10.1 Different types of resources

A resource is anything that is of use to people. Geographers often use the term to refer to the natural resources found on earth, however, there are also human and material resources:

• Natural resource - those materials found in the natural world that are useful to humans, and that we have the technology and willingness to use
  
• Human resource - the skills and abilities of the population
  
• Material resource - a natural substance that humans choose to use
  
• Renewable resource - a resource that will never run out and can be used over and over again - e.g. wind and solar power
  
• Non-renewable resource - a resource that is being used up and cannot be replaced once it has run out, such as coal and oil
  
• Sustainable resource - a resource that can be renewed if we act to replace them as we use them - e.g. wood   
  

What are the benefits and costs of different resources?
Advantages of using wind (renewable resource):
- Free
- Unlimited (renewable)
- Environmentally friendly because it does not emit greenhouse gases (once it has been built)
- Takes up a very small plot of land that can still be farmed around
- Low maintenance, few moving parts, easy to repair 
- More dependent than oil from another country, an oil supply could be cut off for many different reasons including war 
Disadvantages of using wind (renewable resource):
- Inconsistent
- Wind turbines are an eye sore (This is a matter of opinion)
- Do not produce huge amounts of electricity/energy unless it is very windy
- Takes many years to offset the cost of its purchase and installation
-  Less efficient compared to non-renewable resources such as oil
- It is noisy
- It does produce some pollution through the manufacturing stage of the wind turbine
 Advantages of using coal (non-renewable resource):
- Produces a lot of electricity/energy
- There is good availability of coal around the world at this time
- Relatively inexpensive
- Much more efficient than renewable resources. (For example, a little amount of fuel can product a large amount of energy
- High calorific value, it can burn for a long time
- Large wind farms are needed to provide entire communities with enough electricity.
Disadvantages of using coal (non-renewable resource):
- It is non-renewable and fast depleting
- Burning coal produces carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas
- This air pollution can be harmful to the respiratory health
Advantages of using bio-fuels (sustainable resource):
- Carbon dioxide is absorbed when they are grown
- Car engines need little change to cope with, and run on bio fuels
Disadvantages of using bio fuels (sustainable resource):
- Need a huge area of land to grow the crop, often resulting in deforestation of existing land
- Not completely carbon-neutral because the land has to be cleared first, then it has to be transported for use elsewhere

10.2 Population and resources

As the population increases in a country, then there will be more mouths to feed. Many people believe the population is going to outstrip the food resources/supply. More people = More demands
the population of the world will continue to grow. The United Nations predicts that it will peak at around 10 billion by 2183. That is another 3.5 billion people in the world compared to now.
They are likely to face challenges of:

• More expensive food
  
• More expensive fuel - more people will mean  greater demand for oil etc.
  
• Climate change - more people will mean a greater release of C02 in the atmosphere
  

-Water shortages - already many people in the world lack access to safe water
-More migration - many people will be born in some of the world's poorest countries, and they will want to move to where they can achieve a better quality of life
There are two possible outcomes:

• A future when there are not enough resources for the global population. This will lead to starvation and fall in population. This was Malthus' view
  
• A future in which people successfully use technology in order to provide resources for the growing population.
  

10.3 Are there enough resources?

How does the demand for resources vary between countries?

• Most of our oil can be found in the developing world, predominantly in the Middle East.

• In some countries in the Middle East countries have reached 'peak oil' (production of oil has reached its maximum so there will be a fall in production).
• Most oil is used in MEDCs because oil is used heavily for transport (cars, ships, planes etc.). Transport is used more widely in MEDCs, thus meaning countries like USA and the UK consume a lot of oil. For example, USA only has 5% of the world's population but uses 25% of the oil.
  
  
• Currently most of the world's population live in LEDCs, with a third living in China and India alone.
• As these countries become more developed they will rely on using more oil for their improved transport needs.
• The increased numbers of cars, televisions and other electrical appliances will mean oil will be used at a quicker rate.

Two Different theories:


Thomas Malthus believed that He based his theory on the population explosion that was already becoming evident in the 18th century, and argued that the number of people would increase faster than the food supply. Population would eventually reach a resource limit, and any further increase would result in a population crash, caused by famine, disease, or war.

Whereas, Ester Boserup believed that food supply was reaching exhaustion. Malthus says the extra people have to die. Boserup says that you just have to upgrade the productivity of the food supply. Under pressure of numbers, with more mouths to feed, people put more labour and more intense effort into feeding themselves, and find ways to get more food production out of the land. They cultivate the land more intensively; they add extra manure, extra fertilisers and extra water and improve their crops.

