Mineral resources are renewable or non-renewable. Renewable natural resources

Renewable natural resources, under certain natural conditions, can be constantly restored as they are used. These include flora and fauna, a number of mineral resources, such as salt accumulating in lakes, peat deposits, and partly soil. However, to restore them and ensure expanded reproduction, it is necessary to create certain conditions. The recovery of renewable resources occurs at different rates. It takes 300-600 years for the formation of 1 cm of the humus layer of the soil, the restoration of the felled forest - tens of years, and the population of hunting animals - years. Consequently, the rate of consumption of renewable resources must correspond to the rate of their recovery, otherwise renewable natural resources may become non-renewable: soils - to erode, species of animals and plants - to completely disappear. [...]

Renewable resources include soil, vegetation, fauna, as well as some mineral resources, such as salts, deposited in lakes and sea lagoons, they can be reproduced in natural processes and maintained in a certain constant amount, determined by the level of their annual reproduction and consumption. [. ..]

The damage to renewable resources, as already noted, can be compensated to a certain extent by the forces of nature itself. So, polluted air is scattered and mixed with fresh air as a result of the movement of air masses. Gases, soot and dust emitted into the atmosphere are carried away, the concentration of these substances decreases, they partially settle and become safe in small quantities. A variety of aquatic biota counteracts water pollution: algae, microbes, invertebrates. By their activity, they destroy pollutants by decomposing and using them for food, and then they themselves become food for other living beings. Dilution of contaminated water with fresh water contributes to the self-purification of reservoirs. Self-renewal of vegetation and animals takes place. [...]

The amount of renewable resources used by the technosphere determines its natural intensity. A measure of the natural intensity of the technosphere or the natural intensity of production can be the ratio of technogenic carbon emission to its biotic cycle or the ratio between technical and biotic energy. [...]

Water resources belong to the category of renewable resources if water pollution as a result of economic activities is not so large-scale that it causes irreversible qualitative changes in natural waters. In order to preserve natural waters, it is necessary to carry out a more thorough purification of wastewater discharged by industrial enterprises, to reduce the processes of surface erosion, to preserve and create water protection zones of forests. [...]

Water is a renewable resource, but limited nonetheless. Water has already been called "oil of the XXI century", and there are all the prerequisites for it to increasingly limit the technological processes that use it. Unlike wood or other renewable resources, the total average amount of water people have at their disposal is fixed. However, the constancy of the supply rate is not fixed, since droughts, floods and average annual precipitation are relatively common phenomena. Since all sectors of industry use water, some far more than others, production location, type and efficiency are important factors in the water budget. [...]

Water resources include all types of water, excluding water that is physically and chemically associated with rocks and the biosphere. They are divided into two different groups, consisting of stationary water reserves (see Table 1 on page 6) and renewable reserves involved in the water cycle and estimated by the balance method. For practical purposes, fresh water is mainly required. The possibility of using fresh water from stationary reserves is extremely limited. This applies, for example, to flowing lakes, mountain glaciers, the stationary reserves of which cannot be used by removing water from them without disturbing the renewable water resources of a given lake, glacier formed in the process of water exchange. The exploitation of stationary groundwater resources, which are poorly involved in water exchange processes, in a number of cases is possible without damage to the renewable resources of these waters. Obviously, this also applies to the polar glaciers, which have large one-time reserves. [...]

Natural resources of the ecosphere are usually subdivided into non-renewable (minerals), renewable (mainly biological) and “inexhaustible” (energy of the Sun, water, air, heat of the interior, etc.) (Fig. 4). Such life support systems as the global biogeochemical cycles of the main elements, the global hydrological cycle, the circulation of the atmosphere and the ocean, the processes of synthesis and destruction of organic matter, etc., can be referred to the same last category. This is a very conventional division. The boundaries between resource categories are blurred. These boundaries are relative in terms of time. For example, mineral resources and soils continue to be created and evolve in our time, but the rate of their formation is incomparably lower than the rate of their consumption. Water, generally a renewable resource, may under certain circumstances be a non-renewable resource. [...]

As for renewable resources, until recently it seemed that there was no question of finiteness or interchangeability for them. However, it is now clear that this is only true for wind and ocean currents. Renewability is by no means synonymous with inexhaustibility. It all depends on the ratio of the rates of withdrawal and renewal and on the vulnerability of the natural system. [...]

Potentially renewable resources, the reserves of which, although they may be depleted or polluted as a result of too rapid consumption, will, under normal conditions, recover as a result of natural processes (trees, fresh waters of rivers and lakes, soil, wild animals).

The biological resources of the Arctic should be understood in a broad biological and ecological interpretation. On the one hand, these are renewable resources directly used in economic activities: game animals, resources of fish and other aquatic organisms, commercial marine mammals, pasture resources of reindeer, forage resources of meadows. [...]

Forest resources, in particular wood, should also be referred to as relatively renewable resources. [...]

Payment for natural resources also includes payments for restorative use of natural resources - maintenance of renewable resources of territories in a stable productive state (fish farming, agroforestry, anti-erosion measures, reclamation, etc.). [...]

Water is also a renewable resource. The total annual runoff on the planet is about 40,000 km3, and so far only 3,500 km3 are being used. It seems that the planet still has substantial reserves of water. However, the following should be taken into account. Most of the effluent (28,000 km3) is seasonal. A significant part of the rivers is located in inaccessible, sparsely populated areas. According to geographers' estimates, the available flow is only 7,000 km3. The construction of dams could change this estimate to 9000 km3. For example, the largest Amazon River with its tributaries concentrates up to 15% of the world's fresh water production. However, this water is used for the needs of only 0.4% of the world's population. Thus, 95% of Amazon's debit is not available for use. All this huge reserve of fresh water ends up in the Atlantic Ocean. The likelihood that the consumption of water from the Amazon will expand in the near future is low. [...]

Exploitation of biological resources. Among the renewable resources, the forest plays an important role in human life, which is of no small importance as a geographical and ecological factor. Forests prevent erosion processes in soils, serve as a barrier to surface waters, i.e., they are accumulators of moisture and regulate the optimal regime of groundwater. The forests are inhabited by animals of material and aesthetic value to humans: hoofed animals, fur animals and other game. In Russia, forests occupy about 760 million hectares, or 33% of its entire land area, and are one of its main natural resources. [...]

In the works of economists, when evaluating renewable resources, it is used like this! called the resource approach. This means that the living components of ecosystems are valued only if they are involved in the process of social production, are necessary for the daily life of society. In other words, they belong to the category of characterized non-market values. [...]

The problems of using renewable resources are even more complex. In general, in the world, their quantity and quality have decreased under the influence of human activities. Since the most important source of renewable resources is photosynthesis, which creates primary organic matter, we will discuss the geoecological problems associated with these resources, mainly in Chapter IX on the biosphere. [...]

In essence, it represents part of the kinetic energy of the sediment mass. The real hydropower potential of all rivers in the world is estimated at 2,900 GW. In fact, less than 1,000 GW is currently being used for hydropower generation. There are tens of thousands of hydroelectric power plants operating in the world with a total electrical capacity of 660 GW. For their work, reservoirs have been created on the rivers, often whole cascades of reservoirs. Since the age of most hydropower units is several decades, and their depreciation period ranges from 50 to 200 years, many problems associated with the reconstruction of hydropower facilities can be foreseen. A number of economic and environmental restrictions are already being imposed on the growth in the use of hydroelectric potential. They are also an obstacle for any significant use of the energy of surface ocean currents, which has not yet been estimated on a global scale, and the energy of tides, equal to the hydro-potential of rivers. [...]

No less difficulties have arisen with some types of renewable resources, the reliable natural mechanisms of regulation of which have not previously raised concerns. The decline in soil fertility, the productivity of natural ecosystems, the decline in forest area and the disappearance of certain plant and animal species [...] are alarming.

Much more important is the human influence on renewable resources (which ultimately also belong to the exhaustible). This group (according to I.A.Shilov, 2000, p. 448) includes all forms of living and bio-inert matter: soils, vegetation, fauna, microorganisms, etc. A characteristic feature of renewable resources is their ability to reproduce themselves, time scales which is comparable to the rate of their withdrawal from the biosphere as a result of exploitation and other forms of human activity. The set of renewable resources is nothing more than the global ecosystem of the Earth, existing on the basis of fundamental laws of ecology. [...]

