Managing specific potentially renewable resources.

Potentially renewable resources are renewable resources that require special attention and management in order to sustain their renewal for human use. Plants and animals are living organisms that humans use agriculturally, industrially, and personally for their own gain. Water and soil are both inorganic resources that are vital for human survival. In the book, Handbook of Sustainable Development, it is explained that for these resources to remain sustainable, they must be used a rate that is far less than that of the natural reproduction rate. Many of these very important resources are under dire strains because of the rapidly growing rate of human consumption all over the world. The all encompassing principle for these natural resources is Biodiversity management. Biodiversity management  includes conservation of natural resources, protection of diversity of living organisms, and the sustainable use of those resources for human consumption. A few of the specific issues pertaining to biodiversity management will be discussed throughout the remainder of this post.

Plants
Trees:    
There is no doubt that trees are a huge benefit to all ecosystems. In fact without trees, humans would have very limited survival options. Trees take the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, out of the environment and release oxygen gas which is necessary for breathing. Forests provide habitats for numerous species of animals and other plants. Trees are important for controlling surface water runoff and soil pollution. Trees also provide lumber.
Humans use lumber to make paper, build houses and furniture, and sometimes fuel. As the Earth grows older, more humans need more resources. Resources like paper and construction material are considered to be fairly vital to human advancement. Deforestation is a problem that has grown with technology and demand. Forests can be cut down and trees can be shipped all over the world for a fairly cheap price.

Example of Deforestation:

 http://www.conservation-economy.org/2010/12/letters-from-cancun-2-global-deforestation-and-national-happiness/

All over the world, people and animals are losing their homes and habitats due to deforestation by major corporations who have nothing invested in the quality of life in the areas where this is taking place. Many places like the Amazon of South America and other tropical rainforests all over the world are facing eminent distinction and the hands of global demand for paper and wood products.
To learn more about deforestation and other tree management principles and issues, visit these websites:
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html
http://www.esf.edu/fnrm/
http://www.treesaregood.com/
http://www.arborday.org/trees/where2getHelp.cfm

Animals 
 Fishing is a major issue in natural resource management.  Many fish have already started to disappear out of lakes, rivers and oceans due to human activity. Ocean fish are an important source of food for many people all over the world. The ocean fishing industry is one of the most unsustainable, environmentally harmful food industries that there are. It has been estimated most of the fish in the oceans could disappear by the  year 2050 if the fishing industry does not change it's ways. Unsustainable fishing, litter, chemical pollution, traffic, and other issues are all reasons for fish endangerment and extinction.
Wild animals, other than fish, do not play as large of a role in potentially renewable resources as others in this post because they are not widely considered to be resources and human survival is not necessarily directly linked with theirs'. They are most definitely a part of the environment that should be protected but they are not directly a resource on a large scale. Hunting for game is very vital in many countries where livestock are not affordable. This use of animals as resources is more of a local resource management issue than a world resource management issue.
Other management issues such as elephant and monkey hunting for their tusks and pelts, as well as for sport is a major issue in some countries. Laws have been set up for animal protection and most of this is taken care of on a national level. However, the population and health of most animals in the world is dependent on the management of renewable, non-renewable and the other potentially renewable resources. Domesticated animals are used industrially and agriculturally to produce food for humans all over the world. The health and numbers of these animals are usually well managed because of demand for animal products and the money associated with "good quality" products.

Ocean pollution is a major threat to all species that live in these waters.