10.4 Patterns of resource supply and consumption

 Thomas Malthus
1. Exponential (1:2:4:8:16...) population growth
2. Increased food demand
3. Food supply grows at an arithmetic rate (1:2:3:4:5:6...)
4. Increase in death rate due to famine
5. Population checks leads to population declining until it reaches a more manageable level again. Then it would continue again until the next 'natural check'
Esther Boserup
1. Exponential (1:2:4:8:16...) population growth
2. Increased food demand
3. Improved agricultural productivity (e.g. machinary) meaning more food can be produced
4. Population growth continues

How can we become more sustainable in our resource consumption?
 Individual action
- Changing habits - e.g. using public transport / lift sharing instead of driving on your own
- Recyling of plastic (as oil is used in the production of plastic)
- Buying food produced locally to reduce 'food miles'
Corporate action
- Using energy-saving lightbulbs in your house
- Increase amount of recycling in a company and reduce the amount of waste
- Encouraging staff to lift share
- Google HQ's use hydrogen cars and provide a bus shuttle to pick up their employers to reduce their car usage

10.5 How much oil is there?

• As oil is a non-renewable resource, it will eventually run out.

• Peak oil is the point at which production reaches its maximum level and then declines.
  

• The aim is to achieve sustainable development, where the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• One way in which we can reduce our use of oil in cars in by using more electric or hydrogen cars, which emit very little or no greenhouse gases. At the moment however, they are very expensive and are not as efficient as petrol vehicles.

10.6 Energy under pressure

There is so much pressure being put on energy. Everyone wants it, everyone needs it. This means everyone needs the energy and we need to dig out/find/get/make more energy. There are just too many people in the world wanting energy at the same time!the need to find more renewable, sustainable ways of generating energy. Renewable or infinite energy resources are sources of power that quickly replenish themselves and can be used again and again.

Some resources can be thought of as both renewable and non-renewable.

• Wood can be used for fuel and is renewable if trees are replanted.
• Biomass, which is material from living things, can be renewable if plants are replanted.

10.7 Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is a socially and politically defined category of energy sources. Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are continually replenished on a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat.

About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewable resources, with 10% of all energy from traditional biomass, mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from hydroelectricity. 

10.8 Is there enough food?

The world's population reached 6 billion in 1999, doubling from 3 billion in less than 40 years. However, our food supply has kept pace, but more people are consuming more calories than 40 years ago.
-World cereal production has doubled since 1970
-Meat production has tripled since 1961
-The number of fish caught grew  more than six times between 1950 and 1997
In order to feed a world of 9.6 billion people (the projected population) 37 years down the line, farmers today would have to make significant changes, devoting less land to biofuels and dramatically boosting crop yields. In fact, crop yields are rising (at a rate of 1.6% and 1.3% per year for maize and soybean in an optimistic scenario), but it’s not enough.

10.9 & 10.10 What does the future look like?

• Technology can play a very significant role in ensuring we use resources more sustainably in the future.
• A 'technological fix' is the idea that we can resolve problems we might have by inventing solutions to them.
• This could include more widespread use of non-renewable resources (e.g. wind turbines or solar panels) and the development of inventions such as the hydrogen car, electric car and GM crops.
  
• The problem of finding alternative fuels to replace the cheaper and, currently more accessible, fossil fuels such as coal and oil, is that it would require huge amounts of effort from governments, corporations and individuals.

Why are there now adverts? Click for info

Why are there now adverts? Click for info

Key words:

• Human resource - the skills and abilities of the population
  
• Material resource - a natural substance that humans choose to use
  
• Natural resource - those materials found in the natural world that are useful to man, and that we have the technology and willingness to use
  
• Renewable resource - a resource that will never run out and can be used over and over again - e.g. wind and solar power
  
• Non-renewable resource - a resource that is being used up and cannot be replaced, such as coal and oil
• Sustainable resource - a resource that can be renewed if we act to replace them as we use them - e.g. wood
  
• Alternative energy - energy sources that provide an alternative to fossil fuels
  
• Carbon footprint - a measurement of all the greenhouse gases we individually produce, through burning fossil fuels for electricity, transport etc.
• Ecological footprint - a measurement of the total amount of land and resources used
  
• Boserup's theory - the view that when population increases it stimulates technological changes that produce increases in output, ensuring that living standards can be maintained for the growing population
  
• Malthus' theory - the view that population growth will eventually exceed resource supply and therefore there will be 'natural checks' to population growth
  
• Sustainable development - development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs