What are Natural Resources?

Natural resources are useful raw materials that we get from the Earth. They occur naturally, which means that humans cannot make natural resources. Instead, we use and modify natural resources in ways that are beneficial to us. (The materials used in man-made objects are natural resources.) There are different ways to classify natural resources, including where they come from and if they are renewable or not. They can also be sorted into two categories: biotic and abiotic. Biotic resources are gathered from the biosphere or may be grown. Abiotic resources are non-living, like minerals and metals.

Some examples of different Natural Resources are:Biotic Natural Resources

• Birds • Flowering plants • Fruits• Fungi• Insects• Mammals• Microbes• Mosses• Natural gas• Petroleum• Reptiles• Shrubs• Trees• Worms

Biotic Resources Grown as Crops

• Basil • Brussels sprouts• Carrot• Cauliflower• Celery• Cotton• Corn • Garlic • Oat • Okra • Peanuts• Peas• Rice• Squash• Sugarcane• Sunflower • Wheat

Biotic Resources in the Ocean • Crustaceans and lobsters• Fish• Octopi• Seaweed and kelp• Shrimp• Whales and dolphins

Abiotic Natural Resources • Coal• Copper• Diamond• Gravel• Gold• Iron Ore• Lead• Marble• Limestone• Nickel• Platinum• Salt• Sand• Silver• Zinc

• Natural Energy Resources• Biofuels - Fuels made from plants and animals• Geothermal energy - Energy generated from and stored in the earth• Hydroelectric power - Water drives the turbines that produce

electricity either in dams or tides• Natural gas - This is a fossil fuel• Nuclear energy - Created by splitting the atom• Solar energy - The sun’s rays heat solar cells that make electricity• Wind power - The wind turn the turbines that make electricity

Renewable Resources

Any resource, such as wood or solar energy, that can or will be replenished naturally over the course of a lifetime. Some examples are trees, animals, water, crops, wind, etc.

Solar Energy

Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the sun harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture and artificial photosynthesis.

Wind Energy

Wind power in the form of windmills has been used for centuries for such tasks as grinding grain and pumping water. Modern commercial wind turbines produce electricity by using rotational energy to drive a generator using kinetic energy of the wind going through the giant blades of the windmill.

Hydroelectric Power

Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water through a dam.

Biomass

Biomass is biological material resulting from living, or recently living organisms. In the context of biomass for energy this is often used to mean plant based material, but biomass can equally apply to both animal and vegetable derived material. The matter is burned in factories and plants to create energy.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth, created by pumping water deep into the ground near hot rocks and magma. As the water comes out as water vapor, it creates energy.

Ocean Energy

Ocean energy refers to various forms of renewable energy harnessed from the ocean. There are two primary types of ocean energy: mechanical and thermal. Mechanical energy is derived from the earth's rotation. The rotation creates wind on the ocean surface that forms waves, while the gravitational pull of the moon creates coastal tides and currents. This motion allows energy to be captured and converted to electric power. Thermal energy is resulting from the sun, which heats the surface of the ocean while the depths remain colder. This temperature difference allows energy to also be captured and converted to electric power.

Non-Renewable Resources

A natural resource such as coal, gas, or oil that, once consumed, cannot be replaced. Most energy resources currently in use today are non-renewable such as natural gas, coal, oil, petroleum, minerals, etc. These are also known because they take millions of years to replenish.

Petroleum/Crude Oil

Petroleum (also known as crude oil or simply oil) is a fossil fuel that was formed from the remains of ancient marine organisms. Millions of years ago, algae and plants lived in shallow seas. After dying and sinking to the seafloor, the organic material mixed with other sediments and was buried. Over millions of years under high pressure and high temperature, the remains of these organisms transformed into what we know today as fossil fuels. Coal, natural gas, and petroleum are all fossil fuels that formed under similar conditions. Today oil is extracted out of the ground with giant drilling machines. Petroleum is used to make gasoline, benzene, and various other flammable liquids. It is also used to make tires and other rubbers, and all plastic products.

Coal

Coal is a chalky, black or brown rock, created very similar to the way oil and natural gas was. Coal us used for electricity generation, steel production, cement manufacturing, and liquid fuel. Around 6.6 billion tons of hard coal were used worldwide and 1 billion tons of brown coal were used in 2014. Since 2000, global coal consumption has grown faster than any other fuel.

Natural Gas

Natural gas is a flammable gas, consisting largely of methane and other hydrocarbons, created very similar to the way oil and coal were made. Natural gas is widely used as fuel for water heaters, cooking, heating housed and many more purposes.

Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy is the energy in the nucleus of an atom. Atoms are the smallest particles that can break a material. At the core of each atom there are two types of particles (neutrons and protons) that are held together. Nuclear energy is the energy that holds neutrons and protons. Nuclear energy can be used to produce electricity. This energy can be obtained in two ways: nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. In nuclear fusion, energy is released when atoms are combined or fused together to form a larger atom. The sun produces energy like this. In nuclear fission, atoms are split into smaller atoms, releasing energy to generate electricity.

Tar SandTar sands (also referred to as oil sands) are a combination of clay, sand, water, and bitumen, a heavy, black, sticky oil. Tar sands can be mined and processed to extract the oil-rich bitumen, which is then refined into oil. The bitumen in tar sands cannot be pumped from the ground in its natural state; instead tar sand deposits are mined, usually using strip mining or open pit techniques, or the oil is extracted by underground heating with additional upgrading.  A large amount of water required for tar sands processing; currently, tar sands extraction and processing require several barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced, though some of the water can be recycled. Tar sands are useful, but take a huge toll on the environment and landscape. The photo you see in the back once used to be a lush forest with a long river running through.

Before

Oil Shale

The term oil shale generally refers to any sedimentary rock that contains solid bituminous materials (called kerogen) that are released as petroleum-like liquids when the rock is heated in the chemical process of pyrolysis. Oil shale was formed millions of years ago by deposition of silt and organic debris on lake beds and sea bottoms. Over long periods of time, heat and pressure transformed the materials into oil shale in a process similar to the process that forms oil; however, the heat and pressure were not as great. Oil shale generally contains enough oil that it will burn without any additional processing, and it is known as "the rock that burns". Oil shale can be mined and processed to generate oil similar to oil pumped from conventional oil wells; however, extracting oil from oil shale is more complex than conventional oil recovery and currently is more expensive. The oil substances in oil shale are solid and cannot be pumped directly out of the ground. The oil shale must first be mined and then heated to a high temperature (a process called retorting); the resultant liquid must then be separated and collected. Oil shale too takes a large toll on the environment

Uranium

A chemical element that is naturally radioactive. An isotope of uranium, uranium 235, is the main fuel for nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. It is very radioactive and harmful for the environment, but provides a large source of fuel.