Source: learnshareact.com

To learn more about this issue, visit these websites:
http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/wildlife/animals/index.html

http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=12-65-00-00

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JQP/is_325/ai_30327680/

http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans-fish-fishing-industry.html



Water
The major resource that comes to mind when discussing potentially renewable resources that are in high danger of becoming non-renewable is water.
Water resource use is not only a science or environmental issue, it is the most basic humanitarian issue. The major problem of water management is not necessarily that we are running out of it. The problem is that it is that the majority of it is being diverted for uses other than human consumption and many of those processes leave the water too polluted for human consumption when they have run their course. Many sources of water across the world are highly contaminated and even deadly, yet people have no other sources for their water. This contamination also is a major threat to the biodiversity of our planet. All animals need water to survive. Many aquatic animals are facing extinction because of poor water quality management.
At the point when the water causes the death of humans and animals by toxins it is no longer a renewable resource. There is no doubt that the Earth will eventually be able to filter out these contaminants and restore the water to it's original state, but this time span is most likely far beyond that of our civilization.  It could be renewed if there were inexpensive processes to clean it and restore it's health, but unfortunately, the future of water looks grim.


According to Water.org:
884 million people in the world do not have access to drinking water.
2.5% of the world's water is freshwater, and 70% of it is devoted to agriculture.
Water born diseases cause 1.4 million children to die every year.

Picture of Earth showing if all Earth's water (liquid, ice, freshwater, saline) was put into a sphere it would be about 860 miles (about 1,385 kilometers) in diameter. Diameter would be about the distance from Salt Lake City, Utah to Topeka, Kansas, USA.

Credit: Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; USGS.

To learn more about this issue, please visit these websites:
http://www.poverty-action.org/safewater?gclid=CKfIlJ2DzKgCFcns7QodhU-xRQ
http://www.ameribev.org/minisites/water/
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023fa_fact1

Soil 
Soil is arguably one of the most important resources after water. Without soil, our production of food would be greatly limited to near nothing. Since the time of the first agrarian society, soil has been a vital part of the human life. Without soil there is no agriculture. Soil issues vary around the world. Some of the issues included in soil management are erosion, quality and unsustainable farming practices.
It can take hundreds or thousands of years for a quality, usable soil to form by natural processes. Unsustainable farming practices such as too much tilling, too much irrigation, and not enough natural ground cover can lead to major erosion problems. It can take 30 to 40 years of steady erosion for a region to lose it's soil. However, once that soil is lost, there will be no more for the foreseeable future. Quality of soils can be affected by over irrigating, too many fertilizers, too many pesticides and herbicides, and also by the depletion of nutrients by over farming. All of these issues contribute to the steady movement of our topsoils to the bottom of lakes and riverbeds, from which they cannot be brought back.

Soil erosion at it's finest:

Source: newwaytosave.com

Diagram of different types of erosion:

To learn more about this issue, please visit these websites:
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/environment/soil/other.htm

Sources:
Atkinson, Giles, Simon Dietz, and Eric Neumayer. Handbook of sustainable development . Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2007. Print.


"Biodiversity Management Strategies - Defenders of Wildlife." Defenders of Wildlife - Protection of endangered species, imperiled species, habitats. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2011.
<http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/habitat_conservation/habitat_conservation_basics/forestlands/biodiversity_management_strategies/>
Kalman, Bobbie, and Janine Schaub. How trees help me . New York, N.Y.: Crabtree Pub. Co., 1992. Print.
Spilsbury, Richard. Deforestation. London:Wayland, 2008. Print.


"Oceans' Fish Could Disappear by 2050 : Discovery News." Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, Dinosaurs, History . N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans-fish-fishing-industry.html>.


"Water Facts." Water.org . N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/>.


"Soil: The Fundamental Resource of Society ."Washington State University . N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://www.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_agrev/2-soil/soil1.html>.

Videos

Here are more videos that cover overfishing, deforestation,bio fuels, and habitat destruction.

A Closer Look: More information on water as a potentially renewable resource

Managing Water 

Throughout the history of humans, water management has been a crucial issue in the survival and advancement of society. This video is an example of some of the ingénue of humans when it comes to managing water resources: 

Also see this post for extensive videos about water and the world water crisis: http://gcnaturalresources.blogspot.com/2011/05/videos-about-water-resource-management.html#more

Water Consumption 

Water consumption is a major issue in water resource management. The amount of water available for human use is very small compared to the total amount of water in the world. As urbanization and industrialization increase, water consumption is becoming very rapid. Many believe that this rate of consumption is too great for the Earth's ecosystem to sustain. 

Renewable Resources

Renewable Resources: natural materials that can be replenished on timescales that are relatively short in comparison to the human timescale. However, if their levels are used too heavily, they may not be able to replenish and become nonrenewable. Pollution, growing cities, cultivation, grazing, deforestation, fishing and habitat destruction can destroy a renewable resource.

                Pollution- Pollution can take a lot of renewable resources and transform them into nonrenewable like animals and trees. Toxic dumping of chemicals and waste into the ground can make water and soil turn into a nonrenewable resource. Air pollution can turn air into a nonrenewable resource.

                Growing Cities- Urbanization pairs with other ways, like deforestation and cultivation, to end a renewable resource . Growing population causes us to use more of the resource and at faster rate. The spreading of cites destroy land in order to build buildings forcing out animals. Growing cities can destroy living resources like timber, plants, and animals. Growing cities also mean more pollution which effects water and air quality.

                Cultivation and grazing- Over cultivation can use up good soil so much that is no longer a resource for that area. Growing too much on one plot of land causes the soil to be leeched of all its nutrients which leaves the soil useless. Over cultivation also uses a ton of water, pesticides, and herbicides to grow the crops. This leads to the pollution and loss of clean water. Overgrazing means that grazers, like cows and sheep, graze so much that it kills the plants which lead to erosion and loss of good soil. This can lead to flash floods and mudslides because there is no plants to hold the water.

                Deforestation- The clear cutting of forest and the lack of replanting will cause the loss of forests and timber until new forests can grow back which an old-age forest can take hundreds of years to grow back. With the loss of forests, many animals will also be loss as they lose their homes which could have been used as a resource that just became a nonrenewable resource. Animals that are a resource includes animals that people hunt for food like deer and rabbit and animals that have items that we can use like beavers and foxes.

                Fishing- Overfishing of fish can lead to the death of the species either by killing all the members or by destroying their breeding patterns. Since fish are an important renewable resource, it is important we make sure they are not over-fished. Over 100 million ton of fish is eaten each year and gives two billion people about 20 percent of their protein ¹ .

               Habitat destruction- The destruction of animal or plant habitat can cause the loss of valuable resources like plants that we can use for medicine and animals that we hunt. Habitat destruction includes deforestation and urbanization.  We destroy animal’s homes as we cut up the land for timber or development.

Major renewable resources:

People- While people are not the first thought when someone thinks about natural resources, people are valuable resources.  Humans are workers for mankind. We use people to do everything from cleaning to governing us. The chances of us running out of humans are quite low. However, in some areas there is a danger of running out of young people. Japan and several European countries have declining population. This means that there are older people than young people. This will become a big problem as the elders retire leaving more jobs than there are workers. We lose humans to disease, wars, and natural disasters.

Forests- Trees are a renewable resources that are used for many purposes. Trees are used for their wood, the fruits they grow, their sap, maple syrup, and the land that they grow in. Trees also store carbon dioxide and help control soil erosion with their mass system of roots. Some people use trees to hide their land from people or as windbreakers. In a sunny day, trees provide shade. In many countries, the original forest zones are gone. The majority of the world’s trees, less than 10 percent, are tropical rainforest in Latin American, Africa, and Asia Pacific and boreal forest in Russia, Canada, and Alaska.  Only 8 percent of the forests are strictly protected ². While some countries have started to replant trees that they cut down, they replant the same type of tree which reduces the biodiversity of the trees and leaves the forest open to be wiped out by one disease. Rainforest are being destroyed at an alarming rate and with the loss of the rainforest, we lose thousands of unknown species of plants and animals that could have had cures for diseases. Forest also supports a large diversity of animals that are being lost as the forest are being cut down or replaced by the same type of trees.

