Pollution and Exploitation of Natural

Resources
ENVR S307F Lecture 2
Dr. Carol Lau
School of Science and Technology
Hong Kong Metropolitan University

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Contents
1. Natural Causes of Climate Change
2. Anthropogenic (Human-caused) Climate Change
3. What Are Natural Resources?
4. The Effects of Over-Exploitation of Resources
5. Solutions To Avoid Overexploitation of Natural Resources

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1. Natural Causes of Climate Change
A. Orbital Changes
B. Volcanic Eruptions
C. Variation in Solar Radiation
D. Movement of Crustal Plates
E. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

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A. Orbital Changes

• Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovitch hypothesized

the long-term, collective effects of changes in Earth’s
position relative to the Sun are a strong driver of
Earth’s long-term climate.
• The Milankovitch Theory explains the 3 cyclical
changes in Earth’s orbit and tilt.
• That cause the climate fluctuations that occur over
tens of thousands of years to hundreds of thousands
of years.
• These fluctuations include changes in the shape
(eccentricity) of Earth’s orbit, the tilt (obliquity) of
Earth’s axis, and the wobbling (precession) of Earth’s
axis.

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Milankovitch Cycles

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Milankovitch Cycles

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Milankovitch Cycles

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B. Volcanic Eruptions

• Volcanic eruptions discharge carbon dioxide, but

they may also emit aerosols, such as volcanic
ash or dust, and sulfur dioxide.
• Aerosols are liquids and solids that float around
in the air.
• They may also include soot, dust, salt crystals,
bacteria, and viruses.
• Aerosols scatter incoming solar radiation,
causing a slight cooling effect.
• Volcanic aerosols can block a percentage of
sunlight and cause a cooling that may last for 1-
2 years.
Karymsky Volcano in Russia Source: Microsoft Clip Art
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B. Volcanic Eruptions

• The year 1816, often referred to as the “year without a summer, occurred after
the violent eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora 坦博拉火山爆发.
• It caused a volcanic winter that dropped temperatures by 0.4–0.7°C worldwide.
• This was possibly the largest known eruption in the history of human civilization.
• Snow fell in the northeastern United States and Canada in June, causing regional
losses of crops, food shortages, and increased mortality.
• Relatively cold years also followed other famous volcanic eruptions (such as the
1883 eruption of Krakatau also in Indonesia and 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo
in the Philippines).

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C. Variation in Solar
Radiation
• The total amount of solar radiation varies by
very small amounts. The energy emitted by the
sun only varies by 1.3 W/m2.
• This change in solar radiation is related to the
number of sunspots. Sunspots are darker areas
on the sun’s surface.
• A sunspot develops where an intense magnetic
field weakens the flow of gases that transport
heat energy from the sun’s interior.
• Sunspots appear dark because their
temperature is lower than the surrounding area.

Sunspots. Image taken Feb.

2013 Credit:NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center
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C. Variation in Solar Radiation

• Approximately every 11 years, the number of sunspots changes from a maximum number to
a minimum number.
• The sun emits slightly more radiation during active periods of sunspots.
• Because the sunspots are suppressing heat, the heat flows to surrounding areas causing
these regions to be brighter than normal, radiating more heat.
• While more sunspots may contribute to warmer global climate, less sunspots appear to be
associated with a cooler global climate.
• About 300 years ago, there was a period of reduced solar activity. This was called the Little
Ice Age.

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D. Movement of Crustal
Plates
• As tectonic plates move over geological
timescales, landmasses are carried along to
different positions and latitudes.
• These changes affect global circulation patterns
of air and ocean water and the climate of the
continents.
• An example of how plate tectonics affects
climate is the location of coal mines.
• Coal mines were formed over millions of years
ago in tropical areas but are found at higher
latitudes today.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/plate-tectonics
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D. Movement of Crustal Plates

• Since the industrial revolution, the Northern Hemisphere has warmed more
than the Southern Hemisphere.
• This is because the Northern Hemisphere has a larger percentage of Earth’s
landmass compared to ocean than the Southern Hemisphere.
• Remember that landmasses warm faster than oceans due to the high heat
capacity of the oceans.

