FINITENESS OF RESOURCES

Marlon C. Pareja
Associate Professor, Biological Sciences Department
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Cristina C. Salibay
Professor, Biological Sciences Department

Look at the picture of the Earth shown above. This was taken from Apollo 11 in
1969 after take-off and the first picture of Earth taken from outer space. Think
that all your time, experiences, achievements and the whole span of your life
will happen in the only known habitable planet in the solar system. Imagine how
limited our planet is and that there is no planet B that we can go if the Earth is
not taken care of.

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

1. Understand the finiteness of the Earth resources and its importance;
2. Appreciate the need to conserve precious resources by using it
efficiently.
3. Create and share solutions pertaining to finite resources conservation .

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 7.1. Understanding Impacts of Loss

Complete the table below by predicting the possible social,

economic, and environmental impact if the resources given (in the
first column) become depleted. Write your answers in the spaces
provided in the second column.

Resources Possible Impact due to resource

depletion
Minerals Social:

Economic:

Environmental:

Fossil Fuel (Oil) Social:

Economic:

Environmental:

Forest Social:

Economic:

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 Environmental:

Fishes and other Social:

Marine Resources

Economic:

Environmental:

7.2. Mining

Mining is a process of mineral extraction from the surface of the

Earth either from land or from the seas. Minerals are usually
inorganic substances occurring in nature that has a definite
chemical composition and distinct physical properties. These
distinct and definite physical and chemical composition make these
minerals important in the production of products required by
humans. Likewise, its presence in a particular area is dependent on
the geological and meteorological history of that particular area. A
confirmation of its presence is called mineral deposit – there is a
natural occurrence of a useful material. While ore deposits denote
a mineral deposit of sufficient extent and concentration for it ot be
extracted.

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 7.2.1. Philippines Mineral Deposits

Despite its small size, the Philippines is one of the countries

in the world rich in mineral resources. Estimate of its metallic
and non-metallic reserves stood at 7 billion metric tons and
50 billion metallic tons, respectively. Data from the Philippine
Statistical Authority revealed that copper accounted for the
bulk of metallic mineral resources of about 72 while nickel at
16%. For non-metallic mineral resources, limestone and
marble accounted for 39 and 29 percent, respectively. Gold
reserves of the Philippines amounted to about 240 metric
tons of gold metal. The Philippines also has one of the
largest chromite deposits in the world.

The Marcopper Mining Disaster

The Marcopper mining disaster that occurred in the island of
Marinduque in 1996 is one of the worst mining and environmental
disasters in Philippine history. A fracture in the pit containing toxic mine
waste led to the discharge of heavy metals into the Makulapnit-Boac
River – an important economic and cultural river in Marinduque.
Following the disaster, the Boac River was declared unusable.

Video link: “Remembering the Marcopper Mine Disaster”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkdmXYDh4s

7.2.2. Impacts of Mining

Area Benefits Cost

Loss of the cultural value
Social Employment of Locals of ancestral lands
Locals do not have share
of profit
Once minerals are
depleted, no more
Economic Additional revenues revenues
Minerals extracted
Environmental cannot be replenished
Loss of Biodiversity
Animal Migration
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 Heavy metal pollution
Soil erosion

7.3. Fossil Fuel Depletion

Fossil fuel depletion is the decline of available fossil fuel in a well,

field or geographic area. In 1956, the geologist M. King Hubbert made a
prediction that the world will reach peak oil – the time when the production
rate of oil has been attained and production enters an irreversible decline.
Many predictions have been made as to what year peak oil will happen
but new discoveries of oil fields and new methods of extraction have
made this prediction not still accurate. Nonetheless, fossil fuel is a non-
renewable resource and its unsustainable use will have a great impact to
our lives.

The reality is not that oil is depleting but rather that we are
transitioning from a period of easily-accessible oil at low prices to an era
of increasingly unconventional production, which has higher costs since
supply is finite. Cost of extraction shall be the limiting factor in the supply
and cost of oil products. At some point, unconventional oil exploration will
get so expensive that consumers will look to lower-cost alternatives. The
increasing popularity of hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, bicycle
transportation in urban areas are examples of such a shift. Below is the
cost and benefits of fossil fuel extraction.

Table ____. Impact of fossil fuel depletion

Area Benefits Cost

Profit-driven and
production not accessible
Social Employment of Locals to all

Cheapest source of Cost of extraction

Economic energy so far becoming expensive
Oil extracted cannot be
Environmental replenished
Global warming
Pollution

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7.4. Deforestation

The forest is home to a lot of biodiversity. In the 1900s, the

Philippine forest cover is about 85% declining in 2019 to 18% with less
than 3% of this remaining forest cover as original (virgin) forest.
Deforestation rate was at highest in the 1980s at around 150,000
hectares per year.

Most remaining original forests in the Philippines have been given

protected status, but many of these areas are in critical condition and
remain threatened due to inadequate protection resulting from lack of
funds and lack of political will. Apparent roundwood consumption has
fallen dramatically in the past decade giving credence to the possibility of
the country's forests being close to economic extinction. Deforestation is
caused by shifting cultivation, land use conversion, forest fires, illegal
logging and 40 million m 3 of fuelwood harvested each year. Fuelwood
demand continues to be strong, further exacerbating the critical position
the forests are in. Fuelwood harvesting is believed to be seriously
impacting on the remaining commercial forests.

The National Greening Program launched by the government in

2012 aims to plant a million hectare trees by 2016. The impact of this
program remains to be evaluated.

7.4.1. Importance of Forest Ecosystems

a. Source of Food
b. Source of raw materials (furniture, clothes,
shelter)
c. Climate control and modification
d. Disaster Risk Reduction
e. Source of medicine
f. Tourism value
g. Air and water purification
h. Social and Cultural value

These importance of the forest ecosystems when given a monetary value

or the cost of benefits is accounted it is called the value of ecosystem
services of the forest.

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 7.4.2 Impact of Deforestation

Area Benefits Cost

Loss of the cultural value of
Social Employment of Locals ancestral lands.

Loss of safety net for

diseases.

Loss of source of potential

medicines.

Displacement of tenured
migrants and indigenous
people.

Revenues from sale of

Economic wildlife and lumber Loss of ecosystem services
Loss of biodiversity
Environmental Increase soil erosion
Animal migration
Effect on rainfall and
weather

7.5 Overfishing

Millions of people all over the world rely on natural waters for their staple
food and income. This means that thousands of fish and other aquatic
resources are captured daily to meet the growing demand for them. As
more depends on fish, oceans and seas continue to face the threat of
depleting supply of fish and other resources from waters.

The Philippines is the world’s second largest archipelago with 2.2 million
square kilometers of marine-water area, according to the Bureau of
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).

How does this fare with other countries? This makes our country highy
abundant in marine resources, thereby placing it in one of the top major
fish-producing nations worldwide. Yet, managing the Philippines marine
resources is a big challenge because of overexploitation.

Majority of the fishing grounds in the country was found to deplete in fish
stock in due to overfishing. This happens when a particular type of

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fish from a body of water is removed at a higher rate than they are
replenished in time at a given area.

Table ____. Impact of Overfishing

Area Impact
Social Fishing is a source of livelihood and nutritional needs of
millions of people. The unsustainable fishing practices
and consequently overfishing, collapse the aquatic
resources. Without fish production, fisheries are gone
and fishermen loss their livelihood.

Overfishing leads to a decline in the population of

Economic productive fish, which results in lesser stocking of the
fish. Most often, it would take years to revive the
declining marine population.

Environmental
Overfishing can destroy the environment and marine
ecology and completely disrupt the food chain.

7.6 Poverty, Hunger and threats to Food Security

You have been oriented that depletion of natural resources occurs when
resources are consumed at a faster rate than that of replacement. This
natural resource depletion emphasizes value of a resource in terms of its
availability in nature.

With the increasing global population, the levels of natural resource

depletion is also increasing. As a consequence, poverty rises. Poverty
is a deprivation of one’s basic needs due to lack of money to buy services
or lack of access to services.

A key contributory factor to hunger is poverty. The Global Hunger

Organization follows the Global Hunger Index (GHI) in with four indicators
stated below.

Undernourishment: the share of the population that is

undernourished (i.e., whose caloric intake is insufficient);

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 Child wasting: the share of children under the age of five who are
wasted (i.e., who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute
undernutrition);

Child stunting: the share of children under the age of five who
are stunted (i.e., who have low height for their age, reflecting
chronic undernutrition);

Child mortality: the mortality rate of children under the age of five
(in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and
unhealthy environments).

Food Security and its main threats

Food security is of fundamental importance for human existence. Food

security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their
dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. It is
ensured when the following three conditions are simultaneously satisfied:

Physical food availability. The national food economy ensures

meeting of at least the minimum physiological demand, and
imports provide foods in excess of this minimum demand. This is
also linked with the need to maintain food reserves.