The establishment of adequate payments for the right to use resources on the basis of calculating differential rent (as is customary in countries with developed market relations), on the one hand, rests on the problem of ownership and ownership of natural resources in general, and especially in relation to land resources, since for most renewable resources and wildlife, land is the spatial basis for their distribution. On the other hand, the level of solvency and sustainability of a significant number of Russian enterprises-users of natural resources is limited in the process of a possible increase in payments for resources. [...]

However, sometimes wasteful use of some renewable resources can become non-renewable or take a disproportionately long time to renew. For example, soils that increase fertility with their rational use can deteriorate sharply with the wrong cultivation methods, and the erosion that occurs during this process often physically destroys the soil layer. The same can be said about the resources of flora and fauna. With predatory use, the ability of biological systems to reproduce itself is disrupted, and then these resources become practically non-renewable. [...]

It was more difficult to determine how to summarize the output from monitoring renewable resources. Within the framework of GEMS, a methodology has been developed for this problem and a regional study of natural resources on a small scale (eg soil conditions, forests) has been carried out. It was believed that this would make it possible to further disseminate the experience gained in various countries and organize a wide network of such monitoring. In any case, in recent years, it should be noted that the center of gravity within the GEMS framework has shifted from pollution monitoring to a more balanced approach, affecting both the monitoring of renewable resources and some additional environmental problems. [...]

Sustainable consumption is the fastest rate at which renewable resources can be used without compromising their renewable potential. When the level of sustainable consumption is exceeded, the resource degrades. [...]

Of course, this also applies to the intensive, irrational use of natural resources, in which the very ability of nature to reproduce renewable resources can be undermined, and non-renewable resources will be exhausted, depleted faster than human society will be able to accordingly restructure its economy, its economic activity. [.. .]

At present, environmental protection and rational use of natural resources for the benefit of man is an urgent problem for all mankind. Major scientists, philosophers, economists and others, for the first time in the history of the development of human society, question the inexhaustibility of the renewable resources of our planet (water, air and soil). In modern conditions, the presence of the latter in sufficient quantity and proper quality, along with non-renewable resources (ores, metals, coal, gas, oil, etc.), is one of the main factors determining the further economic development of various countries. [...]

The complex, competent, taking into account natural recovery, the use of this (renewable) resource promises an income of at least $ 100 billion. The financial return from the use of one cubic meter of wood in Russia is three to four times lower than in developed countries. The export of roundwood (unprocessed) is still dominant in the forestry business. At the same time, huge forest resources in the form of a wood balance - logging waste (the upper part of a tree trunk, branches, etc.), at best, rot in the forest, at worst - they are burned right on the plot, often causing forest fires. And since the price of timber rises sharply as it is processed more deeply, it becomes obvious: management in this area should shift the emphasis from harvesting and selling cheap round timber to deep versatile processing. The federal program for the development of the timber industry complex is aimed at just such a decision. It provides not only the quantitative development of the development of timber raw materials, but also the qualitative one. [...]

Humanity, unlike any other type of living organisms, lives not only at the expense of renewable resources, but also at their absolutely irreplaceable and irreplaceable supply, and moreover, the further, the greater. At the same time, part of the solid matter changes its physical and chemical structure irreversibly, energy, accumulating in the surface layers of the atmosphere and affecting the overlying layers, changes the entire geophysics and geochemistry of the planet, and dispersed in natural conditions substances that are dangerous to life are concentrated, poisoning the environment of life. These processes go through the entire hierarchy of natural systems, and the rate of contraction of natural pebbled skin directly depends on the number of people "eating" it. [...]

For non-renewable sources, the rate of consumption should not exceed the rate of their replacement by renewable resources. [...]

In the century of the scientific and technological revolution, mankind began to develop almost all renewable and non-renewable resources available to it. Moreover, a significant part of non-renewable resources has already been used. In many countries, some renewable resources (timber, hydropower, fresh water) are almost completely used. [...]

Despite the fact that the planet's water is in a continuous cycle, it cannot be classified as a renewable resource: a substance with the chemical formula Н2О is periodically renewable, but only a small fraction of the waters of the World Ocean is a resource of the quality man needs. As a resource, water is (see Introduction, Fig. 1) a locally and qualitatively exhaustible substance. Moreover, since the water cycle brings the waters of the lithosphere, soil, atmosphere, and the World Ocean into a single system, it promotes the migration of anthropogenic impurities in the biosphere, including xenobiotics. The latter are pollution ingredients. The law of the resource cycle considered above is fully applicable to water consumption (i.e., the use of water withdrawn from natural sources): the mass of water withdrawn from reservoirs and watercourses is equal to the mass of returned water. The fact, for example, that irrigated agriculture is characterized by a significant “irretrievable” water consumption, means only that the withdrawn water does not return directly to the place where it was taken. [...]

For example, the stumpage fee currently does not depend on the costs of reproduction, preparation and involvement of forest resources in circulation. The real costs and allocations for reforestation and forestry activities in different conditions differ significantly (dozens of times). [...]

With a total useful volume of 3000 cubic meters. km of reservoirs increase sustainable flow, that is, renewable resources suitable for use, by 25%. On the other hand, the average world duration of water exchange in river systems increased from 20 to 100 days, which indicates a deterioration in their ecological state. In particular, the natural self-cleaning ability of rivers has noticeably decreased due to the constant absorption of oxygen from the air by river water flowing in a turbulent regime. Oxygen dissolved in water is consumed in oxidation of water-borne organic pollutants. [...]

Siberian cedar, although it occupies millions of hectares in Russia, should also be classified as a relatively renewable resource, for the tree's lifespan reaches 300 years, i.e. equals the life of several generations of people. [...]

The process of photosynthesis is the basis of life support on Earth, and its result, biological production, is the most important renewable resource. These 220 billion tons of organic matter per year are the most important renewable resource in the ecosphere, providing agriculture, forestry, fisheries and other sectors of the economy associated with the use of renewable natural resources. [...]

Since the VIII-XI centuries. to these are added inventions using the forces of water and wind. The era of mechanical energy based on renewable resources has come. Man's technical capabilities have expanded, and at the same time his pressure on nature has increased. Already in the Renaissance (XU-HUN centuries), population growth, the development of crafts and trade, cities and roads, geographical discoveries and conquests, construction, shipbuilding, military affairs accelerated the development of new lands, deforestation and gave a powerful impetus to the development of ore and metallurgy , and then mechanically driven machines. However, technogenesis acquired the greatest acceleration and environmental significance since the appearance of heat engines and the beginning of the use of fossil fuel resources. [...]

An important point in the rational use of natural resources is planning and forecasting the use of natural resources. This is especially true for the use of such renewable and relatively renewable resources as fauna and flora, as well as soil fertility. Planning the use of land resources provides for the development and implementation of rational crop rotations, planning the use of forest resources, drawing up plans for felling, taking into account the restoration of forest areas. When planning, one should take into account the ever-increasing rate of use of natural resources and make a long-term calculation of their consumption based on mathematical forecasting methods. At the same time, an operational plan is being developed for the implementation of a complex set of environmental protection works. The theoretical basis for such a development can be network management methods. These include: methods of network planning, methods of mathematical programming, expert forecasting methods, methods of mathematical and statistical forecasting. [...]

Nature management is an interdisciplinary scientific direction that studies the general principles of the use of natural resources and geoecological “services” by society. anthropogenic systems from pollution, as an integrated role of biological systems as a source of renewable resources, a reservoir of biological diversity, a mechanism for maintaining the quality of water and air, an object of enjoying nature, etc. [...]

In this situation, it is also possible to "close" the resource cycle. Since forests are capable of self-healing, i.e. belong to relatively renewable resources, the resource cycle is carried out in such a way as to use this feature of the forest. This task belongs to the field of rational forest management and is solved by a system of appropriate organizational and technological measures that reduce wood losses, increase the efficiency of its use and, consequently, reduce the volume and area of \u200b\u200bcut forests, as well as contribute to their intensive self-restoration. [...]

Practically in the global system provided by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), environmental monitoring is understood as monitoring of renewable resources of the biosphere. In the work, environmental monitoring also includes monitoring of the state of soil, vegetation cover, water resources (hydrological cycle), marine resources, monitoring of the biosphere (biotic component). [...]

Thus, with the preservation and accumulation of the total stock of wood in the forests, the commercial wood required for production is an exhaustible and only relatively renewable resource. Since, however, scientific and technological progress is aimed at the development and use of any wood in industry, the severity of the problem can be reduced. With all that has been said, one should bear in mind the dual natural resource essence of forests, which are both sources (producers) of raw materials and an environment-forming factor of global importance. Therefore, the exploitation of forests for timber production must without fail (ie, on the basis of legislation) take into account the space, soil and water protection, climate-forming, recreational and other ecological functions of forest systems. [...]