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 E. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) 厄爾尼諾-
南方振盪現象

• ENSO is an oscillation of the ocean and atmosphere system in

the tropical area of the Pacific Ocean that affects global
weather.
• Normally the southeast trade winds blow across the tropical
Pacific Ocean toward the west.
• Every 3 to 10 years, the southeast trade winds weaken, allowing
the warm water to flow further eastward toward South
America.
• It has become known to the Peruvian 秘魯的 fishermen as El
Niño (for the Christ child).
• ENSO moves between three phases – La Niña, neutral and El
Niño.
• Understanding ENSO (4:13) https://youtu.be/dzat16LMtQk

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 El Niño 厄爾尼諾 La Niña 拉尼娜

Francesco Fiondella, International Research Institute For Climate And Society

• El Niño and La Niña refer respectively to the warming and

El Niño & La Niña cooling of surface waters over the central and eastern
equatorial Pacific Ocean which affect the atmospheric
circulation worldwide.

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Normal Conditions In
The Pacific Ocean
• During normal conditions in the Pacific
ocean, trade winds blow west along
the equator, taking warm water from
South America towards Asia.
• To replace that warm water, cold
water rises from the depths - a
process called upwelling.

By Fred the Oyster - Own work; derived from NOAA/PMEL/TAO diagrams.

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El Niño
• During El Niño, trade winds weaken.
Warm water is pushed back east, toward
the west coast of the Americas.
• El Niño means Little Boy, or Christ Child in
Spanish, because El Niño typically peaks
around December.
• South American fishermen first noticed
periods of unusually warm water in the
Pacific Ocean in the 1600s.

By Fred the Oyster - Own work; derived from NOAA/PMEL/TAO diagrams.

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El Niño
• El Niño can affect our weather
significantly.
• The warmer waters cause the Pacific
jet stream to move south of its
neutral position.
• With this shift, areas in the northern
U.S. and Canada are dryer and
warmer than usual.
• But in the U.S. Gulf Coast and
Southeast, these periods are wetter
than usual and have increased
flooding.
• El Nino - What is it? (4:26)
• https://youtu.be/WPA-KpldDVc
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html

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Effects of El Niño
• El Niño also has a strong effect on marine life off the Pacific
coast.
• During normal conditions, upwelling brings water from the
depths to the surface; this water is cold and nutrient rich.
• During El Niño, upwelling weakens or stops altogether.
Without the nutrients from the deep, there are fewer
phytoplankton off the coast.
• This affects fish that eat phytoplankton and, in turn, affects
everything that eats fish.
• The warmer waters can also bring tropical species, like
yellowtail and albacore tuna, into areas that are normally too
cold.

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La Niña
• La Niña means Little Girl in Spanish, or
simply "a cold event."
• La Niña has the opposite effect of El
Niño.
• During La Niña events, trade winds are
even stronger than usual, pushing
more warm water toward Asia.
• Off the west coast of the Americas,
upwelling increases, bringing cold,
nutrient-rich water to the surface.
By Fred the Oyster - Own work; derived from NOAA/PMEL/TAO diagrams.

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La Niña
• These cold waters in the Pacific push the jet
stream northward.
• This tends to lead to drought in the southern U.S.
and heavy rains and flooding in the Pacific
Northwest and Canada.
• During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are
warmer than normal in the South and cooler than
normal in the North.
• La Niña can also lead to a more severe hurricane
season.
• During La Niña, waters off the Pacific coast are
colder and contain more nutrients than usual.
• This environment supports more marine life and
attracts more cold-water species, like squid and
salmon, to places like the California coast.
• What is La Niña? (3:45)
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html
• https://youtu.be/vRq7xpx7AGg
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 • Humans are increasingly influencing the climate & the
earth's temperature by burning fossil fuels, cutting
down forests and farming livestock.
• This adds enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to
those naturally occurring in the atmosphere, increasing
the greenhouse effect and global warming.
2. Anthropogenic • The industrial activities that our modern civilization
depends upon have raised atmospheric CO2 levels from
(human-caused) 280 parts per million to about 417 parts per million in
Climate Change the last 151 years.
• Observed global average temperature change since the
pre-industrial era.
• In the Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), concluded there's a
more than 95% probability that human activities over
the past 50 years have warmed our planet.

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 What is The
Greenhouse Effect?
• The surface of the Earth absorbs just under half of
the sun’s energy, while the atmosphere absorbs 23%,
& the rest is reflected back into space.
• Natural processes ensure that the amount of
incoming & outgoing energy is equal, keeping the
planet’s temp stable.
• Increased emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), the
energy becomes trapped in the atmosphere, unable
to escape the planet.
• This energy returns to the surface, where it is
reabsorbed.
• Because more energy enters than exits the planet,
surface temp increase until a new balance is
achieved.

