs of an activity that are not incorporated into the price of the
product and are borne by others, often by society. For example, an industry that
pollutes a river consumes clean water – killing river life and thereby reducing the
income or pleasure of fishermen that fish in the river, reducing the pleasure of
boaters, and increasing the cost of water purification to downstream residents who
drink the water and downstream farmers who use the water for irrigation. These
costs are not included in the market price of the industry’s product, and it can be
difficult to set a penalty that appropriately captures these costs. NRDA can be an
effective tool to ensure that the total costs of the activity are internalized through
holding a party liable for all damages that are the result of the activity, including
damages to the environment. Numerous approaches are used to assign value to
natural resources; however, the approaches fall into two groups, those that measure
use values and those that measure both use and nonuse values. The former are the
least controversial of methods, because use values are observable and are easier to
measure than nonuse values. “Use value is not limited to consumptive measures,
such as timber production or crop yields. They also include non-consumptive uses
such as recreation in a resource area and indirect use values, such as the value of
plankton in a food chain.”7 Nonuse values are often described as the “economic
value one places on assuring that future generations will be able to enjoy unspoiled
natural resources, or the value one places on the assurance that other members of
the current generation will be able to enjoy the resource.”8 Nonuse values are not
observable because often people may never use the particular natural resource
themselves, yet they value the resource in the sense that they are willing to give
something up to obtain and preserve the natural resource. Economists have termed
the value people place on preservation and protection a nonuse value and are able
to measure the nonuse value as the tradeoff an individual is willing to make, giving
something up (often money) to ensure that a natural resource is protected.9 There
are several subcategories of nonuse values: “existence value” represents the benefit
that people receive and would be willing to pay for the knowledge that a natural
resource exists; “option value” represents the amount that people would be willing
to pay so they might have the opportunity to use the natural resource in the future;
and“intrinsic value” is the inherent value of natural resource, independent of
human use.10 Review of Natural Resource Valuation Techniques The techniques
used to value natural resources have evolved over time. The traditional approach
under common law was to measure the damages for harm to land as the difference
between the value of the land before the harm and the value of the land after harm.
A property owner may choose to receive the cost of restoring the land to its pre-
injury condition. However, restoration is only appropriate when 1) cost of
returning the land to its normal condition is not disproportionate to the decrease in
value of the land; or 2) the owner has a personal reason for restoring the land to its
original condition.11 As the definition of natural resources broadened to include
nonuse values and services, methods of valuation have been developed to account
for nonmarket values. These techniques are often classified as either direct
methods, which measure the value, or indirect methods, which measure the value
revealed by the behavior of people. The discussion below will refer to the U.S. Oil
Pollution Act (OPA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) regulations because they provide
guidance in determining natural resource damages.
Each of these methods has strengths and weaknesses and will be briefly described
below. Market Valuation Market valuation provides a well accepted, relatively
certain measure of resource value, as the value of the resource is reflected in the
price for resources traded in a market. The compensable natural resource damage is
the total loss of market value for each element and the value of the loss of services
provided by the resource. There are three recognized market valuation techniques:
market price approach, appraisal method, and resource replacement cost. The
market price approach identifies all the elements damaged and assigns values to
their loss by their market prices. The appraisal method is designed to determine the
difference in “with injury” and “without injury” appraisal for land and apply that
difference to the injured resource to measure compensable value. This approach is
based on the principle that people will pay less for land that is in or around
contaminated sites than they will for land “without injury.” The appraisal method
assumes there is a market for land and is less useful where private property rights
are limited. Resource replacement cost is the cost of acquiring comparable natural
resources for conservation.

All of these market techniques are appealing because they are relatively easy to
measure and seem reliable because they are observable. Market valuation is less
suited to valuing subsistence use of natural resources or uses of products that are
not traded in a market. In addition, market valuations are not capable of
encompassing the nonuse values or some use values of natural resources and,
therefore, do not reflect the full value of the damaged public natural resource.
Natural resources are often unique and have values that are not traded in a market.
Market valuation is generally accepted as not reflecting the true value of natural
resources.
Therefore, use of these techniques alone may not be consistent with the tort
principle that damages are to make the plaintiff whole because they do not
incorporate nonuse values. Nonmarket Valuation Nonmarket valuation methods
use indirect measures to determine the economic value on natural resources.
Nonmarket techniques include the following: travel cost method, hedonic price
method, factor income, and contingent valuation. The travel cost method uses the
travel expenses of visitors to a natural resource or recreational site to value the
worth of a certain natural resource or recreational site. This method is used to
measure recreational use value, which is particularly important in the United
States. This method assumes that the value of the site is equal to or greater than the
expenses people incur to visit the site. The cost of visiting includes the direct costs
of travel, entrance fees, and other expenses of travel. Travel cost methods may also
include indirect costs such as the monetary value for the time spent traveling to and
visiting the site. The travel cost method is accepted by most economists, and is
probably the most common method for estimating demand in a use valuation,
although it does have its limitations.
A major criticism of travel cost method is the problem of valuing travel time.
People have a range of opportunity costs that they forego when traveling to a site.
There is no widely agreed upon method to value the time spent traveling to the site.
Furthermore, travel cost methods only capture the recreational use value of the
resource and do not reflect any subsistence use by local residents or the existence
and intrinsic values. This method only applies when travel is a large part of a
household expense, and thus, does not reflect the preferences of those who lack the
resources to travel.
The hedonic method can be used to calculate compensable values associated with a
decrease in environmental quality in an area or with a reduction in the availability
of environmental amenities.
Compensatory values are calculated by using regression analysis to measure the
effect that environmental quality indicators have on property values. The hedonic
method requires a substantial amount of data on the attributes of various properties,
including environmental attributes. This method can be very expensive and it is
subject to criticism because it is difficult to separate property values that influence
each other in multi-variate analysis. The hedonic method is not conducive to
valuing natural resources that lack a market or where the market is small. For
example, damage to a public park may only be reflected in the property values of
those few who live on or in the park. The factor income method uses market prices
of a product in which a natural resource is used in the production process. The
factor income approach can be used if the injured resource is an input to a product
that has a well defined market price.
An example where the factor income approach might be useful is in commercial
fisheries, where the cost of the treatment necessary to restore the commercial
fishery is used to determine the compensable value. A significant limitation in the
factor income method is that it only measures market values, ignoring recreational
and nonuse values. Contingent valuation (CV) is a powerful tool because it has the
capacity to measure use and nonuse values simultaneously. This method uses a
survey to ask people directly what monetary value they place on identified
resources, how much they would be willing to pay for the resource or for measures
needed to protect the resource. Contingent valuation provides a direct method of
measuring the value of natural resources without resorting to the market valuation
method. While the credibility of contingent valuation is growing, it remains
controversial because it assumes that people will respond to the survey as they
would to a marketplace transaction. Furthermore, CV results are subject to
criticism for having one or more of the following biases: strategic bias (the answers
survey respondents give may reflect strategic “gaming” and “free ridership”);
starting point bias (the starting bid may influence the respondent to understate or
overstate actual willingness to pay if a bidding process is used to determine
willingness to pay or willingness to accept); vehicle bias (a respondent may be
willing to pay more depending on the hypothetical vehicle, such as entrance fees or
taxes); information bias (the way information on the hypothetical program is
presented, including its sequence, can affect respondent’s willingness to pay or
willingness to accept); hypothetical bias (results from a hypothetical situation may
not reflect the choice a respondent would make in a real situation); and operational
bias (the fact that the operating conditions in the hypothetical program may not
approximate actual market conditions may bias results). Proponents of contingent
valuation argue that through proper survey design and implementation, contingent
valuation can be a reliable means to measure the use and nonuse values of a natural
resource. After two months of study, a panel convened by the U.S. National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) co-chaired by two Nobel
Laureates in economics concluded, “CV studies can produce estimates reliable
enough to be the starting point of a judicial process of damage assessment,
including lost passive use values.”20 Contingent valuation is currently the only
way to measure passive uses and has become one of the most widely used methods
of nonmarket valuation.21 Cross-Cutting Methods Benefit transfer method uses
data and results from other studies to estimate a value for the matter at issue, a
“transfer” of information from one case to a similar case.22 For example, damage
to one natural resource may “transfer” the contingent valuation study conducted on
a similar resource with similar damages. This method is useful when there is no
data available specific to the site or when original, in-depth research is too costly
or impractical. The drawback is that it may be difficult to find data that applies to
the injured resource. To address this problem, the U.S. OPA regulations
promulgated by NOAA set three criteria for using benefits transfer under OPA,
including: the comparability of the users and of the natural resource and/or service
being valued in the initial studies and the transfer context; the comparability of the
change in quality or quantity of natural resources and/or service being valued in the
initial studies and the transfer context; and the quality of the studies being
transferred.23 The unit-day value method uses previously measured values of
certain recreational activities to measure the lost recreational use value associated
with an incident. For example, if an incident results in the loss of use of swimming
opportunities on a beach, the lost use value can be estimated from the results of
surveys that measure the value of a day swimming and multiplying the value by
the number of people who would not be able to swim due to the incident. The
benefit of this method is that it is simple to use and is especially pertinent to
smaller incidents. A criticism of the method is that the values relied upon may
represent a biased selection of studies and may, therefore, either underestimate or
overestimate the actual value of the loss.
Conjoint analysis is a technique for determining what form of compensatory
restoration can be used to substitute for interim lost uses. Interim lost uses are the
losses incurred in the period that it takes to restore, replace or acquire the
equivalent resources lost. The technique has been used extensively as a marketing
technique, but only recently in economics. Conjoint analysis provides
compensation for lost services by providing in-kind resource services. A survey is
used to determine what services the public considers equivalent to the lost services.
The survey is unlike contingent valuation method surveys, because the survey does
not solicit monetary values, but rather preferences for various “bunches” of natural
resource attributes. An example of how conjoint analysis can be used is in an
instance where 15 acres of wetlands are damaged and restoration of the original
wetlands is not feasible. If the public were to be compensated for this loss by
creating wetlands in a site distant from the damaged wetlands, conjoint analysis
could be used to determine how much acreage is required so the public feels
compensated for the distance between the original and created wetlands.
One criticism of conjoint analysis is that the survey method may incorporate the
same biases as the contingent valuation method– operational, strategic,
hypothetical, vehicle, starting point, and information. However, the design of the
survey may produce more accurate results because the respondents make several
choices and therefore learn from earlier answers.
Conjoint analysis may prove to be an important tool in natural resource damage
because by focusing on restoration, it does not entail the contentious process of
placing a monetary value on a natural resource.

POPULATION GROWTH, RESOURCE CONSUMPTION, AND THE

ENVIRONMENT

hroughout history, and especially during the twentieth century,

environmental degradation has primarily been a product of our efforts to secure
improved standards of food, clothing, shelter, comfort, and recreation for growing
numbers of people. The magnitude of the threat to the ecosystem is linked to
human population size and resource use per person. Resource use, waste
production and environmental degradation are accelerated by population growth.
They are further exacerbated by consumption habits, certain technological
developments, and particular patterns of social organization and resource
management.