Here we will dwell in more detail on the mathematical issues related to the description of periodic traveling waves, “wave packets” or “wave trains”. It is natural to assume that periodically traveling waves will also occur in more complex spatial distributions of biological communities. In our presentation, we will follow the well-known works of N. Koppel and L. Howard, but not literally, keeping only their general idea. [...]

More than twenty years ago, scientists have convincingly proved that the current exponential economic growth is objectively determined by certain limits that are associated with the depletion of non-renewable resources and with the approach to the consumption of all production of renewable resources. If anthropogenic impacts on the environment remain unchanged and the existing economic trends persist, then "the limits of growth on our planet will be reached in the next 100 years" (Danilov-Danilyan, Losev, 2000). Thus, one of the most important limiting factors for the survival of a person as a biological species is the limited and exhaustible nature of the most important natural resources. [...]

These modifications are both positive (and necessary) in nature - both for humans and for nature itself (biological productivity increases, biocenoses are rejuvenated), and negative (environmental pollution, depletion of non-renewable resources, weakening of natural opportunities for the reproduction of renewable resources. ...]

The main provisions of the general plan of action, formulated in the work, are close to the arguments that are given in his work by E.K. Fedorov. At the same time, the main attention is paid to the problem of stabilizing the population, stopping the "dispersion" of renewable resources, using new technology to increase the "yield" of renewable resources, using renewable energy sources, achieving ecological isolation of human activity (this is also stated in the book by B. Kom- monera). [...]

More precisely, such a system should be called monitoring of anthropogenic changes in the natural environment. The work, written by the author and R. Mann jointly, sets out agreed views on monitoring anthropogenic changes in the state of the natural environment and renewable resources. [...]

Noticeable changes in the biosphere began from the time when man began to use energy external to the biosphere - the non-renewable energy of fossil fuels - to satisfy his production needs. In the pre-industrial era, man for his existence used only renewable resources of the biosphere in the form of its products. [...]

The existing methods for calculating the cost of the territory and damage do not allow such an approach to the cost assessment. Moreover, the experience of the group led by the Russian ecologist V.N. Bolshakov on the development of environmental impact assessments indicates that the damage to renewable resources calculated using these methods is not comparable in size to the profit that can be obtained from the development of oil or gas fields. [...]

A sustainable society is a society provided with information, social and institutional mechanisms capable of controlling the contours of positive feedbacks that cause exponential growth in population and capital, that is, a society that meets the needs of today's generation without depriving future generations of the opportunity to satisfy their own needs. In a stable society, according to G. Daly, the rate of consumption of renewable resources does not exceed the rate of their recovery; the rate of consumption of non-renewable resources does not exceed the rate of development of their sustainable renewable replacement; the intensity of emissions of pollutants does not exceed the ability of the environment to absorb them. Such a society is characterized by an almost equal ratio of births and deaths, an adequate and guaranteed material standard of living for all, which is ensured by controlling the population size, capital stocks and technology.

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Introduction

Resources are means of subsistence, without which a person cannot live and which he finds in nature. These are water, soil, plants, animals, minerals that we use directly or in processed form. They give us food, clothing, shelter, fuel, energy and raw materials for the work of industry, from which people create comfort items, cars and medicines. Some types of resources, for example minerals, can only be used once (although some metals can be used as secondary raw materials). These types of resources are called exhaustible or non-renewable resources. They have finite stocks, which are practically impossible to replenish on Earth. Firstly, because there are no conditions in which they were formed millions of years ago, and secondly, the rate of formation of minerals is immeasurably slower than their consumption by humans.

Other types of resources, such as water, "come back" to nature again and again, no matter how much we use them. These resources are called renewable or permanent resources. They are reproduced in natural processes occurring on Earth and are maintained in a certain constant amount, determined by their annual growth and consumption (fresh water in rivers, atmospheric oxygen, forest, etc.).

It is often very difficult to draw the line between renewable and non-renewable resources. For example, plants and animals, if used wastefully, without caring about the consequences, can disappear from the face of the Earth. Therefore, in this regard, they can be attributed to non-renewable resources. On the other hand, flora and fauna have the ability to reproduce themselves and, with reasonable use, can be preserved. Thus, in principle, these resources are renewable.

The same can be said for soils. With rational management of the economy, soils can not only be preserved, but even improve and increase their fertility. On the other hand, unreasonable use of soils leads to a decrease in their fertility, and erosion often physically destroys the soil layer, completely washing it away. That is, in many cases, the renewability or non-renewability of natural resources is determined by the attitude of a person towards them.

Now, in his economic activity, man has mastered almost all available and known types of resources, both renewable and non-renewable.

Mineral resources

renewable non-renewable natural resource

Unlike renewable resources, which, if properly used, turn out to be practically inexhaustible, minerals can be used only once, after which they disappear. These resources are irreplaceable. The rate of their formation is immeasurably slower than the rate of production. Therefore, throughout the future history of mankind, it is likely that the search for means and methods for more efficient use of non-renewable resources, including methods of processing secondary raw materials, will be required.

The importance of mineral resources can be judged by their diversity and versatile use in everyday life.

Some minerals are as important to human life and health as air and water. Table salt, for example, which man cannot do without, has been an object of exchange throughout human history. It has also become the most important industrial raw material - its reserves in the earth's crust and in the ocean are very large, and mankind has this resource in abundance.

The situation is different with mineral fuels and metals. Many of them are neither abundant nor cheap and therefore should be protected as an endangered resource.

The rate of exploitation of the earth's interior is accelerating from year to year. The purpose of protecting mineral reserves is to ensure their rational and full use, to prevent spoilage and prevent attempts at unauthorized extraction, to preserve areas of subsoil of scientific and cultural interest. Decisive steps must be taken to reduce mining losses. If during the extraction of tens of millions of tons, even a fraction of a percent of the mineral is lost, then the actual losses will amount to tens of tons, and huge sums will be spent on exploration and preparatory work.

The development of minerals should be carried out in such a way as to make full use of chemical elements, not to throw even poor ores into the dump, and to exhaust the deposits to the end. It is necessary to preserve minerals during transportation to processing sites. Large losses of coal during underground fires are still not uncommon; large funds are spent on combating them. Significant losses during the extraction, concentration and processing of non-ferrous and rare metal ores. Basic metals and related components are lost here.

Thus, the main requirements for the protection of the subsoil and their rational use are the most complete extraction from the subsoil and the rational use of the reserves of the main and, together with them, the underlying minerals and the components contained in them; prevention of the harmful impact of work related to the use of subsoil on the safety of mineral reserves; protection of minerals from flooding, fires and other factors that reduce their quality and value of the deposit; prevention of subsoil pollution during underground storage of oil, gas and other materials.

Land resources

Soil is the surface fertile layer of the earth's crust, created under the combined influence of external conditions: heat, water, air, plant and animal organisms, especially microorganisms. Soil resources are one of the most essential prerequisites for ensuring life on Earth. However, their role is currently underestimated. The soil as an element of the biosphere is designed to provide a biochemical environment for humans, animals and plants. Only soil can provide adequate conditions for the production of food and animal feed. The integral functions of soil as a natural body are the accumulation of atmospheric precipitation and regulation of water balance, the concentration of plant nutrients, the formation and maintenance of the purity of groundwater.

With intensive use of the land, it is necessary not only to think about how to take more from it, but also to take care of increasing soil fertility at the same time. The land fund of Russia is 1709.7 million hectares. About 1,100 million hectares of land are located in the permafrost zone. Agricultural lands occupy only 13% of the land area of \u200b\u200bthe country and tend to decline. Over the past 25 years, the area of \u200b\u200bagricultural land has decreased by 33 million hectares, despite the annual involvement of new lands in agricultural circulation. The main reasons for the decrease in agricultural land are the emergence of soil erosion, insufficiently regulated land acquisition for non-agricultural needs, flooding, waterlogging and waterlogging, overgrowing with forest and shrubs. The factors contributing to the destruction of soil also include underground and open-pit mining.