Animals- Animals are also a renewable resource. Animals as a resource include domestic animals like cattle and sheep and to lesser extent wild animals. We use domestic animals for many products such as milk, meat, and wool. Since domestic animals are so useful, there is a small chance of us losing this resource. Wild animals as a resources are more likely to be lost since we are destroying their land and overall not taking care of them. We use wild animals as entertainment in zoo and sometimes for their meat and body parts.

Crops- Crops are a very important resource that we use to feed our world. Crops are plants we grow for consumption or other uses which include corn, wheat, tobacco, sugar, oats, and many more. More and more crops are becoming genetically modified. This means that scientists are changing the genes of crops so they grow faster, bigger, are disease resistant, need less water, or produce their own pesticides. However, some people have expressed worries about messing with the genes of crops. They worry that GMs will create a super weed that herbicides will not be able to kill.  We will not lose crops as a resource instead we will lose the ability to grow them. Soil is a nonrenewable resource that without careful use we will lose. Water is another resource that we need to grow crops. We are losing water as a resource because we are not taking care of it. We need both soil and water to grow crops.

Water- Water is a renewable resource that is in danger of becoming a nonrenewable resource. Water is being polluted and it takes a while for the water to become unpolluted with the help of bacteria and trees. If the water gets too polluted then it will be unable to purity itself in a humans lifetime making water a nonrenewable resource. We also take water from underground sources called groundwater. Groundwater itself is a nonrenewable resources because it takes so long to replenish. Groundwater takes a lifetime just to move a mile. Already we use using groundwater faster then it can be replenished and most of the groundwater is already polluted ³. 

Sources

1 http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/102911/index.html

2. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/solutions/our-disappearing-forests/

3. http://www.lenntech.com/water-trivia-facts.htm

Check out to see areas where forests are lost or damaged:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/solutions/our-disappearing-forests/intact-forest-landscapes/

Area of Overfishing

Carbon Dioxide(Pollution)

Areas of Drought

Videos about Water Resource Management

Pick any of these videos to learn more about water resource issues and management! 

Videos on: basic water quality and management principles, world water shortage issues, world water quality issues, water research, and political issues involving water quality and management. 

Nonrenewable Resources

Nonrenewable resources are things such as nuclear energy, fossil fuels (i.e. oil, gas, coal), metals (i.e. copper, aluminum, iron), and minerals that are not naturally reproduced at a fast enough rate to keep up with the rate at which Americans use them, so they are depleted irreversibly.

As times progress, Americans are using more and more of these natural resources, especially petroleum oil. As you can see in chart 2 below, America uses 19 million barrels or oil per day, more than anywhere else in the world. As more and more of these resources get used up, the prices rise because the supply is decreasing but the demand is steadily increasing (Chart 3). The primary example in America is that of oil because the prices are now rising to upwards of $5.00 per gallon, but in the winter the effects of natural gas will be more visible and also that of coal as these are required to maintain a warm environment in households. Additionally, the prices of metals are rising which hes lead to an increase of robberies where the criminal strips the house of all copper/aluminum wires because the metal can be sold for a large profit.

94% of the world's energy comes from nonrenewable resources (Chart 1). So if most of the world relies on these nonrenewable energy resources, what happens when they run out? The only way to prevent a major crisis is to come up with alternative sources so that if and when these nonrenewable ones run out, the world will not be caught up in a major crisis. An example of this is man made substitutions such as ethanol for oil, but the only problem is not all cars can run off of this. Noone knows exactly when all of these resources are going to run out, but it's better to be prepared for when that does happen because at the rate people are consuming, we don't have much time left before they all run out.

Sources:

http://www.facts-about-solar-energy.com/renewable-resources.html

http://www.eco-pros.com/non-renew.htm

Chart 1

Chart 2

Chart 3