As human numbers further increase, the potential for irreversible changes of far
reaching magnitude also increases. Indicators of severe environmental stress
include the growing loss of biodiversity, increasing greenhouse gas emissions,
increasing deforestation worldwide, stratospheric ozone depletion, acid rain, loss
of topsoil, and shortages of water, food, and fuel-wood in many parts of the world.

SUSTAINABILITY OF THE NATURAL WORLD AS EVERYONE'S

RESPONSIBILITY

n addressing environmental problems, all countries face hard

choices. This is particularly so when it is perceived that there are short-term
tradeoffs between economic growth and environmental protection, and where there
are limited financial resources. But the downside risks to the earth — our
environmental life support system — over the next generation and beyond are too
great to ignore. Current trends in environmental degradation from human activities
combined with the unavoidable increase in global population will take us into
unknown territory.

Other factors, such as inappropriate governmental policies, also contribute in

nearly every case. Many environmental problems in both rich and poor countries
appear to be the result of policies that are misguided even when viewed on short-
term economic grounds. If a longer-term view is taken, environmental goals
assume an even higher priority.

The prosperity and technology of the industrialized countries give them greater
opportunities and greater responsibility for addressing environmental problems
worldwide. Their resources make it easier to forestall and to ameliorate local
environmental problems. Developed countries need to become more efficient in
both resource use and environmental protection, and to encourage an ethic that
eschews wasteful consumption. If prices, taxes, and regulatory policies include
environmental costs, consumption habits will be influenced. The industrialized
countries need to assist developing countries and communities with funding and
expertise in combating both global and local environmental problems
The Political Implications of Population-Resources Theory
At the Stockholm Conference on the Environment in 1972, the Chinese delegation
asserted that there was no such thing as a scarcity of resources and that it was
meaningless to discuss environmental problems in such terms. Western
commentators were mystified and some concluded that the Chinese must possess
vast reserves of minerals and fossil fuels the discovery of which they had not yet
communicated to the world.

The Chinese view is, however, quite consistent with Marx’s method and should be
considered from such a perspective. To elucidate it we need to bring into our
vocabulary three categories of thought:

(1) Subsistence. Malthus appears to regard subsistence as something absolute,

whereas Marx regards it as relative. For Marx, needs are not purely biological; they
are also socially and culturally determined. Also, as both Malthus and Marx agree,
needs can be created, which implies that the meaning of subsistence cannot be
established independent of particular historical and cultural circumstances if, as
Marx insisted, definitions of social wants and needs were produced under a given
mode of production rather than immutably held down by the Malthusian laws of
population. Subsistence is, then, defined internally to a mode of production and
changes over time.

(2) Resources. Resources are materials available “in nature” that are capable of
being transformed into things of utility to man. It has long been recognized that
resources can be defined only with respect to a particular technical, cultural, and
historical stage of development, and that they are, in effect, technical and cultural
appraisals of nature.

(3) Scarcity. It is often erroneously accepted that scarcity is something inherent in

nature, when its definition is inextricably social and cultural in origin. Scarcity
presupposes certain social ends, and it is these that define scarcity just as much as
the lack of natural means to accomplish these ends. Furthermore, many of the
scarcities we experience do not arise out of nature but are created by human
activity and managed by social organization (the scarcity of building plots in
central London is an example of the former; the scarcity of places at university is
an example of the latter). Scarcity is in fact necessary to the survival of the
capitalist mode of production, and it has to be carefully managed, otherwise the
self-regulating aspect to the price mechanism will break down.
Armed with these definitions, let us consider a simple sentence:

“Overpopulation arises because of the scarcity of resources available for meeting

the subsistence needs of the mass of the population.”

If we substitute our definitions into this sentence we get:

“There are too many people in the world because the particular ends we have in
view (together with the form of social organization we have) and the materials
available in nature, that we have the will and the way to use, are not sufficient to
provide us with those things to which we are accustomed.”

Out of such a sentence all kinds of possibilities can be extracted:

(1) we can change the ends we have in mind and alter the social organization of
scarcity;

(2) we can change our technical and cultural appraisals of nature;

(3) we can change our views concerning the things to which we are accustomed;

(4) we can seek to alter our numbers.

A real concern with environmental issues demands that all of these options be
examined in relation to each other. To say that there are too many people in the
world amounts to saying that we have not the imagination, will, or ability to do
anything about propositions (1), (2), and (3).

In fact (1) is very difficult to do anything about because it involves the replacement
of the market exchange system as a working mode of economic integration;
proposition (2) has always been the great hope for resolving our difficulties; and
we have never thought too coherently about (3) particularly as it relates to the
maintenance of an effective demand in capitalist economies (nobody appears to
have calculated what the effects of much reduced personal consumption will have
on capital accumulation and employment).

I will risk the generalization that nothing of consequence can be done about (1) and
(3) without dismantling and replacing the capitalist market exchange economy. If
we are reluctant to contemplate such an alternative and if (2) is not performing its
function too well, then we have to go to (4).
Much of the debate in the western world focuses on (4), but in a society in which
all four options can be integrated with each other, it must appear facile to discuss
environmental problems in terms of naturally arising scarcities or overpopulation –
this, presumably, is the point that the Chinese delegation to the Stockholm
Conference was making.

The trouble with focusing exclusively on the control of population numbers is that
it has certain political implications. Ideas about environment, population, and
resources are not neutral. They are political in origin and have political effects.

Historically it is depressing to look at the use made of the kind of sentence we have
just analyzed. Once connotations of absolute limits come to surround the concepts
of resource, scarcity, and subsistence, then an absolute limit is set for population.

And what are the political implications (given these connotations) of saying there
is “overpopulation” or a “scarcity of resources”? The meaning can all too quickly
be established.

Somebody, somewhere, is redundant, and there is not enough to go round. Am I

redundant? Of course not. Are you redundant? Of course not. So who is redundant?
Of course, it must be them. And if there is not enough to go round, then it is only
right and proper that they, who contribute so little to society, ought to bear the
brunt of the burden.

And if we hold that there are certain of us who, by virtue of our skills, abilities, and
attainments, are capable of “conferring a signal benefit upon mankind” though our
contributions to the common good and who, besides, are the purveyors of peace,
freedom, culture, and civilization, then it would appear to be our bound duty to
protect and preserve ourselves for the sake of all mankind.

Let me make an assertion. Whenever a theory of overpopulation seizes hold in a

society dominated by an elite, then the non-elite invariably experience some form
of political, economic, and social repression. Such an assertion can be justified by
an appeal to the historical evidence. ….

If we accept a theory of overpopulation and resource scarcity but insist upon

keeping the capitalist mode of production intact, then the inevitable results are
policies directed toward class or ethnic repression at home and policies of
imperialism and neo-imperialism abroad.
Unfortunately this relation can be structured in the other direction. If, for whatever
reason, an elite group requires an argument to support policies of repression, then
the overpopulation argument is most beautifully tailored to fit this purpose.

Malthus and Ricardo provide us with one example of such apologetics. If a poverty
class is necessary to the processes of capitalist accumulation or a subsistence wage
essential to economic equilibrium, then what better way to explain it away than to
appeal to a universal and supposedly “natural” law of population?

Malthus indicates another kind of apologetic use for the population principle. If an
existing social order, an elite group of some sort, is under threat and is fighting to
preserve its dominant position in society, then the overpopulation and shortage of
resources arguments can be used as powerful ideological levers to persuade people
into acceptance of the status quo and of authoritarian measures to maintain it. The
English landed interest used Malthus’ arguments thus in the early nineteenth
century.

And this kind of argument is, of course, even more effective if the elite group is in
a position to create a scarcity to demonstrate the point.

The overpopulation argument is easily used as part of an elaborate apologetic

through which class, ethnic, or (neo-)colonial repression may be justified. It is
difficult to distinguish between arguments that have some real foundation and
arguments fashioned for apologetic reasons. In general the two kinds of arguments
get inextricably mixed up.

Consequently, those who think there is a real problem of some sort may,
unwittingly, contribute strength to the apologists, and individuals may contribute in
good faith to a result which, as individuals, they might find abhorrent.

And what of the contemporary ecology and environmental movement? I believe it

reflects all of the currents I have identified, but under the stress of contemporary
events it is difficult to sort the arguments out clearly. … Was it accidental that the
environmentalist argument emerged so strongly in 1968 at the crest of campus
disturbances? And what was the effect of replacing Marcuse by Ehrlich as campus
hero? Conditions appear to be exactly right for the emergence of overpopulation
arguments as part of a popular ideology to justify what had and what has to be
done to stabilize a capitalist economic system that is under severe stress.
But at the same time there is mounting evidence (which has in fact been building
up since the early 1950s) of certain ecological problems that now exist on a world-
wide as opposed to on a purely local scale (the DDT example being the most
spectacular).

Such problems are real enough. The difficulty, of course, is to identify the
underlying reason for the emergence of these difficulties. There has been some
recognition that consumption patterns induced under capitalism may have
something to do with it, and that the nature of private enterprise, with its
predilection for shifting costs onto society in order to improve the competitive
position of the firm, also plays a role.

And there is no question that runaway rates of population growth (brought about to
a large degree by the penetration of market and wage-labor relationships into
traditional rural societies) have also played a role.

But in their haste to lay the origin of these problems at the door of
“overpopulation” (with all of its Malthusian connotations), many analysts have
unwittingly invited the politics of repression that invariably seem to be attached to
the Malthusian argument at a time when economic conditions are such as to make
that argument extremely attractive to a ruling elite.

Ideas are social relations; they have their ultimate origin in the social concerns of
mankind and have their ultimate impact upon the social life of mankind.
Arguments concerning environmental degradation, population growth, resource
scarcities, and the like can arise for quite disparate reasons and have quite diverse
impacts. It is therefore crucial to establish the political and social origins and
impacts of such arguments.

The political consequences of injecting a strongly pessimistic view into a world

structured hierarchically along class and ethnic lines and in which there is an
ideological commitment to the preservation of the capitalist order are quite
terrifying to contemplate. As Levi-Strauss warns in Tristes Tropiques:

“Once men begin to feel cramped in their geographical, social and mental habitat,
they are in danger of being tempted by the simple solution of denying one section
of the species the right to be considered human.”
Explaining the Demographic Transition Model

Here are the characteristics associated with each stage of the classic four-stage
DTM. In parentheses, the approximate dates of the onset of each stage are shown
as they occurred in Europe, but there was much variation even across that region,
so these dates are approximate.

 Stage 1: Both birth and death rates are high and population grows slowly, if at
all (Europe between pre-history and about 1650).

Stage 2: Birthrates remain high, but death rates fall sharply as a result of improved
nutrition, medicine, health care, and sanitation.  Population begins to grow rapidly
(began in Europe slowly after 1650, then more rapidly after the Industrial
Revolution spread in the early 19th century).