According to the estimates of scientific institutions, farmland soils annually lose about 1.5 billion tons of fertile layer due to the manifestation of erosion. The term "erosion" comes from the Latin verb erodere - to eat away. Erosion is the destruction and removal of the soil cover (sometimes of the parent rock) by water currents or wind. This destroys the most fertile topsoil. Techniques for combating soil erosion are very diverse and depend on soil-climatic and agro-economic conditions. They should be carried out on the basis of the introduction of zonal farming systems:

* in areas where wind erosion is spread - soil-protective crop rotations with strip placement of crops, snow retention, consolidation and afforestation of sands, cultivation of field-protective forest belts;

* in areas where water erosion is spread - processing of soils and crops across the slopes, contour plowing, strengthening the arable layer and other methods of processing that reduce the runoff of surface waters;

* in mountainous areas - installation of anti-mudflow structures, afforestation, tinning of slopes, regulation of cattle grazing, conservation of mountain forests.

The task of the rational use of the lithosphere includes the consolidation and development of sands. Sands are loose loosely bound sediments consisting of grains of minerals (mainly quartz). The consolidation of sands is carried out by the method of mechanical protection, bitumenization (covering the sands with an emulsion of bitumen, cementing the surface layer to a depth of 0.8 - 1 cm. A solid crust successfully withstands winds for two years). The fixed sands can be used for afforestation, horticulture, viticulture, melon growing and animal husbandry.

Draining wetlands increases soil resources. Swamps are valuable land areas. After draining, they are used for various agricultural crops, as well as for growing forests and extracting peat. The soils of drained bogs are fertile, they accumulate a large amount of amino acids, nitrogen and other organic substances. But the continuous drainage of swamps can be harmful (an example of this is continuous reclamation, which led to disastrous results), therefore there are various ways to regulate the water regime when draining swamps, which do not allow negative consequences, for example, the creation of reservoirs in the upper reaches of rivers and reservoirs for water retention.

Land reclamation is aimed at soil restoration. The development of open-pit mining has dramatically increased the number of territories that are being destroyed. The restoration of territories is carried out in four directions: for agricultural use (agriculture, gardening), for forest plantations, for water bodies, for housing and capital construction. The most effective at present is reclamation by means of afforestation.

Water resources

Water is the basis of life on Earth and its homeland. Unfortunately, the abundance of water is only apparent, in reality the hydrosphere is the thinnest shell of the Earth, because water in all its states and in all spheres accounts for less than 0.001 of the planet's mass. Nature is arranged in such a way that water is constantly renewed in a single hydrological cycle, and the protection of water resources should be carried out in the very process of using water by influencing individual links of the water cycle. The demand for water increases from year to year. The main consumers of water are industry and agriculture. The industrial value of water is very high, since almost all production processes require a large amount of it. The bulk of industrial water is used for energy and cooling. For these purposes, the quality of water is not of great importance, therefore, the basis for reducing the water intensity of industrial production is recycling, in which water once taken from the source is used repeatedly, thereby “increasing” water resources and reducing their pollution. The largest “water consumers” among industrial sectors are ferrous metallurgy, chemistry, petrochemistry and heat power engineering. The transition from direct-flow to repeated water supply allows reducing the volume of water consumption at thermal power plants by 30-40 times, at some chemical and oil refineries - by 20-30 times, at the production of ferroalloys - by 10 times. Most of the "industrial" water is used to cool the heating units. Replacing water cooling with air cooling in chemical and petrochemical industries, mechanical engineering and metalworking, at thermal power plants and in the woodworking industry would reduce water consumption here by 70-80%. There are great opportunities for reducing wasteful water consumption in the housing and communal services. It is well known to everyone how large are the leaks from faulty taps, other sanitary fittings, and from external water supply networks. In the latter case, leaks are often caused by wearing pipes, and replacing them with long-term enameled pipes and pipes made of glassy materials with increased corrosion resistance would greatly reduce water consumption.

Forest resources

Forests are the national wealth of the people, a source of timber and other types of valuable raw materials, as well as a stabilizing component of the biosphere. They are of great aesthetic and recreational (restorative) importance. Rational use and conservation of forests is now becoming of great importance for the European part of Russia and the Urals, where relatively small forest resources and the main production capacities of industrial enterprises are concentrated, as well as the majority of the country's population. To streamline the use of forests of national importance and prevent the depletion of wood resources in sparsely wooded areas, forests are divided into three groups. The first group includes forests that mainly perform the following functions: water protection, protective (anti-erosion), sanitary-hygienic and health-improving (urban forests, forests of green zones around cities).

The second group includes forests in areas with a high population density and a developed network of transport routes, which have protective and limited operational importance, as well as forests with insufficient forest resources, for the preservation of the protective functions of which, continuity and inexhaustibility of use, they require a more stringent forest management regime.

The third group includes forests of multi-forest areas, which are mainly of operational importance and are designed to continuously meet the needs of the national economy in wood without compromising the protective properties of these forests. In the forests of the third group, the leading place is taken by the use of target resources (primarily wood). In the light of modern issues of environmental protection and the rational use of forest resources, the development of forests of the third group, the improvement of forest exploitation and wood processing, a further increase in the productivity of plantations, and the effective use of forest by-products are of great importance. The creation of large forestry complexes in the North-West and in Eastern Siberia, in the Far East made it possible to bring into operation large forests with overmature and ripe plantings, setting the task of replacing old forests with new ones for the forestry and forest industry. The complex use of wood raw materials is of great importance. It is based on the production of the technological chain, which allows the use of wood, as well as waste from logging and sawmilling as a raw material for the pulp and paper industry and the production of wood panels.

The recreational value of forests located in places with developed industry, near large cities, is also growing rapidly. The recreational value of forests sometimes exceeds the value of timber obtained from them. With the accumulation of vacationers in the forests, a recreational load arises. This may turn out to be dangerous for the continuation of the natural development and normal existence of forests, biogeocenoses. If a forest area is severely damaged by trampling the soil, it must be excluded from use for 3-5 years or more. It is necessary to carefully follow all the rules of fire protection, prohibit walks, rest and picking mushrooms and berries in young forest stands.

With the development of urbanization, green spaces in cities are of great importance. Green spaces - tree and shrub, flower and herbaceous vegetation, elements of landscaping green areas - are an effective means of environmental protection of the city, they increase the comfort, aesthetics of the urban environment, can reduce the power of city noise by 20% or more, as they serve as an obstacle to the propagation of sound waves. Public green spaces cannot be privatized or leased and are city-wide municipal property without the right to change the purpose of these territories and alienate part of them for other purposes. Any forms of economic activity that cause irreparable harm to the green fund of the city are unacceptable.

Natural resources of the Moscow region, problems of their conservation

The history of Moscow's development shows that a large city is, on the one hand, a powerful polluter of the natural environment, and on the other, a center of scientific and technological progress aimed at solving environmental problems and problems of preserving natural resources.

Land resources of the Moscow region can be divided into several groups:

* urban land - a set of land plots located along the soles of residential, public and office buildings. In the city as a whole, the land of urban development increased in 1990-1998 by 11.5%;

* common land - avenues, highways, streets, embankments, etc. - decreased by 3.7% due to an increase in the total area of \u200b\u200bthe city and an increase in the land for urban development;

* industrial and transport lands - lands occupied by industrial and production facilities and their infrastructure;

* agricultural lands - represented in the city by the lands of greenhouses and flower-growing farms and nurseries. Compared to 1990, these lands have decreased by 2.2%;

* nature conservation lands - include territories for nature protection, health-improving, recreational, historical and cultural purposes, as well as the lands of the State Forest Fund and the State Water Fund.

As a result of the irrational policy of locating enterprises in the capital, there has been a significant change in the ecological balance of the city. The area of \u200b\u200burban land that has a negative impact on the environment and the area of \u200b\u200burban land that has resource-generating functions are currently in such proportions that even with sufficient stability and high productivity of the latter, they are not enough to ensure the ecological balance in the city. This ratio slightly improved in 1998, however, in the total territorial balance of the city, the area of \u200b\u200bland with environment-restoring and environment-reproducing functions continues to be only about 20%. The clearly pronounced disproportion of urban land of different categories (land rehabilitating environment on the one hand and degraded polluted or withdrawn from the ecosystem on the other) dictates the need to develop urban policy in order to take into account environmental requirements and save land resources in urban land use.

Territories of green spaces, according to Moskomzem, occupy 15.8 thousand hectares in Moscow, including 13.2 thousand hectares represented by forests and forest parks. A necessary condition for the development of greening in Moscow is the elimination of a set of causes that cause the oppression and degradation of green spaces, a decrease in anthropogenic loads on natural complexes, a decrease in the level of pollution of the components of the natural environment, and legal registration of the use of green areas. The implementation of measures to preserve and increase the area of \u200b\u200bgreen spaces in Moscow is aimed at:

* formation of a system of specially protected natural objects, including monuments of garden and park art and historical and cultural territories;

* new construction of public greening facilities, including through the development of territories reserved for these purposes;

* systematic and regular maintenance of existing green spaces;

* determination of responsible land users for each object of public gardening with the establishment of their rights, duties and responsibilities for the state of the assigned objects.