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 Solar Irradiance
• The graph compares global surface temp changes
(red line) & the Sun's energy that Earth receives
(yellow line) in watts/m2 since 1880.
• The thinner lines show the yearly levels while the
thicker lines show the 11-year average trends.
• The amount of solar energy that Earth receives
has followed the Sun’s natural 11-year cycle of
small ups and downs with no net increase since
the 1950s.
• Over the same period, global temp has risen
markedly.
• It is therefore extremely unlikely that the Sun has
caused the observed global temperature Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

warming trend over the past half-century.

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Recent Global Warming & Related
Climate Changes On Earth

• Changes in global surface temp over the past 170

years (black line) relative to 1850–1900
& annually averaged.
• Compared to the climate model simulations of
the temperature response to both human and
natural drivers (red), and to only natural drivers
(solar and volcanic activity, green).
• The main driver for increased global
temperatures in the industrial era is human
activity.
• Natural forces add relatively minor variability. Source: Global Temperature And Forces.svg

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Why Does The Warming Matter?
• This temp increase has long-term, adverse effects on the climate, & affects a
myriad of natural systems.
• Effects include increases in the frequency & intensity of extreme weather events
– including flooding, droughts, wildfires & hurricanes.
• They affect millions of people & cause trillions in economic losses.
• The latest United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap
Report forecasts a disastrous global temp rise of at least 2.7°C this century, unless
countries make much greater efforts to reduce emissions.
• The report found that GHG emissions need to be halved by 2030, if we are to
limit global warming to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the
century.

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What Are The Major Greenhouse Gases?

• Water vapor (H2O)

• Carbon dioxide (CO2)
• Methane (CH4)
• Nitrous oxide (N2O)
Industrial gases:
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
• Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
• Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) Chlorofluorocarbons (CHCs)

• Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3)

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Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)

• Water vapor is the biggest overall contributor to the greenhouse effect. However, almost all the water
vapor in the atmosphere comes from natural processes.
• CO2, methane & nitrous oxide are the major GHGs to worry about.
• CO2 stays in the atmosphere for up to 1,000 years, methane for around a decade, & nitrous oxide for
approximately 120 years.
• Measured over a 20-year period, methane is 80 times more potent than CO2 in causing global
warming, while nitrous oxide is 280 times more potent.
• Ozone is technically a greenhouse gas, but ozone is helpful or harmful depending on where it is found
in the earth's atmosphere.
• O3 occurs naturally in the stratosphere & provides a protective layer shielding the Earth from harmful
ultraviolet radiation. In the troposphere, it is a chemical oxidant, a greenhouse gas, & a major
component of photochemical smog.
• The protective benefits of stratospheric O3 outweighs its contribution to the greenhouse effect.

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Relationships between Human Activity and the Environment

Prior to industrialization, the impacts of human activity were not very significant because the
technologies used were not capable of modifying the environment on a large scale.

People at that time lived in agricultural societies using hand tools and simple technologies with
limited environmental impact.

Human's relationship with the environment changed with industrialization, which began in the
18th century in the UK, shortly followed by elsewhere in Europe and North America, and then
spreading across the world.
Industrialization has allowed for a greater exploitation of resources, which rapidly increased the
human impact on the environment.
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The links between human activity and the environment

• They are complex and varied, but can be grouped into two main types
of activity:
• Use of natural resources such as land, food, water, soils, minerals,
plants and animals.
• Production of wastes from a range of activities including agriculture,
industry and mining, as well as wastes from our own bodies.

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3. What are Natural
Resources?

• According to Ramade (1984), a

resource may be defined as a form
of energy and/or matter which is
essential for the functioning of the
organisms, populations and
ecosystem.
• The ecological variables like energy,
matter, space, time and diversity
combinedly are referred as natural
resources.

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Classification of Resources:

According to Continual Utility:

• Renewable resources (Flow resources):
forests, air, solar energy etc.
• Non-renewable resources (Stock resource):
coal, minerals, fossil fuels etc.
• Cyclic resources: water
According to Origin:
• Biotic resources: coal, mineral oil, forest
etc.
• Abiotic resources: air, land, water, minerals
etc.

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Distribution of
Natural
Resources
• Natural resources are not
evenly distributed all over
the world.
• Some places are more
endowed than others, some
regions have lots of water
(and access to the ocean
and seas).
• Others have lots of minerals
and forestlands.
• Others have metallic rocks,
wildlife, fossil fuels, and so
on. 36
Global Distribution of Fuel
Resources

• Coal: Nearly 75% of all coal reserves are found in

only five countries: USA, Russia, China, Australia
and India.
• These countries use a lot of coal and export it
around the world for other countries to use.
• As coal has a damaging environmental impact,
many countries are using less and moving towards
cleaner energies.
• Gas: Although the Middle Eastern countries of
Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have large reserves of
gas, Russia has the largest proven reserves.

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Global Distribution
of Fuel Resources

• Oil: With the majority of oil reserves

being found in the Middle East, in
countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq
and Iran.
• Other key countries include
Venezuela, Russia and Nigeria.
• Iron ore: The biggest producer of
iron ore is Australia, followed by
Brazil, China and then India.
• Much of the iron ore that China and
India extract is used in their own
countries but Australia exports most
of the ore it produces.

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 Value of natural resources by country
(in USD trillions 兆) in 2016
Country Value

Russia 75

United States 45

Natural Saudi Arabia

Canada
34.4

33.2
Resources by Iran 27.3

Country China 23

Brazil 21.8

Australia 19.9

Iraq 15.9

Venezuela 14.3
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 • Interdependence: Nations must trade for
resources they do not have; global trade
market exists to import and export goods.
• Economic Development: Many nations rich
Consequences of in natural resources are wealthy (developed)
while many nations lacking natural resources
Uneven are poor (developing).
Distribution of • War and Conflict: Countries lacking natural
resources will often fight for land to obtain
Resources the natural resources (e.g., Middle East –
Water resources & oil reserves).
• Human Settlement: People tend to settle
and cluster in places that have the resources
they need to survive and thrive.
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What are the Benefits of Using
Natural Resources?

• Supplies for all our needs!!

• Natural resources can be consumed
directly or indirectly. E.g., humans
depend directly on forests for food,
biomass, health, recreation and
increased living comfort.
• Indirectly forests act as climate control,
flood control, storm protection and
nutrient cycling.
• Examples of useful things that we can get
from some natural resources:
Source: www.eschooltoday.com

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 a) Metals and minerals such as steel for buildings, aluminium
for cars, copper for electrical products and many other rare-
earth minerals that go into making electronics such as
smartphones.

b) Farming that produces our food and drinks, and the clothes,
Use of Natural- depends significantly on natural resources including land, soil
and water.
Resources
are extracted from the environment and
often processed or manufactured to form c) Products and services we produce and consume also
the final products and services that we depend on burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas to
produce and consume... generate the energy that powers machinery, factories,
processing plants, transportation.

d) Even services like finance, education, healthcare and

telecommunications that are built and powered using natural
resources.

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Common Uses of Some Natural Resources in the Modern Life

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Renewable and
Nonrenewable Resources

• Renewable = can be replenished fairly easily

• Renewable Energy = Derived from resources like
the sun and wind, that can easily be replenished.
• Non‐renewable = cannot be replenished (or at least
not in our life-time)
• Non‐renewable Energy = energy sources like coal
and oil, that cannot be replaced over a useful
period of time.

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Solar Power
• The sun’s rays (solar radiation) that reach the Earth.
• This energy can be converted into other forms of
energy, such as heat and electricity.
• Pros: • No greenhouse gases released • When located
on buildings have limited impact on environment •
Renewable
• Cons: • Expensive investment to install • Not effective
in areas with limited light

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Wind Power
• Wind turbines use blades, the wind flows over the
blades creating lift, like the effect on airplane wings,
which causes them to turn.
• The blades are connected to a drive shaft that turns an
electric generator to produce electricity.
• Pros: • No greenhouse gases produced • Renewable in
some places
• Cons: • Limited to areas of reliable high winds • High
initial cost (but not as much as solar) • Extensive land
use • Harms bats and migrating birds

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Hydropower
• Energy from moving water
• Pros: • No greenhouse gases • Can generate lots of
electricity • Renewable
• Cons: • Can damage environment where dam is built
(can change the natural water temperatures, chemistry,
flow characteristics, and silt loads, all of which can lead
to significant changes in the ecology (living organisms
and the environment) and rocks and land forms of the
river upstream and downstream. • Expensive to build

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Geothermal
• Temperatures hotter than the sun's surface are
continuously produced inside the Earth by the slow
decay of radioactive particles, a process that happens
in all rocks.
• Pros: • Low greenhouse gas producer • Renewable in
some places • Energy and cost efficient
• Cons: • Few geothermal fields that are not on
protected land. The most active geothermal resources
are usually found along major tectonic plate
boundaries where most volcanoes are located.

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4. Overexploitation of Natural Resources

Poor Farming
Overpopulation Logging
Practices

Overconsumption Industrial and

Pollution of natural Technological
resources Development
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 Overpopulation

• Over 8 billion people are living on the

planet today.
• A major contributor towards
accelerating the exploitation of natural
resources.
• That’s because an increase in
population expands the demand for
resources and the conditions necessary
to sustain life.
• Additionally, an increase in population
leads to increased ecological
contamination.

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 Poor Farming Practices
• Approximately 1.5 billion hectares (11%) of the world’s land surface is
used for crop production. That’s about 36% of the total global land
suitable for crop production.
• While there are still 2.7 billion hectares more that could be used for
agricultural purposes, overreliance on land resources for food production
could lead to serious issues in the future.
• Poor irrigation practices are a major contributor to the depletion of land
resources.
• It leads to alkalization and salination of the soil needed for plant growth.
• The use of heavy farming equipment and machinery and poor soil
management practices also destroys the soil structure and makes it
unsuitable for growing plants.
• The use of excess fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides also kill important
micro-organisms in the soil essential for replenishing its nutrients.
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 Source: https://www.arachnys.com/illegal-logging-and-deforestation-money-does-grow-on-trees/

Logging
• According to the World Bank, the net loss of world
forests was 1.3 million km2 between 1990 and 2016.
• The loss of tropical forests is estimated to happen at the
rate of 1% per year, mainly in Latin America.
• That’s because people are cutting down forests mainly
for agricultural purposes to satisfy the growing
population’s demand.
• More trees are cut every year for building residential
complexes and as a source of fuel.
• These deforestation activities not only lead to the loss of
trees but also hundreds of plants and animals.
• Even worse, increased logging activities contribute to
soil erosion.
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Pollution
• The increase in population and anthropogenic
activities contributes to the disposal of different
pollutants in the environment, gradually
exposing the natural ecosystems to degradation.
• Air, soil, seas, and lakes are contaminated with
sewage, plastics, radioactive materials, and other
toxic chemicals.
• The uncontrolled release of CO2, CO, sulfur
oxide, and nitrous oxide leads to global warming
and the degradation of our ozone layer.

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 https://terrapass.com/blog/overconsumption-of-natural-resources

• Since the first industrial revolution, which opened the door for the
exploitation of oil and minerals, the process has been growing gradually over
Overconsumption the centuries.
• With advancements in science and technology in the contemporary era,
of Natural mineral exploitation has become easier and faster.
Resources • This increased exploitation rate of different minerals has led to a production
decline for some materials.
• Copper, zinc, and oil are expected to decline significantly in the next decade.
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Industrial and Technological
Development

• With major technological breakthroughs, more

and more countries are becoming industrialized.
• However, this technological advancement is
giving rise to more industries that exploit natural
resources and release toxins into the
environment.
• These toxins are deposited in lands, lakes, and
soils, altering natural habitats like wildlife and
aquatic systems.
• Video for What the Global Resources Outlook
2019 tells us (3:17)
https://youtu.be/ZwfGHRs_IqM

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3. What Are The Consequences of The Overexploitation
of Natural Resources?
• Human beings are depleting the planet's natural resources and standards of living
will begin to decline by 2030 unless immediate action is taken.
• The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warns that the current overexploitation
of natural resources is generating an enormous deficit, as 20% more than can be
regenerated is consumed each year and this percentage is growing steadily.
• Thus, if we continue at this rate, we would need 2.5 planets to supply ourselves in
2050.
• The world's population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles declined
by 58 % between 1970 and 2012 due to human activities and predicts that by
2020 this percentage will soar to 67%.

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The Consequences of
Over-Exploitation of
Resources
• Natural resources are not limitless,
and the following consequences can
arise from the careless and excessive
consumption of these resources:
• Deforestation
• Desertification
• Extinction of species
• Soil erosion
• Fossil fuel depletion
• Fresh water shortage
• Mineral depletion

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Deforestation
• From 2001 to 2018, a forest area larger than India was lost
worldwide (3,610,000 km2).
• The loss is equivalent to a 9% reduction in global tree cover since
2000.
• Since 2016, an average of 28 million hectares have been cut down
every year. That's one football field of forest lost every single second
around the clock!
• The permanent destruction of forest is called deforestation.
• Timber
• Pulp wood 木紙漿
• Chip wood
• Farming
• Ranching 牧場
• Urbanization/Settlement

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 •
Environmental Atmospheric: Deforestation is a contributor to global warming
and is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced
Effects of greenhouse effect.