Stage 3: Birthrates begin to drop rapidly, death rates continue to drop, but more
slowly.  Economic and social gains, combined with lower infant mortality, reduce
the desire for large families (in Europe, birthrates in some nations began to fall in
the 19th century and spread across the region by the early 20th century).

Stage 4: Both birth and death rates are in balance, but at a much lower rate;
population growth is minimal if at all (Europe since the 1970s).

The theory of demographic transition assumes that a country will move from a pre-
industrial (agricultural) economic base to an urban, industrial one, with a
corresponding decrease in family size and population growth.  The slowing of
population growth theoretically results from better standards of living,
improvements in health care, education (especially for women), sanitation, and
other public services. Although this four-stage pattern has been repeated in other
places besides Europe, there are local variations, sometimes significant, as the
trajectory of development is everywhere different and by no means inexorable. For
example, many of today's least-developed countries still retain the high birth rates
characteristic of Stage 2. Also, parts of Europe, Russia and Japan may be entering
a new, fifth stage, where birth rates are below death rates, and the population ages
and begins to decline.

Malthusian Theory of Population

Thomas Robert Malthus was the first economist to propose a systematic theory of
population.  He articulated his views regarding population in his famous book,
Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), for which he collected empirical data
to support his thesis. Malthus had the second edition of his book published in 1803,
in which he modified some of his views from the first edition, but essentially his
original thesis did not change.

In Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus proposes the principle that human
populations grow exponentially (i.e., doubling with each cycle) while food
production grows at an arithmetic rate (i.e. by the repeated addition of a uniform
increment in each uniform interval of time). Thus, while food output was likely to
increase in a series of twenty-five year intervals in the arithmetic progression 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and so on, population was capable of increasing in the geometric
progression 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and so forth.  This scenario of
arithmetic food growth with simultaneous geometric human population growth
predicted a future when humans would have no resources to survive on.  To avoid
such a catastrophe, Malthus urged controls on population growth.  

 On the basis of a hypothetical world population of one billion in the early
nineteenth century and an adequate means of subsistence at that time, Malthus
suggested that there was a potential for a population increase to 256 billion within
200 years but that the means of subsistence were only capable of being increased
enough for nine billion to be fed at the level prevailing at the beginning of the
period. He therefore considered that the population increase should be kept down
to the level at which it could be supported by the operation of various checks on
population growth, which he categorized as "preventive" and "positive" checks.

The chief preventive check envisaged by Malthus was that of "moral restraint",
which was seen as a deliberate decision by men to refrain "from pursuing the
dictate of nature in an early attachment to one woman", i.e. to marry later in life
than had been usual and only at a stage when fully capable of supporting a family.
This, it was anticipated, would give rise to smaller families and probably to fewer
families, but Malthus was strongly opposed to birth control within marriage and
did not suggest that parents should try to restrict the number of children born to
them after their marriage. Malthus was clearly aware that problems might arise
from the postponement of marriage to a later date, such as an increase in the
number of illegitimate births, but considered that these problems were likely to be
less serious than those caused by a continuation of rapid population increase.

 He saw positive checks to population growth as being any causes that contributed
to the shortening of human lifespans. He included in this category poor living and
working conditions which might give rise to low resistance to disease, as well as
more obvious factors such as disease itself, war, and famine. Some of the
conclusions that can be drawn from Malthus's ideas thus have obvious political
connotations and this partly accounts for the interest in his writings and possibly
also the misrepresentation of some of his ideas by authors such as Cobbett, the
famous early English radical.  Some later writers modified his ideas, suggesting,
for example, strong government action to ensure later marriages. Others did not
accept the view that birth control should be forbidden after marriage, and one
group in particular, called the Malthusian League, strongly argued the case for
birth control, though this was contrary to the principles of conduct which Malthus
himself advocated.

 Karl Marx's Theory of Population

Karl Marx (1818-1883) is regarded as the Father of Communism. He did not

separately propose any theory of population, but his surplus population theory has
been deduced from his theory of communism.  Marx opposed and criticized the
Malthusian theory of population.

According to Marx, population increase must be interpreted in the context of the

capitalistic economic system.  A capitalist gives to labor as wage a small share of
labor's productivity, and the capitalist himself takes the lion's share.  The capitalist
introduces more and more machinery and thus increases the surplus value of
labor's productivity, which is pocketed by the capitalist.  The surplus is the
difference between labor's productivity and the wage level.  A worker is paid less
than the value of his productivity.  When machinery is introduced, unemployment
increases and, consequently, a reserve army of labor is created.  Under these
situations, the wage level goes down further, the poor parents cannot properly rear
their children and a large part of the population becomes virtually surplus. 
Poverty, hunger and other social ills are the result of socially unjust practices
associated with capitalism.

 Population growth, according to Marx, is therefore not related to the alleged

ignorance or moral inferiority of the poor, but is a consequence of the capitalist
economic system.  Marx points out that landlordism, unfavorable and high man-
land ratio, uncertainty regarding land tenure system and the like are responsible for
low food production in a country.  Only in places where the production of food is
not adequate does population growth become a problem.

Paul Ehrlich: Neo-Malthusian

As global populations rose spectacularly in the 20th century, theoretical debates

over the extent and causes of the population problem expanded. Thomas Malthus
and Karl Marx had set the initial stage for the world population debate, but other
population theorists - including Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, Garrett Hardin, and
Barry Commoner - would carry the ongoing discussion in the second half of the
20th century. 

 In 1968, as world population hovered above 3 billion, Paul Ehrlich authored the
book The Population Bomb, a widely read publication that sold several million
copies in the United States alone.  Ehrlich, a biologist, maintained that the rate of
population growth was outstripping agricultural growth and the capacity for
renewal of Earth's resources. Given current rates of natural increase, Ehrlich
predicted "certain" demographic disaster in response to eventual food shortages
and disease.  In the opening to his book, he wrote: "The battle to feed all of
humanity is over" and later stated that, "In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of
millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs" (Ehrlich
1968).  Ehrlich argued that industrialized regions such North America and Europe
would be required to undertake "mild" food rationing as starvation spread across
the developing worlds of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In a worst case scenario,
he predicted that the lack of food security in the developing world would set into
motion several geopolitical crises that could result in thermonuclear war. At its
core, Ehrlich's population theory contained three major elements: a rapid rate of
change, a limit of some sort, and delays in perceiving the limit.

While some criticized Ehrlich's work as simply a repetition of Malthus's 19th

century argument, Ehrlich's most vocal opponent, economist Julian Simon, was
skeptical of the more central tenets of the population bomb, particularly the
definition of limits. In the 1970s, Julian Simon published two central pieces that
served to galvanize the population debate: The Economics of Population Growth
(1977) followed by The Ultimate Resource (1981). Simon argued that the
relationship between population growth and economic growth was not as simple as
Ehrlich believed, and that the extent to which population pressure impacted
resources was overstated.  The crux of Simon's argument centered on his belief that
Ehrlich's limit on the availability of resources was misdirected.  Simon instead
argued that it was not possible to have too many people, for the only limit in
determining the scarcity of resources was human imagination. People, the
economist suggested, were the ultimate resource.  According to Simon, ingenious,
resourceful humans had the capacity to invent crops with higher yields, or to
construct inexpensive, safe housing for growing populations.  Simon's other
contention was that current views on population and resource issues failed to take
the long view, and that frequently too short a time frame was considered when
examining demographic problems.

 The Simon-Ehrlich Wager

In 1980, Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich engaged in a very public debate that
underscored their disparate standpoints on population and resource
scarcity. Known as the Simon-Ehrlich wager, Simon invited Ehrlich and his
colleagues to select and purchase five non-government controlled resources worth
a total of $1000 whose value would be measured over time. Agreeing to the wager,
Ehrlich's team selected chromium, copper, nickel, tin and tungsten as the
commodities and then chose 1990 as the payoff date. If the price of the resource
bundle rose, this implied that the resource had become scarcer and Simon therefore
would be forced to pay the difference. If the price of the bundle had dropped, this
would signify greater abundance, and Simon would receive the monetary
difference. 

Between 1980 and 1990, the world's population grew by more than 800 million,
the largest increase in one decade, causing many to believe that the value of the
bundle would rise due to population pressure and corresponding resource scarcity. 
Yet in September 1990, the inflation adjusted price of all five metals had fallen,
forcing Ehrlich to mail Simon a check for $576 to settle the wager. Wired
Magazine eventually dubbed Simon a "doomslayer" for his stance against those
who argued that an ecological Armageddon was around the corner. (For more
discussion about the Simon-Ehrlich wager,) 

 In contrast, while Ehrlich was often criticized as a "doomsdayer" theorist, he is

credited for developing a simple equation that examines population's relationship
to environmental impact.  Known as the IPAT equation, Ehrlich argued that
environmental impacts (I) are the result of three variables: population (P);
affluence (A); and technology (T), as follows:
                                                I = P x A x T

Not surprisingly, Ehrlich implicated population size as the main driver behind
environmental problems, disagreeing with environmentalists such as Barry
Commoner, who believed inappropriate technologies and consumption to be the
prime causes of degradation.  Nevertheless, in developing IPAT, Ehrlich put in
place a new framework for population debates that looked beyond numbers to
include human impact. Measuring the variables, however, can be challenging,
particularly the technology variable.

Garrett Hardin and Lifeboat Ethics

Ehrlich and Simon were not the only theorists of the 1970s to debate the extent and
causes of the population problem, nor were they the last to discuss the merits of
possible solutions. Biologist Garrett Hardin, known primarily for his research on
common property resources, published "Life Boat Ethics" in 1974, a manuscript in
which he outlined the case for and against aiding poor, populous nations.  Using a
lifeboat as a metaphor for the position of rich, industrialized countries, Hardin
questioned the ethics of whether "swimmers" surrounding the lifeboat should be
taken aboard (or given aid) in light of the vessel's limited carrying capacity.

To explain the metaphor, Hardin pointed to proposals to create a World Food

Bank, an international cache of food reserves to which "nations would contribute
according to their abilities and from which they would draw according to their
needs" (Hardin 1974).  Hardin questioned whether we should appeal to our
humanitarian impulses and provide aid or whether we'd be better served caring for
those individuals already positioned in the boat.

 Hardin concluded that the World Food Bank is essentially a commons in disguise
where the less "provident" will be able to "multiply" and tax the planet's resources
at the expense of other nations that had planned for potential famine and disease
through appropriate policies (Hardin 1974: 39).  Hardin argued that ultimately, this
disparity would bring eventual ruin upon all those who share in the commons.  In
the short run, Hardin concluded, a World Food Bank would diminish the need for
food but in the long run would increase it without limit given rapid rates of
population growth in developing nations. 

