Natural Resources
Natural resources are those substances and services provided
by Mother Nature that human beings use for their own survival, prosperity and
quality of life – and also often abuse. They include not only obvious things like minerals, water and timber; but
also things we take for granted but should not, like soil, air and wild plants
and animals (our future sources of food and medicines). (Scroll down for links to library documents on this topic.)
As human populations explode -- it has been estimated that 5 to 10 percent of
all the humans who have ever lived are alive today, and that percentage will
rise to 10 to 20 percent of all humans by the year 2050 -- the pressure on
resources becomes enormous.
Humans are even a threat to so-called renewable resources like fresh water,
timber and wildlife. It takes time for Nature to renew an aquifer through
rainfall or to grow a new forest, and we are using these resources faster than
they can be renewed. And, of course, an extinct plant or animal can never be
renewed. Right now humankind is killing off 50-150 species per day, thousands
of times the normal rate of perhaps one species per year.
It has been calculated that for
all humans to live like Americans would take the resources of three planet Earths.
Clearly we must find way to conserve resources and use them more efficiently.
Humans have tended to overlook the vital services
provided by living nature; and we are only beginning to learn about their huge
economic value.
But humans have long grasped the value, and fought
over, those physical resources that they removed from nature for their own use.
Here in
(1) "The Edwards
Aquifer: A hydrogeological and biological
primer" by Dr. George Veni, leading karst geology expert, as presented to the Jan. 13, 2005,
meeting of the Bexar Audubon Society.
(2) A series of article by Mike Mecke,
former
(b) Riparian
zone
(c) Urban Water/Rural
Watersheds
(d) History
of vegetation in Edwards zone
(3) Endangered species
and why they matter, an essay by Harry Noyes.