A unified system for monitoring water resources is being created in Moscow (monitoring is a system of observation, assessment and forecasting of the state of the natural environment, not including quality control of the latter). Its creation will make it possible to quickly assess the quality of water in the Moscow River and its tributaries, and effectively analyze the state of water bodies. A set of measures for the protection, restoration and rehabilitation of water bodies in Moscow should help maintain the natural balance of water, and the maintenance of water-carrying communications in proper form should reduce the infiltration recharge of groundwater and raise its level (analysis of modern and retrospective materials shows that flooding in Moscow is large-scale both in the significance of negative consequences and in territorial coverage).

The Moscow region is one of the largest urbanized regions in the world. In metropolitan cities like Moscow, the problems of human interaction with the environment are extremely aggravated. To successfully solve these problems and the problems of preserving natural resources, it is necessary to create a special management system. The structure and functioning of such a system is clearly visible in the example of Moscow. It has created a citywide real-time environmental management system, including air, water and soil. This system has two goals: maintaining the state of the environment at a given level and creating an ecological environment conducive to improving health and preserving natural resources. The general structure of the control system contains: three types of media (air, water, soil), objects of two types and a control link (the Moscow government).

Objects of the first type are designed to remove air and soil from the environment, use them in technological processes and return to the environment with a changed quantity and quality. These facilities include industrial and household enterprises, residential buildings, thermal power plants. Industry in general, and a specific industrial enterprise in particular, has a serious impact on the environment. The purpose of the enterprise is the production of the final product, while the intensity of the industry was recently judged by the number of smoking pipes and the rumble of equipment. With the commissioning of new production facilities and the deterioration of the environmental situation in connection with this, society came to the realization of the need, if not exclude, then at least reduce the anthropogenic load on nature. The relationship "industrial enterprise - environment" is carried out as follows. The enterprise takes natural resources from the environment, processing which, produces the final product necessary for society. At the same time, products of technological processing - various types of waste - enter the environment.

The ideal would be to minimize emissions and minimize the amount of resources used. This is usually not achieved due to the lack of acceptable technical solutions and high cleaning fees.

Objects of the second kind, at first glance, do not remove air and water from their environment. These include, for example, hydroelectric power plants, city dumps. However, strictly speaking, objects of the second kind also take resources from the environment, but the volumes of resources, in comparison with objects of the first kind, are insignificant and they can be neglected. The resources returned to the environment can greatly affect its quality.

The growth and development of the Moscow region is inevitably accompanied by the emergence of a number of acute problems, among which the problem of the state of the environment ranks second after crime. In this regard, the Government of the capital in September 1994 adopted the "Comprehensive Environmental Program for Moscow for the period up to 2005". The Moscow government has clearly identified the priority areas of work in the field of environmental protection and conservation of natural resources. But the solution of these problems is not only a matter of power structures, it is impossible without the participation of the whole society.

Natural resources are the basis for sustainable development in Russia

The main task in determining the place and role of natural resource potential in the economy of the future is associated with the need to use it comprehensively and rationally, as well as to preserve natural resources for future generations.

Several points can be highlighted here:

* the management practice of the last 5-6 years has shown that the regulatory role of the state, including in determining the state policy for the use and protection of resources, must be strengthened by revising and supplementing the relevant legislation and regulatory framework;

* A huge scientific and technical potential is concentrated around the study, reproduction and protection of the natural resource complex, which should not only be preserved, but also developed, reoriented to the creation of new technical means and technologies, especially in the field of rational and integrated use of traditional and new resources;

* all natural resource potential is subject to cadastration and accounting, certification, assessment of the current state;

* it is necessary to practically re-create an ecological industry - from scientific research to implementation in production facilities focused not only on the integrated and more complete use of natural raw materials and resources, but also on environmental protection, waste recycling and elimination of the negative consequences of production that have accumulated to date ...

Speaking about the use of natural resources, we must not forget about their accounting. The main mechanism and the main methodological method is monitoring the state of natural resources according to a certain scheme and nomenclature and in accordance with the global monitoring system. Russia, with its strategic and geopolitical position, cannot remain aloof from global resource problems.

The Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia has prepared a draft concept of the State policy in the field of reproduction, use and protection of natural resources, approved at a meeting of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 31, 1997, which determines the strategic goal of the state in this area to create legal, economic, scientific and social foundations of natural resource relations to ensure sustainable development of Russia, improving the quality of life and resource sufficiency for the present and future generations.

Conclusion

Objectives of the state strategy for environmental management:

* effective provision of the functions of the state as the owner of Russia's natural resources for their use, reproduction and protection on the basis of improving legislative, economic and regulatory, scientific and methodological and organizational and economic approaches and measures;

* reducing the resource intensity of the economy, reducing the cost of natural resources per unit of final product;

* using the opportunities of natural resource potential in order to obtain maximum profit, including for overcoming the current crisis and bringing Russia into the number of advanced post-industrial countries;

* improving the system of state regulation in the natural resource sector (control, licensing, resource audit);

* creation of effective economic mechanisms for resource use taking into account Russian specifics and increasing the share of payments for the use of natural resources to the budgets of all levels;

* solution of the issue of ownership of natural resources and rights arising from this;

* taking into account regional characteristics and priorities in relation to regions with specific economic conditions.

Bibliography

1. Protasov V.N. "Ecology, health and nature management in Russia" - M .: Finance and statistics, 2008

2. "Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary" - M .: 1985

3. V. V. Plotnikov, "At the crossroads of ECOLOGY", Moscow "Mysl" 2007

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Natural resources and their use

What are natural resources and what is their role in human life and activities?

Give examples of exhaustible and inexhaustible, renewable and non-renewable resources.

What is called a resource cycle?
Give examples of resource cycles (according to I.V. Komar's concept).

Natural resources - these are objects and forces of nature used by man to maintain his existence. These include sunlight, water, soil, air, minerals, the energy of the ebb and flow, wind power, flora and fauna, internal heat, etc.

A person uses natural resources as sources of energy, consumer goods, means and objects of labor, etc.
Against the background of an increase in the scale of production, the issue of the limited natural resources necessary to meet the needs of civilization and the ways of their rational use comes to the fore.
Humanity cannot exist without using natural resources, without affecting their quantity and quality, and, therefore, without making changes to the natural environment around it.

Iguazu Falls. Latin America

Natural resources are classified according to a number of characteristics:

on their use - for production (agricultural and industrial), health care (recreational), aesthetic, scientific, etc.;

by affiliation to one or another component of nature - to land, water, mineral, as well as to fauna and flora, etc.;

by interchangeability - for replaceable (for example, fuel and mineral energy resources can be replaced by wind, solar energy) and irreplaceable (there is nothing to replace air oxygen for breathing or fresh water for drinking);

by exhaustion - to be exhaustible and inexhaustible.

To the inexhaustible natural resources mainly include processes and phenomena external to our planet and inherent in it as a cosmic body. First of all, these are resources of cosmic origin, for example, the energy of solar radiation and its derivatives - the energy of moving air, falling water, sea waves, ebbs and flows, sea currents, internal heat.

To exhaustible resources includes all natural bodies located within the globe as a physical body with a specific mass and volume. Exhaustible resources include flora and fauna, mineral and organic compounds contained in the bowels of the Earth (minerals).

According to the ability to self-regenerate, all exhaustible resources can be conditionally classified into renewable, relatively renewable and non-renewable (see diagram).

Renewable resources are resources that can be restored through various natural processes

For a time commensurate with the terms of their consumption. These include vegetation, wildlife and some mineral resources deposited on the bottom of modern lakes and marine lagoons.
Non-renewable resources - these are resources that are not restored at all or the rate of their recovery is so low that their practical use by a person becomes impossible.

These include, first of all, metal and non-metal ores, groundwater, solid building materials (granite, sand, marble, etc.), as well as energy sources (oil, gas, coal).

A special group consists of land resources ... The soil is a bio-inert body that has arisen as a result of various forms of weathering (physical, chemical, biological) of rocks in a different climate, relief and in conditions of earth's gravity.

The soil-forming process is long and complex. It is known that a 1 cm thick layer of chernozem horizon is formed
in about a century. Thus, being in principle a renewable resource, the soil is restored over a very long period of time (many decades and even centuries), which gives grounds to evaluate it as a relatively renewable resource.