 While some have criticized the lifeboat ethics stance as harsh or callous, Hardin
actually supported those humanitarian projects that stressed technology and advice
rather than those that supplied food or cash. In drafting his solutions to the
population problem, Hardin invoked the Chinese Proverb: "Give a man a fish and
he will eat for a day; teach him how to fish and he will eat for the rest of his days".
While Hardin criticized foreign aid that "frequently inspires mistrust rather than
gratitude on the part of the recipient nation", he supported Rockefeller and Ford
Foundation agricultural development projects that funded local, community-based
solutions to poverty (Hardin 1974: 40).

Barry Commoner and Poverty

In 1980, biologist Barry Commoner entered the population debate with his chapter
entitled "Poverty Breeds Overpopulation". A strong critic of Hardin's lifeboat
ethics, Commoner questioned how passengers in the lifeboat and swimmers in the
ocean assumed their relative positions in the first place.  Tracing the roots of the
problem to the colonial period, Commoner argues that initially, colonialism served
to improve conditions and develop resources within colonies through the
construction of roads, communication, and medical services. However, over time
the resultant wealth in the developing world was siphoned away to developed
nations in what Commoner calls a process of "demographic parasitism"
(Commoner 1980: 4).  More simply, the gap between the rich and poor nations
grew as the rich fed the poor with their own resources. Commoner suggests that
this process of international exploitation had the added effect of rapid population
growth in former colonies.  In other words, without financial resources available to
improve living conditions, people in developing countries relied more heavily upon
increased birth rates as a form of social security.  Commoner summarized: "The
poor countries have high birthrates because they are extremely poor, and they are
extremely poor because other countries are extremely rich" (Commoner 1980: 4). 

 Commoner therefore concluded that the birth rate is not only affected by
biological factors such as fertility and contraception but by social factors, such as
quality of life.  If the standard of living continues to increase, Commoner argued,
population rates eventually level off in a self-regulating process. Commoner's
solution to the population problem was to increase GDP per capita as a way to
motivate voluntary reduction of fertility.  He argued that the developed world has a
duty to restore the imbalance in wealth between the developed and developing
worlds by returning wealth to impoverished nations and abolishing poverty.

Overpopulation: Debates on Resource Use, Population Growth, and Scarcity

Overpopulation is the idea that there are not enough resources on the earth to
sustain the earth’s population. Key to this idea is that there are certain human needs
that must be filled, and that there are finite resources to fulfill these needs. As you
engage with this week’s materials, ask yourself—how do these viewpoints
conceptualize the relationship between humans and nature? How do these
viewpoints conceptualize human wants and needs vis-a-vis natural resources? How
does the geography of resource use change this debate? How do these viewpoints
echo or conflict with the ideas and arguments from the readings/films that we have
covered in previous weeks?

Thomas Malthus is perhaps the most well-known scholar on the topic of

overpopulation. Born in England in 1766, he postulated in “An Essay on the
Principle of Population” (link is external) that population growth eventually will
place catastrophic pressure on resource use—leading to famines, conflict, and
other stress.

As you reflect on these passages, take note of the two general ideas Malthus set
forth in Chapter 1. Think about how these two points figure into his argument and
his understanding of the demands human populations inevitably can put on natural
resources. Malthus suggested that population pressures lead to resource overuse,
famine, conflict, and misery, in particular, because exponential population growth
outstrips food production. Overpopulation, he surmised, would eventually lead to
catastrophe, entailing high death rates until the human population was culled to a
more sustainable size.

Driven by some of the pressing issues of his day, Malthus was particularly
interested in connecting the predicament of England’s poor to these issues of
resources use and proposed moral restrictions on the poor, suggesting that the poor
practice sexual abstinence. In the excerpt you will read from Chapter 5, Malthus
takes issue with England’s Poor Laws, a kind of welfare system for those unable to
work in Elizabethan England which Malthus wanted to see reformed. As you read
this passage, you’ll see that he considered the laws to exacerbate the predicament
of the poor specifically by enabling the population to increase and not providing
the food they needed to survive.

Ellis 2013 - Overpopulation is not the problem:

In the Week 4 Module on Canvas, you will find a PDF of an op-ed written by
geographer Erle Ellis, challenging some of the basic claims about overpopulation
and scarcity. Think about how his perspective of human use of the environment
differs from Malthus. How does this perception change the solutions he sees?

As you look at these materials, consider what assumptions about human

environment interactions, in particular, resource use and scarcity, these authors
make. How might you connect some of these issues to Pollan’s arguments in The
Botany of Desire?

An overview of natural resource sectors: mineral and energy resources;

Mineral Resources

Almost all Earth Materials are used by humans for something. We require metals
for making machines, sands and gravels for making roads and buildings, sand for
making computer chips, limestone and gypsum for making concrete, clays for
making ceramics, gold, silver, copper and aluminum for making electric circuits,
and diamonds and corundum (sapphire, ruby, emerald) for abrasives and jewelry.
A mineral deposit is a volume of rock enriched in one or more materials. In this
sense a mineral refers to a useful material, a definition that is different from the
way we defined a mineral back in Chapter 2. Here the word mineral can be any
substance that comes from the Earth. Finding and exploiting mineral deposits
requires the application of the principles of geology that you have learned
throughout this course. Some minerals are used as they are found in the ground, i.e.
they require no further processing or very little processing. For example -
gemstones, sand, gravel, and salt (halite). Most minerals must be processed before
they are used. For example:

 Iron is the found in abundance in minerals, but the process of extracting iron
from different minerals varies in cost depending on the mineral. It is least
costly to extract the iron from oxide minerals like hematite (Fe2O3),
magnetite (Fe3O4), or limonite [Fe(OH)]. Although iron also occurs in
olivines, pyroxenes, amphiboles, and biotite, the concentration of iron in
these minerals is less, and cost of extraction is increased because strong
bonds between iron, silicon, and oxygen must be broken.
 Aluminum is the third most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust. It occurs
in the most common minerals of the crust - the feldspars (NaAlSi3O8,
KalSi3O8, & CaAl2Si2O8, but the cost of extracting the Aluminum from
 these minerals is high. Thus, deposits containing the mineral gibbsite
[Al(OH)3], are usually sought. This explains why recycling of Aluminum is
cost effective, since the Aluminum does not have to be separated from
oxygen or silicon.

Because such things as extraction costs, manpower costs, and energy costs vary
with time and from country to country, what constitutes an economically viable
deposit of minerals varies considerably in time and place. In general, the higher the
concentration of the substance, the more economical it is to mine. Thus we define
an ore as a mineral deposit from which one or more valuable substances can be
extracted economically. An ore deposit will consist of ore minerals, that contain
the valuable substance.

Gangue minerals are minerals that occur in the deposit but do not contain the
valuable substance
Since economics is what controls the grade or concentration of the substance in a
deposit that makes the deposit profitable to mine, different substances require
different concentrations to be profitable.. But, the concentration that can be
economically mined changes due to economic conditions such as demand for the
substance and the cost of extraction.

Examples:

 The copper concentration in copper ore deposits has shown changes

throughout history. From 1880 to about 1960 the grade of copper ore
showed a steady decrease from about 3% to less than 1%, mainly due to
increased efficiency of mining. From about 1960 to 1980 the grade increased
to over 1% due to increasing costs of energy and an abundant supply
produced by cheaper labor in other countries.

 Gold prices vary on a daily basis. When gold prices are high, old abandoned
mines re-open, when the price drops, gold mines close. The cost of labor is
currently so high in the U.S. that few gold mines can operate profitably, but
in third world countries where labor costs are lower, gold mines that have
ore concentrations well below those found in the U.S. can operate with a
profit.
For every substance we can determine the concentration necessary in a mineral
deposit for profitable mining. By dividing this economical concentration by the
average crustal abundance for that substance, we can determine a value called the
concentration factor. The table below lists average crustal abundances and
concentration factors for some of the important materials that are commonly
sought. For example, Al, which has an average crustal abundance of 8%, has a
concentration factor of 3 to 4. This means that an economic deposit of Aluminum
must contain between 3 and 4 times the average crustal abundance, that is between
24 and 32% Aluminum, to be economical

Note that we will not likely ever run out of a useful substance, since we can always
find deposits of any substance that have lower concentrations than are currently
economical. If the supply of currently economical deposits is reduced, the price
will increase and the concentration factor will increase
 

Origin of Mineral Deposits

Mineral deposits can be classified on the basis of the mechanism responsible for
concentrating the valuable substance.

Hydrothermal Mineral Deposits

- Concentration by hot aqueous (water-rich) fluids flowing through fractures and

pore spaces in rocks.

Hydrothermal deposits are produced when groundwater circulates to depth and

heats up either by coming near a hot igneous body at depth or by circulating to
great depth along the geothermal gradient. Such hot water can dissolve valuable
substances throughout a large volume of rock. As the hot water moves into cooler
areas of the crust, the dissolved substances are precipitated from the hot water
solution. If the cooling takes place rapidly, such as might occur in open fractures or
upon reaching a body of cool surface water, then precipitation will take place over
a limited area, resulting in a concentration of the substance attaining a higher value
than was originally present in the rocks through which the water passed.
Examples:
  Massive sulfide deposits at oceanic spreading centers. Hot fluids circulating
above the magma chambers at oceanic ridges can scavenge elements like
Sulfur, Copper, and Zinc from the rocks through which they pass. As these
hot fluids migrate back toward the seafloor, they come in contact with cold
groundwater or sea water and suddenly precipitate these metals as sulfide
minerals like sphalerite (zinc sulfide) and chalcopyrite (Copper, Iron
sulfide).
 Vein deposits surrounding igneous intrusions. Hot water circulating around
igneous intrusions scavenges metals and silica from both the intrusions and
the surrounding rock. When these fluids are injected into open fractures,
they cool rapidly and precipitate mainly quartz, but also a variety of sulfide
minerals, and sometimes gold, and silver within the veins of quartz. Rich
deposits of copper, zinc, lead, gold, silver, tin, mercury, and molybdenum
result.
 Stratabound mineral deposits in lake or oceanic sediments. When hot
groundwater containing valuable metals scavenged along their flow paths
enters unconsolidated sediments on the bottom of a lake or ocean, it may
precipitate ore minerals in the pore spaces between grains in the sediment.
Such minerals may contain high concentrations of lead, zinc, and copper,
usually in sulfide minerals like galena (lead sulfide), sphalerite (zinc
sulfide), and chalcopyrite (copper-iron sulfide). Since they are included
within the sedimentary strata they are called stratabound mineral deposits.

Magmatic Mineral Deposits

- substances are concentrated within a body of igneous rock by magmatic

processes like crystal fractionation and crystal settling.
Magmatic process such as partial melting, crystal fractionation, or crystal settling
in a magma chamber can concentrate ore minerals containing valuable substances
by taking elements that were once widely dispersed in low concentrations in the
magma and concentrating them in minerals that separate from the magma.
Examples:

 Pegmatites - During fractional crystallization water and elements that do not

enter the minerals separated from the magma by crystallization will end up
as the last residue of the original magma. This residue is rich in silica and
water along with elements like the Rare Earth Elements (many of which are
 important for making phosphors in color television picture tubes), Lithium,
Tantalum, Niobium, Boron, Beryllium, Gold, and Uranium. This residue is
often injected into fractures surrounding the igneous intrusion and
crystallizes as a rock called a pegmatite that characteristically consists of
large crystals.

