Resources are extracted from earth’s surface for survival and upgrading standard of living of people. For development, resources are used at a faster pace than the rate at which they are replenished. A good example is increasing use of petroleum, which takes millions of years to replenish. Elucidate.
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Earth's Finite Resources and Human Extraction
Printer-friendly versionPDF version
Because Earth is essentially a closed system, there is a finite amount of matter on the planet and in its atmosphere. All of the matter that we have now, is all the matter that there will likely ever be on Earth. There would only be added matter if, for example, the Earth were to be bombarded by meteorites, and their matter was incorporated into Earth.
Figure 18: In this example of the Law of the Conservation of Mass, the two chemical reactants
are mixed to form different products. The chemical form of the matter has changed, but the
total mass has not.
The Law of Conservation of Mass states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. It can be changed and its composition can be rearranged to form different materials, but the total amount of matter is conserved through these processes (Figure 18). This means that there has always been the same amount of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and all of the other elements contained within the Earth and its atmosphere, although the elements change forms and redistribute themselves throughout the different spheres through biogeochemical cycles.
In more recent times, humans have mastered the change and reorganization processes of much of the matter that exists on the surface of the Earth. This means that humans can modify matter for their own purposes. However, there is a danger involved in modifying matter according to human needs and desires. The value, availability, and productivity of the finite matter on Earth can be reduced as a result of pollution and/or over-harvesting. Additionally, any time we industrially transform a natural resource, we risk doing so irreversibly. This means that a natural resource may be altered to such an extent that it does not readily re-enter natural biogeochemical cycles.
The elements used to synthesize plastic are an excellent example of this. Plastics are made of large chains of carbon molecules that are bonded to other chains of carbon. In synthesizing plastics, additional elements are introduced, like hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, fluorine, or sulfur, causing the carbon chains to take on different properties, resulting in different types of plastics. For example, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is used to make plumbing pipes, contains chlorine atoms. Teflon, used as a non-stick surface on the inside of cooking pans, is formed when fluorine is added to the carbon chain matrix.