Economical food availability. It means that the economically

weakest households have access to essential food (due to
different types of food aid); a consumer has purchasing power to
facilitate the purchase of the essential goods and services on the
market.

The health value of a single food product. This means that

food products are free of any substances harmful to health (e.g.
residues of pesticides, antibiotics, dioxins, and harmful colorants,
poisonous substances and pathogenic microorganisms) and
consumer food rations (balanced food rations such as
necessary energy level and the adequate proportions of nutritive
components dependent on age, sex and type of work).

Main Threat to food Security

The food system is intensely challenged by the world population growth,

increased food demand, scarcity of water and land resources; and larger

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spread of arable land vis-à-vis bio-fuels, industry and urbanization.
Climate change, the vanishing of biodiversity of ecosystems and the
diversity of agricultural cultivars, new plant and animal diseases, and
increasing energy and food prices, the loss of food and waste food, and
speculation on the food market, will have a disadvantageous impact on
global food security.

Population growth. The rapid growth of the world’s population

resulting mainly from the high birth rate in the developing
countries. In countries with high population but scare in resources,
feeding the people is one big problem. There are serious
disproportions in the level of nutrition which results from the
uneven distribution of food production and inadequate distribution
of food, It should be emphasized that climate change causing
droughts, floods and other disasters will have a disadvantageous
impact on global food production ability.

Increase demand for food. Due to unequal access to food, about

a fourth of the world’s population is undernourished, and 10% is
starving. Global economic growth results in increased wealth of
the global population, higher demand of food, and changes in
consumption patterns dominated by the consumption of animal
products, especially meat and meat products.

Food price
Global food crisis that began with the sudden increase in food
prices all over the world. The increase in prices is being felt the
most by the millions of the poorest people. It is estimated that
global food prices can increase by 70-90% by the year 2030, and
that’s without calculating the impact of climate change, which
could cause prices to double10.

The disappearance of the variety of agricultural plant

species. Biodiversity in agriculture includes, in addition to natural
habitats and wild species of plants and animals, genetic resources
for agriculture, which consists of local crop varieties and livestock
breeds. Diversification of agriculture is the only and most
important method of achieving food security in a changing climate.
The greater number of species and varieties in one field or in a
single ecosystem, the greater the likelihood that some of them can
cope with changes in the environment. The diversity of species
also decreases the probability of occurrence of diseases and
pests, reducing the number of organisms-hosts on which they
could develop.

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 The increase in the area of scarcity water and the limitation
of the availability of land. Water is one of the most important
factors deciding the fate of a human being. The available drinking
water constitutes only 1% of global water resources. Water
resources are decreasing in many countries due to climate
changes. A significant increase in demand for food is not only on
water resources but also in land. Due to the of soil erosion,
depletion of nutrients, infrastructure development and
urbanization of agricultural land area is decreasing.

The food losses and food waste. Food losses occur primarily in
the low-income countries as a result of the lack of adequate
infrastructure. Food losses occur mainly at the production stage,
and minimally at the stage of consumption.

Roughly one-third of the edible parts of food produced for human

consumption gets lost or wasted globally. Limitation of food waste
increases the efficiency of land use, improved water management,
the assurance of benefits for agriculture and reduces
undernourished in developing countries.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Minerals, fossil fuel and forest are valuable resources with

minerals and fossil fuels as non-renewable resources.

2. Unsustainable use of these resources will lead to depletion

of its supply.

3. Philippine fishery production has continually and drastically

declined since the start of the 21st century as a result of the
destruction of coral reefs. On the other hand, coral reefs
have been damaged because of illegal fishing practices.

4. The Philippines has a long way to go in reducing hunger. It

is believed that overpopulation and insufficient resources for
food and other basic needs have to be addressed to reduce
hunger.

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 ASSESSMENTS

Individual Work

1. What is the relationship of your lifestyle and consumption behavior

to our mineral, oil and forest resources? Explain and give
example.

2. What is the value of the ecosystem services provided by the

Philippine rainforest?
3. Choose one (1) in the emerging technologies that is a possible
replacement to fossil fuel. Provide a brief description of the
technology and explain how it can reduce dependence on fossil
fuel.

Group Work (Case Studies)

1. The Power or One-Minute Video

Assume that tomorrow oil supply became suddenly depleted.
Discuss its short-term and long-term impacts. What are the things
you can suggest to adapt to changes in:

a. Transportation
b. Food security
c. Energy sources
d. Health
e. Lifestyle
Present your collective suggestion by creating a powerful one-
minute video using your mobile phone.

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