 Crystal Settling. As minerals crystallize from a magma body, heavy minerals

may sink to the bottom of the magma chamber. Such heavy minerals as
chromite, olivine, and ilmenite contain high concentrations of Chromium,
Titanium, Platinum, Nickel, and Iron. These elements thus attain higher
concentrations in the layers that form on the bottom of the magma chamber

Sedimentary Mineral Deposits

- substances are concentrated by chemical precipitation from lake or sea water.

Although clastic sedimentary processes can form mineral deposits, the term
sedimentary mineral deposit is restricted to chemical sedimentation, where
minerals containing valuable substances are precipitated directly out of water.
Examples:

 Evaporite Deposits - Evaporation of lake water or sea water results in the

loss of water and thus concentrates dissolved substances in the remaining
water. When the water becomes saturated in such dissolved substance they
precipitate from the water. Deposits of halite (table salt), gypsum (used in
plaster and wall board), borax (used in soap), and sylvite (potassium
chloride, from which potassium is extracted to use in fertilizers) result from
this process.
 Iron Formations - These deposits are of iron rich chert and a number of other
iron bearing minerals that were deposited in basins within continental crust
during the Proterozoic (2 billion years or older). They appear to be evaporite
type deposits, but if so, the composition of sea water must have been
drastically different than it is today
 Placer Mineral Deposits - substances are concentrated by flowing surface
waters either in streams or along coastlines.
The velocity of flowing water determines whether minerals are carried in
suspension or deposited. When the velocity of the water slows, large
minerals or minerals with a higher density are deposited. Heavy minerals
 like gold, diamond, and magnetite of the same size as a low density mineral
like quartz will be deposited at a higher velocity than the quartz, thus the
heavy minerals will be concentrated in areas where water current velocity is
low. Mineral deposits formed in this way are called placer deposits. They
occur in any area where current velocity is low, such as in point bar deposits,
between ripple marks, behind submerged bars, or in holes on the bottom of a
stream. The California gold rush in 1849 began when someone discovered
rich placer deposits of gold in streams draining the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. The gold originally formed in hydrothermal veins, but it was
eroded out of the veins and carried in streams where it was deposited in
placer deposits.

Residual Mineral Deposits

- substances are concentrated by chemical weathering processes.

During chemical weathering and original body of rock is greatly reduced in
volume by the process of leaching, which removes ions from the original rock.
Elements that are not leached form the rock thus occur in higher concentration in
the residual rock. The most important ore of Aluminum, bauxite, forms in tropical
climates where high temperatures and high water throughput during chemical
weathering produces highly leached lateritic soils rich in both iron and aluminum.
Most bauxite deposits are relatively young because they form near the surface of
the Earth and are easily removed by erosion acting over long periods of time. In
addition, an existing mineral deposit can be turned in to a more highly
concentrated mineral deposit by weathering in a process called secondary
enrichment

Mineral Deposits and Plate Tectonics

Because different types of mineral deposits form in different environments, plate
tectonics plays a critical role in the location of different geological environments.
The diagram to the right shows the different mineral deposits that occur in different
tectonic environments.

Energy Resources

Energy reaches the surface of the Earth from two main sources, and thus allows us
to divide energy into two types.

 Solar Energy - which arrives at the Earth as electromagnetic radiation from

the Sun.
 Nuclear Energy - which is produced within the Earth by radioactive decay of
atoms.

In reality, both types are nuclear energy because they involve the energy that holds
atoms together. For the purposes of this course we will classify energy resources
into these two groups and further subdivide each group into the basic energy
sources that can be exploited by human beings.
Solar Energy

 Energy derived directly from the Sun

 Direct solar energy - used to heat water and homes - can be used to generate
electricity with solar cells*.
 Wind Energy - Solar energy causes heating of the atmosphere that results in
convection of air and produces winds.
 Hydroelectric Energy* - derived from the Sun because the Sun causes
evaporation of the oceans. Convection of the atmosphere moves the
evaporated water to higher elevations where it can then run down hill and be
used to generate electricity.
 Energy derived indirectly from the Sun
 Biomass Energy - involves burning of wood, or other organic byproducts.
Such organic material is produced by photosynthesis, a chemical process
which derives energy from the Sun and stores that energy until the material
is burned.
 Fossil Fuels* - Biomass energy that is buried within the Earth where it is
stored until humans extract and burn it to release the energy.
 Petroleum (Oil & natural gas), oil shale, and tar sands.
 Coal

Nuclear Energy

Geothermal Energy* - Decay of radioactive elements has produced heat

throughout Earth history. It is this heat that causes the temperature to increase with
depth in the Earth and is responsible for melting of mantle rocks to form magmas.
Magmas can carry this upward into the crust. Groundwater circulating in the
vicinity of igneous intrusions carries the heat back toward the surface. If this hot
water can be tapped, it can be used directly to heat homes, or if trapped at great
depth under pressure it can be turned into steam which will expand and drive a
turbine to generate electricity.
Direct Nuclear Energy* - Radioactive Uranium is concentrated and made into fuel
rods that generate large amounts of heat as a result of radioactive decay. This heat
is used to turn water into steam. Expansion of the steam can then be used to drive a
turbine and generate electricity. Once proposed as a cheap, clean, and safe way to
generate energy, Nuclear power has come under some disfavor. Costs of making
sure nuclear power plants are clean and safe and the problem of disposing of
radioactive wastes, which are unsafe, as well as questions about the safety of the
plants under human care, have contributed to this disfavour In the above list,
sources of energy that require geological knowledge for exploitation are marked
with an asterisk (*). While using direct solar energy to heat water and homes does
not require geologic knowledge, the making of solar cells does, because the
material to make such cells requires knowledge of specific mineral deposits.
Hydroelectric energy requires geologic knowledge in order to make sure that dams
are built in areas where they will not collapse and harm human populations.
Finding fossil fuels and geothermal energy certainly requires geologic knowledge.
Direct nuclear energy requires geologists to find deposits of uranium to generate
the fuels, geologists to find sites for nuclear power plants that will not fall apart
due to such things as earthquakes, landslides, floods, or volcanic eruptions, and
requires geologists to help determine safe storage sites for nuclear waste products. 
In this course we will concentrate on Fossil Fuels.

Fossil Fuels

The origin of fossil fuels, and biomass energy in general, starts with
photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the most important chemical reaction to us as
human beings, because without it, we could not. Photosynthesis is the reaction that
combines water and carbon dioxide from the Earth and its atmosphere with solar
energy to form organic molecules that make up plants and oxygen essential for
respiration. Because all life forms depend on plants for nourishment, either directly
or indirectly, photosynthesis is the basis for life on Earth. The chemical reaction is
so important, that everyone should know it as it is the way plants produce food
from inorganic materials and is the basis for the vast majority of the food chain.
Note that if the reaction runs in reverse, it produces energy. Thus when oxygen is
added to organic material, either through decay by reaction with oxygen in the
atmosphere or by adding oxygen directly by burning, energy is produced, and
water and carbon dioxide return to the Earth or its atmosphere. To produce a fossil
fuel, the organic matter must be rapidly buried in the Earth so that it does not
oxidize (react with oxygen in the atmosphere). Then a series of slow chemical
reactions occur which turn the organic molecules into hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons
are complex organic molecules that consist of chains of hydrogen and carbon.
Petroleum (oil and natural gas) consists of many different such hydrocarbons, but
the most important of these are a group known as the paraffins. Paraffins have the
general chemical formula:
CnH2n+2
As the value of n in the formula increases, the following compounds are produced:

Formation of Petroleum

The organic matter that eventually becomes petroleum is derived from

photosynthetic microscopic organisms, like plankton and bacteria, originally
deposited along with clays in the oceans. The resulting rocks are usually shales,
yet, most petroleum occurs in much more permeable rocks like sandstones,
limestones, or highly fractured rock. Thus, it is apparent that petroleum migrates,
like groundwater, and accumulates in these more permeable rocks. The process of
petroleum formation involves several steps:

 Organic matter from organisms must be produced in great abundance.

 This organic matter must be buried rapidly before oxidation takes place.
 Slow chemical reactions transform the organic material into the
hydrocarbons found in petroleum.

As a result of compaction of the sediments containing the petroleum, the oil and
natural gas are forced out and migrate into permeable rock. Migration is similar to
groundwater flow.
  The petroleum must migrate into a reservoir rock that is in some way capped
by impermeable rocks to prevent the petroleum from leaking out to the
surface of the Earth. Such a geologic structure is called a trap.

All of these processes must occur within a specific range of temperatures and
pressures. If higher pressures and temperatures are encountered as a result of
metamorphism or igneous activity, the petroleum will be broken down to other
non-useful forms of hydrogen and carbon

Oil Traps

Because oil and natural gas have a low density they will migrate upward through
the Earth and accumulate in a reservoir only if a geologic structure is present to
trap the petroleum. Geologic structures wherein impermeable rocks occur above
the permeable reservoir rock are required. The job of petroleum geologists
searching for petroleum reservoirs, is to find conditions near the Earth's surface
where such traps might occur. Oil traps can be divided into those that form as a
result of geologic structures like folds and faults, called structural traps, and those
that form as a result of stratigraphic relationships between rock units, called
stratigraphic traps. If petroleum has migrated into a reservoir formed by one of
these traps, note that the petroleum, like groundwater, will occur in the pore spaces
of the rock. Natural gas will occur above the oil, which in turn will overly water in
the pore spaces of the reservoir. This occurs because the density of natural gas is
lower than that of oil, which is lower than that of water.
Structural Traps
Anticlines - If a permeable rocks like a sandstone or limestone is sandwiched
between impermeable rock layers like shales or mudstones, and the rocks are
folded into an anticline, petroleum can migrate upward in the permeable reservoir
rocks, and will occur in the hinge region of the anticline
.

Since anticlines in the subsurface can often be found by looking at the orientation
of rocks on the surface, anticlinal traps were among the first to be exploited by
petroleum geologists. Note that synclines will not form an oil trap because oil must
rise on top of the trapped water.

Faults - If faulting can juxtapose permeable and impermeable rocks so that the
permeable rocks always have impermeable rocks above them, then an oil trap can
form. Note that both normal faults and reverse faults can form this type of oil trap.
Since faults are often exposed at the Earth's surface, the locations of such traps can
often be found from surface exploration.

Salt Domes - During the Jurassic Period, the Gulf of Mexico was a restricted basin.
This resulted in high evaporation rates & deposition of a thick layer of salt on the
bottom of the basin. The salt was eventually covered with clastic sediments. But
salt has a lower density than most sediments and is more ductile than most
sedimentary rocks. Because of its low density, the salt moved upward through the
sedimentary rocks as salt domes. The intrusion of the salt deforms the sedimentary
strata along its margins, folding it upward to create oil traps. Because some salt
domes get close to the surface, surface sediments overlying the salt dome are often
domed upward, making the locations of the subsurface salt and possible oil traps
easy to locate.

Stratigraphic Traps
Unconformities - An angular unconformity might form a suitable oil trap if the
layers above the unconformity are impermeable rocks and permeable rocks layer
are sandwiched between  impermeable layers in the inclined strata below the
unconformity. This type of trap is more difficult to locate because the
unconformity may not be exposed at the Earth's surface

Locating possible traps like this usually requires subsurface exploration

techniques, like drilling exploratory wells or using seismic waves to see what the
structure looks like Lenses - Layers of sand often form lens like bodies that pinch
out. If the rocks surrounding these lenses of sand are impermeable and deformation
has produced inclined strata, oil and natural gas can migrate into the sand bodies
and will be trapped by the impermeable rocks. This kind of trap is also difficult to
locate from the surface, and requires subsurface exploration techniques

Distribution of Petroleum

 
The distribution of rocks containing petroleum widespread. Still, since reservoirs
of petroleum result from upward migration and since older rocks have had more
time to erode or metamorphose, most reservoirs of petroleum occur in younger
rocks. Most petroleum is produced from rocks of Cenozoic age, with less produced
from rocks of Mesozoic and Paleozoic age.
 

Oil Shale and Tar Sands

 Oil shale is shale that contains abundant organic matter that has not
decomposed completely to produce petroleum. Oil can be extracted from oil
shales, but they must be heated to high enough temperatures to drive the oil
out. Since this process requires a lot of energy, exploitation of oil shales is
not currently cost-effective, but may become so as other sources of
petroleum become depleted. Known deposits of oil shale are extensive.
 Tar Sands are sandstones that have thick accumulations of viscous oil in
their pore spaces. Extraction of this oil also requires heating the rock and is
therefore energy intensive and not currently cost effective
Coal

Coal is a sedimentary/metanorphic rock produced in swamps where there is a

large-scale accumulation of organic matter from plants. As the plants die they
accumulate to first become peat. Compaction of the peat due to burial drives off 
volatile components like water and methane, eventually producing a black- colored
organic- rich coal called lignite. Further compaction and heating results in a more
carbon- rich coal called bituminous coal. If the rock becomes metamorphosed, a
high grade coal called anthracite is produced. However, if temperatures and
pressures become extremely high, all of the carbon is converted to graphite.
Graphite will burn only at high temperatures and is therefore not useful as an
energy source. Anthracite coal produces the most energy when burned, with less
energy produced by bituminous coal and lignite. Coal is found in beds called
seams, usually ranging in thickness from 0.5 to 3m, although some seams reach 30
m.  Two major coal producing periods are known in geologic history. During the
Carboniferous and Permian Periods, the continents were apparently located near
the equator and covered by shallow seas. This type of environment favored the
growth of vegetation and rapid burial to produce coal. Known reserves of coal far
exceed those of other fossil fuels, and may be our best bet for an energy source of
the future. Still, burning of the lower grades of coal, like lignite and bituminous
coal produces large amounts of waste products that pollute the atmosphere. This
problem needs to be overcome before we can further exploit this source of energy.
Mineral Resources: Definition, Types, Use and Exploitation (with statistics
and diagram)

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Mineral Resources: Definition, Types, Use and Exploitation!

Definition:

Minerals provide the material used to make most of the things of industrial- based
society; roads, cars, computers, fertilizers, etc. Demand for minerals is increasing
world wide as the population increases and the consumption demands of individual
people increase. The mining of earth’s natural resources is, therefore accelerating,
and it has accompanying environmental consequences.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

A mineral is a pure inorganic substance that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust.
All of the Earth’s crust, except the rather small proportion of the crust that contains
organic material, is made up of minerals. Some minerals consist of a single
element such as gold, silver, diamond (carbon), and sulphur.

More than two-thousand minerals have been identified and most of these contain
inorganic compounds formed by various combinations of the eight elements (O, Si,
Al, Fe, Ca, Na, K, and Mg) that make up 98.5% of the Earth’s crust. Industry
depends on about 80 of the known minerals.

A mineral deposit is a concentration of naturally occurring solid, liquid, or gaseous

material, in or on the Earth’s crust in such form and amount that its extraction and
its conversion into useful materials or items are profitable now or may be so in the
future. Mineral resources are non-renewable and include metals (e.g. iron, copper,
and aluminum), and non-metals (e.g. salt, gypsum, clay, sand, phosphates).

Minerals are valuable natural resources being finite and non-renewable. They
constitute the vital raw materials for many basic industries and are a major
resource for development. Management of mineral resources has, therefore, to be
closely integrated with the overall strategy of development; and exploitation of
minerals is to be guided by long-term national goals and perspectives.

Types of Mineral Resources:

Minerals in general have been categorized into three classes’ fuel, metallic and
non-metallic. Fuel minerals like coal, oil and natural gas have been given prime
importance as they account for nearly 87% of the value of mineral production
whereas metallic and non-metallic constitutes 6 to 7%.

(A) Fuel Minerals:

Coal, oil and natural gas are the basic fossil fuel. We have good reserves for coal
but are very poor in more essential fuel — oils and natural gas.
(i) Coal:

Proven coal reserves of the country as on January 1994 (estimated by GSI) is about
68 billion tonnes. We are mining about 250 tonnes annually and this rate is
expected to go by 400 – 450 tonnes by 2010 A.D. If we could maintain our mining
rate of 400 tonnes per year then the coal reserves might last for about 200 years
taking proven reserves as 80 billion tonnes.

The calorific value of coal varies with percentage of carbon present in it. Coal
depending upon variation in percentage carbon, can be divided into three cat-
egories as follows (bituminous / anthracite type is the most abundant form
present in Indian coal):

Table 2.3: Categories of Coal

Type % % Volatile % Moisture

Carbon Matter
Lignite 38 19 43
Bituminous 65 10 25
Anthracite 96 1 3
(ii) Crude Oil (Petroleum):

It is believed that petroleum has been formed over a period of millions of years,
through conversion of remains of micro organisms living in sea, into hydrocarbon
by heat, pressure and catalytic action. The petroleum on fractional distillation and
further processing provides us numerous products and by-products.

Some of the common products obtained on fractional distillation are given in Table
2.4, along with the temperature (just below the boiling point) at which they tend to
liquefy after crude oil feed at the base is heated to about 400°C. One million tonnes
of crude oil on fractional distillation provides about 0.8 million tonnes of
petroleum products.

The percentage composition varies with the quality of crude oil or it could be
varied up to a certain limit depending upon the requirement or demand. On an
average the percentage composition of the common product with their number of
carbon atoms is given in table 2.4.
Table 2.4.: Average % Composition of Petroleum products (with no. of C
atoms) obtained through fractional distillation.

S. No.% Name of No. of carbon

Composition products atoms with
average value
1. 25 Petrol C6-C12 (C8)
2. 45-60 Diesel & C6– C22 (C14)
    Kerosene  
3. 15-20 Naphtha  
4. 8- 10 Fuel oil C30 – C80 (C40)
5. 2-5 Asphalt C50 -C100 (C100)
We have very poor reserves for petroleum just limited to 700 million tonnes.
About 40% of the total consumption of the overall petroleum products of the
country is used in road transport sector (in case of diesel, consumption of road
transport sector is to the extent of 70% of the total diesel consumption of the
country).

Rest 60% of the petroleum products are used in industries including power
generation, domestic and for miscellaneous purposes. In view of rapid growth of
these vital sectors, the consumption of petroleum products has been increasing
consistently over a period of last few years and is bound to increase at rapid pace
in near future.

(iii) Natural Gas:

The proven reserve for natural gas on April 1993 works out to be approx. 700
billion cubic meter (BCM). As regard to production vis a vis utilization aspect in
earlier years, more than half of gas coming out of the wells remained unutilized.
However, in recent years, we have achieved a utilization rate of 80 – 90%. Keeping
in view the future demands and proven gas reserves, it is unlikely that our gas
reserves might last for more than 20 years.

(B) Metallic and Non-metallic Minerals:

India is poorly endowed with mineral wealth. Except for iron ore and bauxite our
share of world reserves of every other mineral is one percent or less. However,
there has been a phenomenal growth in production since independence. As per
estimates if the present trend of production continues, we will exhaust our reserves
of all the important minerals and fuels, except coal, iron ore, limestone and
bauxite, in 25 to 30 years.

Use and Exploitation:

The use of minerals varies greatly between countries. The greatest use of minerals
occurs in developed countries. Like other natural resources, mineral deposits are
unevenly distributed around on the earth. Some countries are rich in mineral
deposits and other countries have no deposits. The use of the mineral depends on
its properties. For example aluminum is light but strong and durable so it is used
for aircraft, shipping and car industries.

Recovery of mineral resources has been with us for a long time. Early Paleolithic
man found flint for arrowheads and clay for pottery before developing codes for
warfare. And this was done without geologists for exploration, mining engineers
for recovery or chemists for extraction techniques. Tin and copper mines were
necessary for a Bronze Age; gold, silver, and gemstones adorned the wealthy of
early civilizations; and iron mining introduced a new age of man.
Human wealth basically comes from agriculture, manufacturing, and mineral
resources. Our complex modern society is built around the exploitation and use of
mineral resources. Since the future of humanity depends on mineral resources, we
must understand that these resources have limits; our known supply of minerals
will be used up early in the third millennium of our calendar.

Furthermore, modern agriculture and the ability to feed an overpopulated world is

dependent on mineral resources to construct the machines that till the soil, enrich it
with mineral fertilizers, and to transport the products.

We are now reaching limits of reserves for many minerals. Human population
growth and increased modern industry are depleting our available resources at
increasing rates. The pressure of human growth upon the planet’s resources is a
very real problem.

The consumption of natural resources proceeded at a phenomenal rate during the

past hundred years and population and production increases cannot continue
without increasing pollution and depletion of mineral resources.

The geometric rise of population as shown in Fig. 2.3 has been joined by a period
of rapid industrialization, which has placed incredible pressure on the natural
resources. Limits of growth in the world are imposed not as much by pollution as
by the depletion of natural resources.
As the industrialized nations of the world continue the rapid depletion of energy
and mineral resources, and resource-rich less-developed nations become
increasingly aware of the value of their raw materials, resource driven conflicts
will increase.

In Fig. 2.4., we see that by about the middle of the next century the critical factors
come together to impose a drastic population reduction by catastrophe. We can
avert this only if we embark on a planet-wide program of transition to a new
physical, economic, and social world that recognizes limits of growth of both
population and resource use.
In a world that has finite mineral resources, exponential growth and expanding
consumption is impossible. Fundamental adjustments must be made to the present
growth culture to a steady-state system.