Two most important natural bodies have a special position, which are not only natural resources , but also at the same time the main components of the habitat of living organisms (natural conditions): atmospheric air and water. Inexhaustible in quantitative terms, they are qualitatively exhaustible (at least in some regions). There is enough water on Earth, at the same time, fresh water reserves, suitable for use, make up 0.3% of the total volume.

A similar situation is typical for atmospheric air, which in a number of large cities and industrial centers
it is so heavily contaminated that the impurities it contains have a harmful effect on people and other living organisms.
In 1957 P. Dansero formulated the law of irreversibility of interaction "Man - Biosphere", according to which part of renewable natural resources (animals, plants) can become exhaustible, non-renewable, if a person makes it impossible to live and reproduce with irrational agricultural, hydrotechnical, industrial and other measures.

Thus, the uncontrolled hunt for the Steller cow led to its extinction as a biological species. The same thing happened with some other species of animals.

In general, over 160 species of mammals and birds have disappeared from the face of the Earth over the past 400 years. Currently, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as a result of human activity, one species of animals and plants disappears every year.

The division of resources according to some criterion is very arbitrary, since one and the same resource, for example, water in a lake, can be used both for industrial, agricultural and fish farming needs, and for recreational purposes, or simply has a great aesthetic value. In this case, often comes into playmaterial resource rule , according to which the use of a resource for some purposes makes it difficult or excludes use for others. If the waste of an industrial enterprise is discharged into the lake, even to a large extent purified, the use of water for the purposes of fish farming and the improvement of the population becomes difficult or impossible.

In this regard, in each specific case, it is necessary to consider a whole network of natural relationships and determine the best option, acceptable both for nature and for society.

The process of exploiting natural resources in order to meet the material and cultural needs of society is callednature management.

Humanity is intensively changing the processes of circulation of all chemicals, not only at the local, but also at the biosphere (global) level.

In order to create the necessary products, to obtain energy, raw materials, a person finds and extracts natural resources, transports them to processing sites, and produces the necessary items from them. Thus, a person draws natural resources intoresource cycle.

Under the resource cycle understand the totality of transformations and spatial movements of a certain substance (or group of substances) at all stages of its use by humans (including its identification, preparation for operation, extraction from the natural environment, processing, transformation and return to nature).

The word "cycle" implies a closed process. It is known that in nature all chemicals (water, gases, metals) move in a closed cycle. The resource cycle as a cycle is not actually closed.

The concept of resource cycles was proposed by I.V. Komar. He identified the following resource cycles: the cycle of energy resources and energy with hydropower and energy-chemical sub-cycles; cycle of metal resources and metals with a coke-chemical subcycle; cycle of non-metallic fossil raw materials with sub-cycles of mining chemical and mineral building materials; cycle of soil and climatic resources and agricultural raw materials; cycle of forest resources and timber products; cycle of resources of wild fauna and flora.
It is easy to see that the first three cycles are associated with non-renewable resources, while the rest are associated with renewable natural resources.
As for non-renewable resources, their depletion over time is inevitable, and the task is not so much to stretch these resources for a longer period, but to find a substitute for natural or artificial origin for it, or to find it before the exhaustion of a natural resource the possibility of its regeneration through the use of secondary raw materials.

In this chapter, we will consider the main issues related to the efficient management of renewable resources, the main distinguishing feature of which is the ability to independently increase (increase) the resource stock over time. The preservation of the resource's potential to ensure such an increase imposes certain restrictions on the volume of resource extraction at any given time. Therefore, when determining the optimal level of use of renewable resources, it is necessary to take into account factors such as stock size, growth rate, resource characteristics, uncertainties regarding the influence of various factors on resource reserves, and so on.

To solve this problem, various versions of renewable resource models are used. In this chapter, using the example of specific natural resources, such as fish and forest resources, we will consider several fairly simple models of this kind.

The first section of this chapter presents a natural resource classification that defines the characteristics of various renewable resources. Then we will discuss some aspects of economic modeling of the use of renewable resources.

The fourth section discusses the effectiveness of various options for access to renewable resources. The paper considers such common approaches to the definition of property rights to resources as open access, state (public) and private property.

Section 5 is devoted to the analysis of natural renewable resources as capital assets. The generalized Hotelling rule and the role of discounting in determining the optimal level of resource extraction are discussed.

Section 6 examines the use of renewable resources from the perspective of sustainable economic development. Then, using the example of forest resources, the role of the time factor and alternative possibilities of resource use are considered. The complication of the simplest models of using renewable resources is presented in Section 8. The last section discusses the problems of natural resource management.

6.1. Renewable resource classification: stocks and flows

The most important point in the classification of natural resources is how the current level of consumption of this resource affects the level of its consumption in the future. In this case, it is necessary to take into account how the volume of the stock of a natural resource changes, taking into account its consumption by society, as well as the possibility of reuse, utilization, etc. The relationship between the volume of “reserves” of a natural resource and the amount of “flow” of their use can be represented as a certain growth function, which we will discuss in detail below.

As it was shown in Chapter 5, the stocks of some resources cannot increase, at least in the time horizon correlated with human life, therefore such resources are called non-renewable, for example, metals and other minerals (oil, coal, etc.). Therefore, any decision to use such a resource at the present time leads to a corresponding decrease in the stock of the resource for future use.

It should be noted that the reserves of some types of resources may change under the influence of natural “third” factors. As an example, we can cite a source of spring water, the amount of increase in the supply of which practically does not depend on the supply itself.

Stocks of the third type of resources change, in general, due to natural renewal, for example, an increase in the fish population, forest growth, etc. The growth function in this case can be represented as a production function, one of the important parameters of which is the indicator of the productivity of the natural resource stock. At the same time, the growth of a natural resource can be influenced not only by the size of the stock, but also by more complex factors, such as age, type of natural resource, its qualitative characteristics, and others. For example, not only the area of \u200b\u200bland occupied by forest, but also such indicators as the type of trees, their age, the chemical composition of soils, etc., have an important effect on the growth of the stock of wood resources in a forest.

However, in some cases, the relationship between the level of stock and the amount of growth may not be significant, in this case the resource can rather be attributed to the above-mentioned category, an example of which is the source of water. In other cases, the period of natural recovery may be too long, so the resource is more correctly considered as non-renewable. Note that resources whose stock size does not depend on their use, for example, wind, sunlight, sea waves, and so on, are often considered renewable. However, in order not to confuse the concepts, we consider such resources “eternal” and do not consider them as renewable.

There are two categories of benefits that people receive from the use of a natural resource: 1) use of the resource as a factor of production or for the purpose of consumption; 2) benefits from the existence of a natural resource as such, regardless of the possibilities of its use, for example, in production. The resource can, for example, be of aesthetic value, contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, etc. Discussions about the inclusion of this kind of resource value in its market value are still actively continuing among economists dealing with resource management problems (one example is the proposal to consider “Golden greeninvestment rule).

Resources that cannot be restored independently and cannot be restored artificially. Non-renewable resources include combustible minerals (oil, natural gas, coal, peat), metal ores, precious metals and building materials (clays, sandstones, limestones). The more of them mankind extracts and uses, the less remains for the next generations.

Reasons for the reduction of the land fund:

Natural

Environmental

Economic

Natural causes include the advance of the sea on land, desertification, and the advance of sands in desert areas.

The ecological reasons are based on improper farming, which leads to salinization and waterlogging of lands, and deforestation. Land reclamation, which seems to be a useful occupation, also damages the land fund.

Economic reasons are the construction of cities, power lines, roads, the laying of pipelines, canals, the creation of reservoirs and quarries.

To increase reserves, environmentalists propose increasing the recycling and reuse of non-renewable mineral resources and reducing unnecessary losses of such resources. Recycling, reuse and waste reduction require less energy for their implementation and less destruction of soil and pollution of water and air than the use of primary resources.

Non-renewable resources. Non-renewable resources are resources of the earth's interior. Strictly speaking, many of them can be renewed in the course of geological cycles, but the duration of these cycles, determined by hundreds of millions of years, is incommensurate with the stages of development of society and the rate of consumption of mineral resources.

The planet's irreplaceable resources can be divided into two large groups:

a) Non-renewable mineral resources. More than a hundred non-combustible materials are currently being mined from the earth's crust. Minerals are formed and modified as a result of processes occurring during the formation of earth's rocks over many millions of years. The use of a mineral resource includes several stages. The first of these is the discovery of a fairly rich deposit. Then - the extraction of the mineral by organizing some form of its extraction. The third stage is processing the ore to remove impurities and transforming it into the desired chemical form. The latter is the use of the mineral for the production of various products.

