Renewable and Nonrenewable Natural Resources

Renewable Resources
- A renewable resource is a natural resource that will replenished to
replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through
natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of
time in the human time scale.
- It means it will never run out.
- Water, crops, geothermal, solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, etc.
Advantages:

✓ Operating cost is low

✓ Clean
Natural Resources ✓ No harm to the environment
✓ Sun, wind, ocean energy, etc. are available in abundant quantity and
- These are materials or things that people use from the Earth.
are free to use.
- Natural assets (raw materials) occurring in nature that can be used for
✓ These sources have low carbon emissions and therefore are
economic production or consumption (OECD, 2005).
considered to be more environmentally friendly.
Disadvantages: Population and the Environment
✓ Not very efficient in producing energy on a massive scale
✓ They can be noisy
✓ They are expensive to build
Maintenance Cost: High

Life of resources: (1) infinite, and (2) unlimited quantity

Nonrenewable Resources
- A non-renewable resource is a natural resource that cannot be readily
replaced by natural means at a quick enough pace to keep up with
consumption.
- Coal, petroleum, natural gas, etc. Population Ecology
Advantages: - Deals with the number of individuals of a particular species found in
✓ They are cheap and easy to use an area and how and why those numbers increase or decrease over
✓ Known for their efficiency time.
✓ Ability to produce a lot of energy in a short time Population
✓ Little or no competition
- Any group of organisms of the same species occupying a particular
Disadvantages: space and functioning as part of the biotic community.
✓ They will eventually run out Population Ecologists
✓ Not clean
✓ They are threatening the environment - Study how a population responds to its environment, such as how
individuals in a given population compete for food or other resources
Maintenance Cost: It has a low maintenance cost as compared with and how predation, disease, and other environmental pressures affect
renewable energy resources. that population.
Life of resources: (1) finite, and (2) limited quantity How does population change?
On a global scale, the change is due to 2 factors:
1. The rate at which individual organisms produce offspring (birth rate)
2. The rate at which individual organisms die (death rate)
In local population: • The growth rate (r) of a local population must take into account the
birth rate (b), the death rate (d), immigration (i), and emigration (e).
1. Births
• The growth rate equals (birth rate minus death rate) plus (immigration
2. Deaths
minus emigration): r = (b – d) + (i – e)
3. Immigrants
4. Emigrants Concept of Carrying Capacity and Environmental Resistance
In humans: Population growth forms:
✓ The birth rate (b) is usually expressed as the number of births per • J-shaped growth form – density increases rapidly in exponential growth
100 people per year and; and then stops abruptly as environmental resistance or another limiting
✓ The death rate (d) is the number of deaths per person per year. factor becomes more effective.
✓ The growth rate (r) of a population is the birth rate (b) minus the
death rate (d): r = b - d
✓ Growth rate is also referred to as a natural increase in human
population.
✓ If more individuals in a population are born than die, the growth
rate is more than zero, and the population size increases.
✓ If more individuals in a population die than are born, the growth
rate is less than zero, and population size decreases.
✓ If the growth rate equals zero, births and deaths match, and
population size is stationary, despite continued reproduction and
death. • Sigmoid or S-shaped growth form – the population increases slowly at
first, then more rapidly, but it soon slows down gradually as the
Dispersal environmental resistance increases in percentage until the equilibrium
- Or movement from one region or country to another affects the local is reached and maintained.
population.
2 types of dispersal:
1. Immigration (i): in which individuals enter a population and increase
its size
2. Emigration (e): individuals leave a population and decrease its size.
 • The upper level, beyond which no major increase can occur, as
represented by the constant K, has been aptly termed the maximum
carrying capacity.
Possible Solutions to Overpopulation:
• Have fewer children! One is good, two is enough.
• Read, and educate yourself about population issues.
• Reduce your personal consumption.
• Educate your teenage children about sex and contraception
early
• Spread your knowledge and concern among your friends and
family, raise awareness about over population on social
media.

How does population change impact our environment?

Causes, Effects, and Solutions of Overpopulation • Farming Impacts
Various Causes of Overpopulation: • Eutrophication
• Deforestation
• Decline in the death rate • Water scarcity
• Agricultural advancement • Global warming and climate change
• Better medical facilities
• More hands to overcome poverty
• Child labor
• Technological advancement in fertility treatment
• Immigration
• Lack of family planning
• Poor use of contraceptives
Fatal Effects of Overpopulation:

• Depletion of resources and over-extraction

• Conflicts and wars
• Pandemic and epidemics
• Malnutrition, starvation, and famine
• Water shortage
• Extinction
• Increase vulnerability in disasters and climate change