This will pose problems in that industrialized nations are already feeling a loss in
their standard of living and in non-industrialized nations that feel they have a right
to achieve higher standards of living created by industrialization. The population
growth continues upward and the supply of resources continues to diminish. With
the increasing shortages of many minerals, we have been driven to search for new
sources.

What role of renewable energies in the future?

Natural resources are indispensable ingredients of our modern-day life, and
commodities in general contribute to the world economy in a significant way
(Weitzman, 1999; Mideksa, 2013). Weitzman (1999) estimates that the depletion
of 14 commodities would lead to a loss equivalent to 1 per cent of average
consumption each year, that is, a 1 per cent reduction of global GDP. At country
level and most recently, Mideksa (2013) suggests that in Norway, since the mid-
1970s “about 20 per cent of annual
GDP per capita increase is due to the endowment of petroleum resources such as
oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids and condensate”. However, their extraction and
utilization are increasingly associated with pollution, and at least some
commodities such as crude oil are forecasted to be exhausted in their current
reserves. For example, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries, if crude oil is extracted at its 2011 production rate, reserves will dry up
in about 109 years.
Against a backdrop of rising pollution and the possible exhaustion of reserves,
initiatives are being implemented to seek alternative sources of renewable energy.
One of the most prominent and inclusive initiatives is Sustainable Energy for All,
led by the United Nations Secretary-General. Its objectives are threefold: first, to
ensure universal access to modern energy; second, to double the global rate of
improvement in energy efficiency and third, to double the share of renewable
energy in the global energy mix. These objectives are based on the progress made
so far by many countries, including Brazil and China. Inspiring the initiative is the
fact that Brazil in 2009 obtained about 50 per cent of its primary energy supply
from renewable sources (UNCTAD, 2013b).Between 2008 and 2011, the
renewable energy supply, including hydroelectricity, increased steadily, though its
share in the total primary energy supply remained relatively stable – about 13 per
cent (see figures 4 and 5). According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy
2013, renewable energy, including hydroelectricity, accounted for 8.2 per cent of
the world’s primary energy consumption in 2011, before rising to 8.6 per cent in
2012 over the same period.
An overview of natural resource sectors: Food and agriculture resources
Resource concerns/patterns and development
Environment and the issue of sustainability and development
How can mining become more environmentally sustainable?
http://www.miningfacts.org/Environment/How-can-mining-become-more-
environmentally-sustainable/

Mining can become more environmentally sustainable1 by developing and

integrating practices that reduce the environmental impact of mining operations.
These practices include measures such as reducing water and energy consumption,
minimizing land disturbance and waste production, preventing soil, water, and air
pollution at mine sites, and conducting successful mine closure and reclamation
activities.
Background

Although a number of variations exist, sustainable development is most commonly

defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs2. [1] The principles of
sustainable development involve integrating economic activity with environmental
integrity, social concerns, and effective government systems. [2] These principles
have had a growing influence on the development of environmental and social
policy in recent decades, and have been adopted and promoted by a number of
international organizations, including the United Nations and World Bank. [1]

A number of industry associations, including the International Council on Mining

and Metals, and the Mining Association of Canada, have endorsed the principles of
sustainable development and have developed their own guidelines to promote
sustainable practices among their member organizations.

Environmentally sustainable mining

The continued discoveries of new oil, coal, and mineral reserves, improved
recycling of materials, and advances in technology in recent years have largely
lessened the fears of running out of non-renewable resources. For instance, the
development of technologies including froth floatation for processing certain metal
sulphide ores, the Solvent Extraction-Electro winning process for obtaining copper,
and the use of cyanide in gold extraction have all made previously uneconomic
grades of ore suitable for mining, thus increasing economically viable mineral
reserves.

However, although mining itself may occur on a relatively small land area, the
associated infrastructure and pollution from mining activities have the potential to
affect the health of ecosystems and reduce their ability to provide the goods and
services necessary for human and environmental well-being. These services
include the purification of air and water and the decomposition of waste materials,
which can be compromised where the ecosystems are overwhelmed by high levels
of pollution. The importance of a healthy environment to future generations is
recognized as a “pillar” of sustainable development.

In order to be more environmentally sustainable, mining operations are

increasingly conducted in a manner that minimizes their impact on the surrounding
environment, and leaves mine sites in an acceptable state for re-use by people or
ecosystems. A number of management strategies and technologies are being
developed and used by the mining industry to reduce the environmental impacts of
mining, and are discussed below.

Reducing inputs

Water

Water is used in a number of applications at mine sites. By diverting surface water

and pumping groundwater, mining operations can reduce both the quantity and
quality of water available downstream for aquatic ecosystems and other industrial
and municipal water users, especially in areas with arid climates.

In response to water scarcity in many mining regions, a number of innovative

water conservation practices are being developed and implemented to reduce water
use. In Canada, mining has one of the highest water recycling rates among the
industrial sectors, and between 1996 and 2005 reduced its total water intake by
33%. [5] This drop in water use occurred at the same time as the value of
production increased 48%, meaning the water intake per dollar of production (or
water-use intensity) has also declined.

Energy
Mining and metal processing can be very energy-intensive processes. For instance,
diesel fuel is used by trucks and excavators during mining, electricity is used to
grind ore and refine copper and aluminum, and coal is required in order to smelt
iron ore and make steel. The extraction of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas), and the
construction of infrastructure required for energy generation have their own
environmental impacts, including the production of greenhouse gases and
increased risk of environmental contamination along the energy supply route.
Reducing energy consumption at mines can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
extend the life of fossil fuel reserves in addition to reducing operating costs and
therefore the cost of the commodity being mined.

Some examples of ways mining companies are reducing their energy consumption
include Alcoa’s RopeCon transport system at its Jamalco Operations in Jamaica,
which generates electricity while transporting bauxite ore downhill from the mine
to the rail station, and Kennecott Utah Copper’s haul truck idle management
project, which was recognized by the Utah Pollution Prevention Association with
an Outstanding Achievement in Pollution Prevention Award in 2010. Mining
companies are also investigating renewable energy sources to reduce costs and
reliance on external energy sources including solar power in Chile and wind
turbines at the Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories.

Land disruption

Mine sites currently disturb a small fraction of the Earth’s total land surface. For
instance, less than 0.01% of Canada’s land area has been used for the production of
minerals and metals since mining began over 100 years ago. [6] However, mining
activities use land at every stage of the mine cycle, including exploration,
construction, operation, closure, and post-closure. [7] Vegetation is cleared for the
construction of buildings, roads, and powerlines, open pits or tunnels are dug to
gain access to the ore, and waste storage facilities such as tailings ponds are
expanded over the life of the mine, potentially leading to habitat loss and
deforestation. [7]

There are a number of ways to reduce the land-use impacts of mining.These

include reducing the overall footprint of the mining area, minimizing the amount of
waste produced and stored, maintaining biodiversity by transplanting or culturing
any endangered plants found on site, and planning mines around existing
infrastructure where possible.Although current technology requires ores to be
excavated in order to produce metals, research in areas such as biomining offers
the possibility of mining with minimal land disruption in the future.

Reducing outputs

Waste

Mine waste includes solid waste, mine water, and air particles, which can vary
significantly in their composition and potential for environmental contamination.
In addition to preventing soil, water, and air pollution, waste management plans are
required in order to select and design appropriate storage facilities for the large
volumes of waste produced at most mine sites.

It is generally recognized that preventing pollution is more economic and effective

at reducing environmental impacts than cleaning it up later on (i.e., leaving a
legacy of environmental degradation for future generations).Methods for
minimizing and eliminating wastes in the production of minerals and metal
commodities include:

 Using cleaner production techniques

 Environmental control technologies
 Using waste as raw material, and
 Reducing the amount of waste produced through process re-engineering.

Water management strategies are used to reduce the volume of waste water
produced, and if necessary, to treat it to an acceptable quality before it is released.
Over the past 30 years, most countries have passed formal environmental
legislation describing acceptable standards of human impacts to air, water, and
land. As a result, mine waste management plans are increasingly required in order
to obtain a mining permit in many parts of the world.

Acid rock drainage

Acid rock drainage (ARD) forms when sulphide minerals in waste rock and ore at
a mine site are exposed to air and water. ARD can pollute surface and groundwater
with acidity and dissolved metals, which can adversely affect aquatic organisms
and water users downstream. A number of strategies are used to predict, prevent,
and mitigate ARD at mine sites, and are described in further detail here.
Restoring environmental function at mine sites

Mining is a relatively temporary activity, and mine sites have finite operating lives
which are determined by the size and quality of the ore deposit being mined. Mine
site reclamation and closure activities aim to restore land disturbed by mining
activities to an acceptable state for re-use by people or ecosystems.

Case Study: The Mining Association of Canada’s “Towards Sustainable

Mining” program

Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) is a program developed by the Mining

Association of Canada (MAC). It was launched in 2004, and is based on a set of
guiding principles and performance elements that govern key activities of
companies in the mining and mineral-processing industry. [9] TSM has been
acknowledged as a leader in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and
has earned a Globe Award for Environmental Excellence.

Participation in the TSM program is a requirement of membership in the MAC.

Specific performance indicators are reported annually by members for each mining
facility, and reports are externally verified every three years. In 2010, 19 member
companies reported their facility-level performance, and 10 of those companies
went through the external verification process. While TSM is only mandatory for
member facilities in Canada, many members have adopted the initiative at their
international facilities as well. In May 2011, the Mining Association of British
Columbia became the first provincial mining association to adopt TSM.

As of 2011, MAC members have been reporting their performance in four areas:
tailings management, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions management,
external outreach, and crisis management planning.The average performance of
MAC member companies has increased in all the performance areas between 2006
and 2010.Three new performance elements were introduced in 2010, and will be
integrated into TSM by 2013; these elements include biodiversity conservation
management, safety and health, and Aboriginal and community outreach (which
will replace external outreach). A protocol to address mine closure is also under
development. More information on the TSM program and performance is available
on the MAC website.
Environmental Risks of Mining
How they arise and how their effects can be mitigated
Overview

Unregulated mining has the potential to release harmful substances into the soil,
air, and water. Mission 2016 proposes that governments enforce regulations on
companies and use cutting-edge technology to reduce the damage from mining-
related sources. As more mines open in countries with varying levels of
environmental protection, it is increasingly vital that safeguards established by the
Strategic Minerals Association (SMA) are in place before operations proceed (see
the international regulation page).

Environmental Damages of Mining

Open pit mining

Open pit mining, where material is excavated from an open pit, is one of the most
common forms of mining for strategic minerals. This type of mining is particularly
damaging to the environment because strategic minerals are often only available in
small concentrations, which increases the amount of ore needed to be mined.