The development of mineral deposits, the deposits of which are located close to the earth's surface, are carried out by surface mining, arranging open pits, open-pit mining by creating horizontal strips, or mining using dredging equipment. When minerals are located far underground, they are extracted by underground mining. Extraction, processing and use of any non-combustible mineral resource causes disturbance of the soil cover and erosion, pollutes air and water. Underground mining is more dangerous and costly than surface mining, but it is far less disturbing to the soil cover. In underground mining, water pollution can occur due to mine acid drainage. In most cases, the areas where mining is carried out can be restored, but this is an expensive process. Mining and wasteful use of products made from fossil fuels and wood also generate large amounts of solid waste.

Estimating the amount of a useful mineral resource actually available in terms of extraction is a very expensive and complicated process. And besides, it cannot be determined with great precision. Mineral Resource Reserves are categorized into Indicated Resources and Undiscovered Resources. In turn, each of these categories is divided into reserves, that is, those minerals that can be extracted with profit at existing prices with the existing mining technology, and resources - all discovered and undiscovered resources, including those that cannot be extracted with profit at current prices and existing technology.

Most of the published estimates of specific non-renewable resources relate to reserves. When 80% of the reserves or estimated resources of a material are recovered and used, the resource is considered depleted, as the remaining 20% \u200b\u200bis usually not profitable to recover. The amount of the extracted resource and thus the time of depletion can be increased by increasing the estimated reserves, if high prices force the search for new deposits, the development of new production technologies, an increase in the share of recycling and reuse, or to reduce the level of resource consumption. Some economically depleted resources are being replaced. To increase reserves, environmentalists suggest increasing the recycling and reuse of non-renewable mineral resources and reducing unnecessary waste of such resources. Recycling, reuse and waste reduction requires less energy and less soil degradation and less water and air pollution than primary resources Environmental advocates urge industrialized countries to move from disposable waste-heavy use to farming generating a small amount of waste. This will require, in addition to recycling and reuse, also the attraction of economic incentives, certain actions of governments and people, as well as changes in the behavior and lifestyle of the world's population.

b) Non-renewable energy resources. The main factors determining the degree of use of any energy source are its estimated reserves, net useful energy output, cost, potential hazardous impacts on environmental harm, as well as social consequences and impact on state security. Each energy source has advantages and disadvantages.

Conventional crude oil can be easily transported, it is a relatively cheap and widely used fuel, and has a high net useful energy yield. However, the available oil reserves can be depleted in 40-80 years; when oil is burned, a large amount of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, which can lead to global climate change.

Unconventional heavy oil, the remainder of conventional oil, as well as from oil shale and sand, can increase oil reserves. But it is expensive, has a low net energy yield, requires a lot of water to process, and has a more harmful effect on the environment than conventional oil. Conventional natural gas provides more heat and burns more completely than other fossil fuels, is a versatile and relatively cheap fuel, and has a high net energy yield. But its reserves can be exhausted in 40-100 years, and when it is burned, carbon dioxide is formed.

Coal is the world's most abundant fossil fuel. It has a high net useful energy yield for electricity generation and high-temperature heat generation for industrial processes, and is relatively cheap. But coal is extremely dirty, its mining is dangerous and harmful to the environment, as well as burning, if there are no expensive special devices for monitoring the level of air pollution; emits more carbon dioxide per unit of energy received than other fossil fuels, and it is inconvenient to use it for traffic and heating houses, unless it is first converted into gaseous or liquid form. Significant disturbance of the soil cover during extraction. The heat hidden in the earth's crust, or geothermal energy, is converted into non-renewable underground deposits of dry steam, steam and hot water in various places on the planet. If these deposits are located close enough to the earth's surface, the heat obtained from their development can be used for heating premises and generating electricity. They can provide energy for 100-200 years to the regions located near the fields, and at a reasonable price. They have an average net energy output and do not emit carbon dioxide. Although this type of energy source also brings a lot of inconvenience to mining and considerable environmental pollution.

The nuclear fission reaction is also a source of energy, and a very promising one. The main advantages of this energy source are that nuclear reactors do not emit carbon dioxide and other substances harmful to the environment, and the degree of water and soil pollution is within acceptable limits, provided that the entire nuclear fuel cycle is running normally. The disadvantages include the fact that the cost of equipment for servicing this energy source is very high; conventional nuclear power plants can only be used to generate electricity; there is a risk of a major accident; net useful energy output is low; no storage facilities for radioactive waste have been developed. Due to the above disadvantages, this energy source is currently not widely used. Therefore, an environmentally friendly future belongs to alternative energy sources. Both types of these resources are equally important to us, but the division is introduced because these two large groups of resources are very different from each other.

Human pollution of soil and its consequences. Soil pollution assessment is a special natural formation that ensures the growth of trees, crops and other plants. It is difficult to imagine life without our fertile soil. But how does modern man relate to soil? Today, human pollution of the soil has reached colossal proportions, so the soils of our planet are in dire need of protection and protection. Soil - what is it? Protecting soil from pollution is impossible without a clear understanding of what soil is and how it is formed. Let's consider this issue in more detail.

Soil (or soil) is a special natural formation, an essential component of any ecosystem. It forms in the upper layer of the parent rock, under the influence of the sun, water, and vegetation. The soil is a kind of bridge, a link that connects the biotic and abiotic components of the landscape. The main processes resulting in the formation of soil are weathering and the vital activity of living organisms. As a result of the processes of mechanical weathering, the parent rock is destroyed and gradually crushed, and living organisms fill this inanimate mass with organic substances. Human pollution of the soil is one of the main problems of modern ecology and nature management, which became especially acute in the second half of the twentieth century. Soil structure Any soil consists of 4 main components. These are: rock (soil base, about 50% of the total mass); water (about 25%); air (about 15%); organic matter (humus, up to 10%). Depending on the ratio of these components in the soil, the following types of soils are distinguished: stony; clayey; sandy; humic; saline.

The key soil property that distinguishes it from any other landscape component is its fertility. It is a unique property that satisfies plants in essential nutrients, moisture and air. Thus, the soil provides the biological productivity of all vegetation and the yield of agricultural crops. This is why soil and water pollution is such an acute problem on the planet. Soil research Soil research is engaged in a special science - soil science, the founder of which is considered to be Vasily Dokuchaev, a world-famous scientist. It was he, at the end of the 19th century, who first noted that soils spread over the earth's surface quite naturally (latitudinal zoning of soils), and also named clear morphological features of the soil. V. Dokuchaev considered the soil as an integral and independent natural formation, which none of the scientists had done before him.

The most famous work of the scientist - "Russian Chernozem" in 1883 - is a reference book for all modern soil scientists. V. Dokuchaev carried out a thorough study of the soils of the steppe zone of modern Russia and Ukraine, the results of which formed the basis of the book. In it, the author singled out the main factors of soil formation: parent breed, relief, climate, age and flora. The scientist gives a very interesting definition of the concept: "soil is a function of the parent rock, climate and organisms, multiplied by time." After Dokuchaev, other famous scientists were also actively involved in the study of soils. Among them: P. Kostychev, N. Sibirtsev, K. Glinka and others. Significance and role of soil in human life The phrase "land-nurse", which we hear very often, is not symbolic or metaphorical. It really is. It is the main source of food for humanity, which, one way or another, provides about 95% of all food products. The total area of \u200b\u200ball land resources of our planet today is 129 million km2 of land area, of which 10% is arable land, and another 25% is hayfields and pastures. They began to study soils only in the 19th century, but people knew about their wonderful property - about fertility, from the most ancient times. All plant and animal organisms on Earth, including humans, owe their existence to the soil. It is no coincidence that the most densely populated territories of the planet are areas with the most fertile soils.

Soils are the main resource for agricultural production. Many conventions and declarations adopted at the international level call for rational and careful use of soil. And this is obvious, because the total pollution of land and soil endangers the existence of all mankind on the planet. The soil cover is the most important element of the geographic shell of the Earth, which is responsible for all processes in the biosphere. The soil accumulates a huge amount of organic matter and energy, thereby performing the role of a giant biological filter. This is a key link in the biosphere, the destruction of which will disrupt its entire functional structure. In the 21st century, the load on the soil cover has increased several times, and the problem of soil pollution is becoming a priority and global one. It should be noted that the solution to this problem depends on the coordination of actions of all states of the world. Land and Soil Contamination Soil contamination is the process of degradation of the soil cover, in which the content of chemicals in it significantly increases. Living organisms, in particular, plants, which are the first to suffer from disturbances in the natural composition of the soil, become indicators of this process. Moreover, the reaction of plants depends on the level of their sensitivity to such changes. It should be noted that our state provides for criminal liability for human pollution of land. In particular, Article 254 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation sounds like "Damage to the land." Typology of soil pollutants The main soil pollution began in the 20th century with the rapid development of the industrial complex. Soil contamination is understood as the introduction into the soil of atypical components - the so-called "pollutants". They can be in any state of aggregation - liquid, solid, gaseous or complex. All soil pollutants can be divided into 4 groups: organic (pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorine-containing substances, phenols, organic acids, petroleum products, gasoline, varnishes and paints); inorganic (heavy metals, asbestos, cyanides, alkalis, inorganic acids and others); radioactive; biological (bacteria, pathogenic microorganisms, algae, etc.). Thus, the main soil contamination is carried out with the help of these and some other pollutants. The increased content of these substances in the soil can lead to negative and irreversible consequences. Sources of land pollution. Today, there are a large number of such sources. And their number is only increasing every year. Let's list the main sources of soil pollution: Residential buildings and utilities. It is the main source of land pollution in cities. In this case, human contamination of the soil occurs through household waste, food debris, construction waste and household items (old furniture, clothing, etc.). In large cities, the question "what to do with garbage?" turns into a real tragedy for the city authorities. Therefore, on the outskirts of cities, huge kilometer-long dumps grow, where all household waste is dumped. In the developed countries of the West, the practice of waste processing in special installations and factories has long been introduced. And a lot of money is earned there.

In our country, such cases, alas, are still rare. Factories and plants. In this group, the main sources of soil pollution are the chemical, mining and engineering industries. Cyanides, arsenic, styrene, benzene, polymer clots, soot - all these terrible substances get into the ground in the area of \u200b\u200blarge industrial enterprises. A big problem today is also the problem of recycling car tires, which are the cause of large fires that are very difficult to put out. Transport complex. Sources of land pollution in this case are lead, hydrocarbon, soot, and nitrogen oxides. All these substances are released during the operation of internal combustion engines, then they settle to the surface of the earth and are absorbed by plants. Thus, they also enter the soil cover. In this case, the degree of soil pollution will be as high as possible along major highways and near road junctions. Agro-industrial complex. Receiving food from the earth, we at the same time poison it, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. Human pollution of the soil here occurs through the introduction of fertilizers and chemicals into the soil. This is how substances, terrible for it, get into the soil - mercury, pesticides, lead and cadmium. In addition, excess chemicals can be washed off fields by rainfall into permanent streams and groundwater. Radioactive waste. A very great danger is posed by soil contamination with nuclear waste. Few people know that during nuclear reactions at nuclear power plants, about 98-99% of the fuel goes to waste. These are uranium fission products - cesium, plutonium, strontium and other elements that are extremely dangerous. The disposal of this radioactive waste is a very big problem for our country. About 200 thousand cubic meters of nuclear waste is generated in the world every year. Main types of pollution Soil pollution can be natural (for example, during volcanic eruptions), or anthropogenic (man-made), when pollution occurs through human fault. In the latter case, substances and products that are not characteristic of the natural environment and negatively affect ecosystems and natural complexes get into the soil. The process of classifying the types of soil pollution is very complex, different classifications are given in different sources. But still, the main types of soil pollution can be represented as follows. Domestic soil pollution is the pollution of soil with garbage, waste and emissions. This group includes pollutants of a different nature and in a different aggregate state. They can be both liquid and solid. In general, this type of pollution is not too dangerous for the soil, however, the excessive accumulation of household waste litters the area and prevents the normal growth of plants. The most acute problem of domestic soil pollution is in megalopolises and large cities, as well as in villages with an unsettled garbage collection system.

Chemical contamination of soils is, first of all, contamination with heavy metals, as well as with pesticides. This type of pollution is already a great danger to humans. After all, heavy metals have the property of accumulating in a living organism. Soils are contaminated by such types of heavy metals as lead, cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, mercury, arsenic and manganese. Gasoline, which contains a very poisonous substance, tetraethyl lead, is a major soil pollutant. Pesticides are also very hazardous to the soil. The main source of pesticides is modern agriculture, which actively uses these chemicals in the fight against beetles and pests. Therefore, pesticides accumulate in soils in huge quantities.

For animals and humans, they are no less dangerous than heavy metals. Thus, the highly toxic and very stable drug DDT was banned. It is capable of not decomposing in the soil for decades, scientists have found its trace even in Antarctica! Pesticides are very harmful to soil microflora: bacteria and fungi. Radioactive contamination of soils is the contamination of soils by waste from nuclear power plants. Radioactive substances are extremely dangerous, as they easily penetrate the food chains of living organisms. The most dangerous radioactive isotope is strontium-90, which is characterized by a high yield during nuclear fission (up to 8%), as well as a long (28 years) half-life. In addition, it is very mobile in the ground and is able to be deposited in the bone tissue of humans and various living organisms. Other hazardous radionuclides include cesium-137, cerium-144, chlorine-36. Volcanic soil pollution - this type of pollution belongs to the group of natural ones. It consists in the ingress of toxic substances, soot and combustion products into the soil, which occurs as a result of volcanic eruptions. This is a very rare type of soil pollution, which is characteristic only of certain small areas. Mycotoxic soil contamination is also not technogenic and has a natural origin.

The source of pollution here is some types of fungi that release dangerous substances - mycotoxins. It is worth noting that these substances pose the same great danger to living organisms as all the others listed above. Soil erosion Erosion has been and remains a major problem for the preservation of the fertile soil layer. Every year it “eats up” large areas of fertile soil, while the rate of natural restoration of the soil cover is much lower than the rate of erosion processes. Scientists have already thoroughly studied the features of these processes and found measures to combat them. Erosion can be: water wind, it is obvious that in the first case, the leading factor of erosion is flowing water, and in the second - wind. Water erosion is more common and dangerous. It begins with the appearance on the earth's surface of a small, barely noticeable gully, but after each heavy rain, this gully will expand and increase in size until it turns into a real moat. In just one summer period, on an absolutely flat surface, a ditch 1-2 meters deep can appear! The next stage of water erosion is the formation of a ravine. This landform is characterized by great depth and branched structure. Ravines are destroying fields, meadows and pastures in a catastrophic manner. If you do not fight with the ravine, sooner or later it will turn into a gully.

Water erosion processes are more active in the steppe region with rugged terrain, where there is very little vegetation. Wind erosion is caused by storms and dry winds, which are capable of blowing out up to 20 centimeters of the upper (most fertile) ball of soil. The wind carries soil particles over long distances, forming in certain places sediments up to 1-2 meters high. Most often they form along plantings and forest belts. Assessment of the level of soil contamination. For a complex of measures to protect the soil cover, an adequate assessment of soil contamination is very important. It is calculated through complex mathematical calculations, after a complex of detailed chemical and environmental studies. The assessment is presented by a complex indicator of pollution Zс. Assessment of soil pollution is carried out taking into account several important factors: the specificity of pollution sources; complex of chemical elements - soil contaminants; priority of pollutants, according to the list of MPC substances; the nature and conditions of land use. Researchers distinguish several levels of soil contamination, namely: Permissible (Zс less than 16). Moderately dangerous (Zс from 16 to 38). Dangerous (Zс from 38 to 128).

Extremely dangerous (Zc more than 128). Soil protection Depending on the source of pollution and the intensity of its influence, special measures have been developed to protect the soil cover. These measures include: Legislative and administrative (adoption of relevant laws in the field of soil protection, and control over their implementation). Technological (creation of waste-free production systems). Sanitary (collection, disinfection and disposal of waste and soil contaminants). Scientific (development of new technologies for treatment facilities, assessment and monitoring of soil conditions). Forest reclamation and erosion control (these are measures for planting special field-protective forest belts along fields, construction of hydraulic structures and correct planting of crops). Conclusion The soils of Russia are a colossal wealth, thanks to which we have food, and production is provided with the necessary raw materials. The soil has been formed over many centuries. That is why the protection of soil from pollution is the most important task of the state. Today, there are many sources of soil pollution: transport, industry, cities, utilities, nuclear power plants, agriculture. The task of scientists, state authorities and public figures is common - to protect soils from the harmful effects of all these factors, or at least to minimize their harmful effects on soils.

Mineral resources are renewable or non-renewable. Renewable natural resources

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