Environmental hazards are present during every step of the open-pit mining
process. Hardrock mining exposes rock that has lain unexposed for geological eras.
When crushed, these rocks expose radioactive elements, asbestos-like minerals,
and metallic dust. During separation, residual rock slurries, which are mixtures of
pulverized rock and liquid, are produced as tailings, toxic and radioactive elements
from these liquids can leak into bedrock if not properly contained.

Underground Mining

Underground mining has the potential for tunnel collapses and land subsidence
(Betournay, 2011). It involves large-scale movements of waste rock and
vegetation, similar to open pit mining. Additionally, like most traditional forms of
mining, underground mining can release toxic compounds into the air and water.
As water takes on harmful concentrations of minerals and heavy metals, it becomes
a contaminant. This contaminated water can pollute the region surrounding the
mine and beyond (Miranda, Blanco-Uribe Q., Hernandez, Ochoa G., & Yerena,
1998). Mercury is commonly used in as an amalgamating agent to facilitate the
recovery of some precious ores (Miranda et al., 1998). Mercury tailings then
become a major source of concern, and improper disposal can lead to
contamination of the atmosphere and neighboring bodies of water. Most
underground mining operations increase sedimentation in nearby rivers through
their use of hydraulic pumps and suction dredges; blasting with hydraulic pumps
removes ecologically valuable topsoil containing seed banks, making it difficult for
vegetation to recover (Miranda et al., 1998). Deforestation due to mining leads to
the disintegration of biomes and contributes to the effects of erosion.

In situ leach (ISL) mining

ISL mining has environmental and safety advantages over conventional mining in
that the ore body is dissolved and then pumped out, leaving minimal surface
disturbance and no tailings or waste rock (World Nuclear Association, 2012).
There is no ore dust or direct ore exposure to the environment and a lower
consumption of water is needed in the mining process (International Atomic
Energy Agency [IAEA], 2005). However, the strong acids used to dissolve the ore
body commonly dissolve metals in the host rock as well. The fluids remaining after
the leaching process commonly contain elevated concentrations of metals and
radioactive isotopes, posing a significant risk to nearby ground and surface water
sources (IAEA, 2005). Additionally, the low pH of ISL mining wastewater can
result in acidification of the surrounding environment.

Heap Leaching

Environmental issues with heap leaching are centered on the failure to keep
process solutions within the heap leaching circuit. Release of toxic heap leaching
fluids into the environment can affect the health of both the surrounding ecosystem
and human population (Reichardt, 2008). Water balance is crucial in heap leaching
projects because of the possibility of the overflow of solutions containing toxic
concentrations of heavy metals after a heavy rainfall or rapid snowmelt (Norman &
Raforth, 1994). In some cases cyanide is used to extract metals from oxidized ores
and the resulting leach ponds have caused significant wildlife mortality, including
the deaths of about 7,613 animals between 1980 and 1989 at cyanide-extraction
ponds in California, Nevada, and Arizona (Eisler, 1991).

Brine Mining
Brine mining involves extracting and evaporating the brine solutions to remove
harmful elements and compounds (Gruber et al., 2011), potentially releasing them
into the environment. The drilling and transport of brine solutions can disrupt
existing ecosystems and well casings, pipelines, and storage tanks are subject to
corrosion due to the high salinity content of the solutions that they are exposed to,
which can lead to leaks and contamination of adjacent bodies of water (New York
State Division of Mineral Resources, 1988) Currently, there is no economically
plausible plan to clean up contamination of an aquifer by sodium chloride and
harmful concentrations of chloride inhibit plant growth and can cause fish kills
(Division of Mineral Resources, 1988).

Specific Contaminant Materials

Radionuclides

All REE-bearing minerals contain low levels of the radioactive isotopes that can
become concentrated in mine tailings. Radionuclides are released as dust during
mining or from exposed waste rock stockpiles where they are least containable
(and mostly airborne). Radiation can also leak into the ground, and nearby water
sources after they have been separated into tailings, if the tailings are not stored
safely. Once radionuclides are in an ecosystem, they accumulate in plants, where
the higher concentrations are ingested and ascend the levels of the food chain (Paul
& Campbell, 2011).Radioactive contamination has become such a problem that
monazite mining has been banned by China and the United States has imposed
strict regulations effectively accomplishing the same (Schuler, Buchert , Liu ,
Stefanie & Merz, 2011).

Dust & Metal

When companies break up materials during mining, the dust can release a variety
of heavy metals commonly associated with health problems. As dust, these
minerals (such as the asbestos-like mineral riebeckite) can be absorbed into lung
tissue, causing problems like pneumoconiosis and silicosis, commonly known as
"Black Lung" (Paul & Campbell, 2011). Another example of harmful dust
generated is flue dust, a byproduct of mining fluorine. According to the Chinese
Society of Rare Earths, every ton of REE produced generates 8.5 kilograms of
fluorine and 13 kilograms of flue dust, waste materials which contain the heavy
metals discussed above (Schuler et al, 2011).
The following chart details how these contaminants enter the environment during
mining and refining. Current mining and refining techniques make contaminant
release common. Note: the two columns that involve waste rock and the column
labeled, "No site rehabilitation after cease of mining operation" all involve mining
specifically.

This chart illustrates the many environmental hazards associated with mining.

Additional Environmental Problems with Mining:

In addition to the issues addressed above, there are many other environmental
issues associated with mining:

Carbon output

Mining, like most heavy industries, is dependent on fossil fuels, which generate the
energy needed to operate a mine. To combat these carbon emissions, some
countries have enacted regulations requiring emission credits, but many countries
do not have codes dealing with carbon output ("Molycorp, inc.," 2010). Some form
of environmental standards are needed for larger countries like China and Russia,
and other developing countries that mine large volumes of strategic minerals.
Erosion and endangered species habitat

Mining is an inherently invasive process that can cause damage to a landscape in

an area much larger than the mining site itself. The effects of this damage can
continue years after a mine has shut down, including the addition to greenhouse
gasses, death of flora and fauna, and erosion of land and habitat.

An example of the scarred land of a Chinese mine is shown above.

Water use and wastewater

Most modern mining techniques have high water demands for extraction,
processing, and waste disposal. Wastewater from these processes can pollute water
sources nearby and deplete freshwater supplies in the region surrounding the mine.
Some mines, such as the Mountain Pass mine in southern California, have
implemented waste-water recycling technologies, resulting in a huge decrease in
water demands and liquid waste (Molycorp, 2012).

Case Studies

We have compiled three short case studies of environmentally-harmful mines, to

illustrate the results on the environment and surrounding community of poorly
regulated or monitored mines.

Greenland

Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd, based out of Australia, planned to open a
mine in Greenland in 2013. However, the tailings disposal plan involved storing
tailings in the Taseq lake, which will cause pollution of not only the lake, but the
rivers leading from it and the ocean beyond. Fluorine, heavy metals, and
radioactive decay products would all be introduced into the lake by these tailings
(Schuler et al, 2011). Due to the lack of environmental regulations from Denmark,
the country overseeing the project, plans for the mine continue to move forward,
despite the harmful effects it would have on the environment and the surrounding
community.

China

Current estimates state that around 20,000 tons of REEs are illegally mined and
exported from "off-grid" mines in China every year. It is unlikely that any of these
illegal mines have environmental safeguards in place, which means that
contamination, dust, and other wastes are not being addressed. This affects the
health of the workers as well as destroys the surrounding environment (Schuler et
al, 2011).

Molycorp

In 2002, Molycorp had a problem with its waste disposal at Mountain Pass, when a
pipeline leading out to evaporation ponds in the desert burst, spilling radioactive
and toxic waste onto the desert floor (Danelski, 2009). The resulting uncovering of
past spills, coupled with economic factors, caused the shutdown of Mountain Pass
and a complete reworking of their environmental practices. However, the damage
was done and the area and surrounding water sources are affected, perhaps
permanently.

Case studies like these illustrate the result of ignoring the environmental damages
of mining, and leaving them unaddressed or unregulated. Mission 2016's plan
would address these issues. See the green mining page for more information.

Cost of inaction/action

If no action is taken to remediate the many environmental problems inherent to

modern mining, the end cost for governments and communities would be
devastating. Already mines in China release 9,600 to 12,000 cubic meters of toxic
gas containing flue dust concentrate, hydrofluoric acid, sulfur dioxide, and sulfuric
acid for each ton of rare earth elements produced. Additionally, nearly 75 cubic
meters of acidic waste water and one ton of radioactive waste residue are generated
(Paul & Campbell, 2011). Preemptive actions such as stricter regulations and
proper waste disposal strategies can reduce the costs of environmental damage, and
in some cases pay for themselves. For example: the US company Molycorp spent
10 million USD on its paste-tailings operation, but the water and chemical reagents
it was able to recycle saved have already paid for the installment, in addition to
generating less waste. "Although the operating cost of the paste tailings operation
is expected to be greater than it would be for a tailings pond... we expect that
increased water recycling and reduced environmental risks associated with the
paste tailings facility will ultimately mitigate that additional cost" (Molycorp,
2012). Mission 2016's plan will increase recycling efforts, greener mining and
refining techniques, reduce the cost of environmental damage on the surrounding
community, and increase government involvement in the regulation of dirty mining
practices.

Environmental Damage

The list of environmental concerns that can be connected with rare earth elements
is not a brief one. Throughout the cycle of mining processes that rare earth
elements go through, there is potential for negative effects on the
environment.Extracting rare earth elements begins with mining. This is followed
by the refining process, and then disposal. All of the stages of mining, refining, and
disposal come with unique issues.

Mining

The physical process of removing the ores from the ground is disruptive to the
environment.
Most rare earth elements are mined through open pit mining, which involves
opening the surface of the earth using heavy equipment and machinery. Creating
this disruption on the surface of the earth disrupts thriving ecosystems.
Furthermore, mines are the point source of release for three major contaminants:
are radionuclides, rare earth elements, and dust and metal. Each of these
contaminants escapes the mines in different ways and they each have different
detrimental effects on the environment.

Refining

The goal of mining is to end up with a mostly pure and usable element that can be
utilized in whatever way necessary. However, the ores that are extracted from the
earth do not come out pure, instead they need to undergo a refining process. This
refining process introduces another set of environmental concerns, mostly
revolving around the release of metal byproducts into the environment. It is very
easy for metals to enter the air, ground, or water sin an environment, and once
there it is nearly impossible to remove them. The metals in an environment can
also prove devastating to organisms.

Disposal

The byproduct of mining rare earth elements is usually waste that is full of further
threats to the environment. Generally, waste is categorized into two d

Different types: tailings and waste rock stockpiles. It is the tailings that are of
particular concern as they are full of small,
fine particles that can be absorbed into the water and ground surrounding a
particular mine.

Regardless of whether a contaminant is deemed tailings or waste rock stockpiles,

however the contamination of the water is the main concern. Water can be
contaminated in three ways: sedimentation, acid drainage, and metals deposition,
and once contaminated is difficult to restore to its original quality.