Deforestation • Hydrological: The water cycle is affected as when a forest is

removed, the trees no longer transpire this water, resulting in a
much drier climate.

• Soil: The rate of erosion occurs from deforestation, because it

decreases the amount of litter cover, which provides protection
from surface runoff.

• Biodiversity: As forests are home to many different types of

living organisms, the removal or destruction of areas of forest
cover will result in a degraded environment with reduced
biodiversity
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 Desertification
• It is a type of land degradation in which
a relatively dry area of land becomes a
desert, typically losing its bodies of water
as well as vegetation and wildlife.
• Overexploitation of soil through
human activity is the one of the major
cause.
• Effects of desertification:
 Vegetation is damaged or destroyed
 Soil becomes infertile
 Soil erosion gets worse
 Increased vulnerability to natural disasters
 Polluted sources of drinking water
 Forcing mass migrations Credit: Dariusz P. Malinowski

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Extinction of Species

• Because of deforestation and habitat

degradation, some animal species are going
extinct.
• That’s because forest regions host thousands
of animals, which are endangered by
deforestation and exploitation of forest
resources.
• Other practices like lake pollution and
overfishing also drastically reduce the number
of marine species.

https://nypost.com/2019/05/06/1-million-species-at-risk-for-extinction-thanks-to-humans-un-report/
65
Soil Erosion
• The process involves the loosening of the soil
particles, blowing or washing away of the soil
particles and it has increasingly been
worsened by human activities such as
agriculture and deforestation.

• Effects of soil erosion:

 Loss of arable land
 Water pollution and clogging of waterways
 Sedimentation and threat to aquatic systems
 Desertification
 Air Pollution

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 Fossil Fuel Depletion Energy reserves in billion tonnes of oil equivalent

• Fossil fuels are non-renewable, the

quantity is limited and their use is not
sustainable over the long term.
• As they are a finite resource,
their continued consumption will
make them unavailable for use by
future generations.
• Although there are alternatives, these
are only able to replace a small
proportion of our current use.
• Oil will end by 2052 – 30-yr time
• Gas will end by 2060 – 40-yr time
• Coal will last till 2090 – 70-yr time
Source: https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/fossil-fuels-
run/
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Fresh Water Shortage • Water is not an endlessly renewable resource and in
many parts of the world, water demand is
significantly above sustainable water supply due to
excessive consumption.
• Consequences:
 Drying up of rivers, lakes and aquifers
 Droughts
 Water stress or scarcity
 Degraded environment with
reduced biodiversity

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 https://www.resilience.org/tag/mineraldepletion/

• With gasoline, zinc, phosphorous, and others being essential ingredients in

Mineral manufacturing processes, there has been an increase in the exploitation of
these minerals in the last decade.
Depletion • However, that has several devastating effects on nature as minerals like
Phosphorous are essential for plant growth.

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 Controlling Deforestation

Reducing the Consumption of Oil and Other

Minerals
5. Solutions to
Avoid Use of Renewable Energy Sources
Overexploitation Of
Natural Resources
Sensitization and Awareness Creation

Protecting Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems

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Controlling Deforestation

• With programs aimed at reducing deforestation becoming more and more

popular worldwide, governments are embracing the initiative and passing laws
against the exploitation of forests.
• Some initiatives also work as incentives to encourage the public to participate in
forest conservation to protect animal habitats and unique animal & plant species.

• How To Stop Deforestation? Any Suggestions?

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How To Stop Deforestation In 5 Steps
• Minimize Paper Consumption
• Reduce, reuse, and recycle
• Shop Sustainably Certified Products, e.g. Palm Oil
• Take Good Care Of Your Technological Devices
• Spread Awareness And Raise Consciousness

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Reducing The Consumption of Oil And Other
Minerals
• Oil-rich countries, consumables regulatory
bodies, and World Bank should join hands
and work towards the common goal of
reducing oil and mineral consumption
worldwide.
• Manufacturers may also be educated on
alternative ways to replace the minerals,
while consumers can be sensitized to re-
using some products to reduce wastage.

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Use of Renewable Energy Sources
• Renewable energy sources like wind power
and solar can reduce the high dependency
on fossil fuels.
• That will positively impact the environment,
as fossil fuel is a major contributor to
environmental pollution, global warming,
climate change, and natural habitat
degradation.

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Sensitization and Awareness Creation

• The public must be educated on how their

daily practices affect the environment and
result in the degradation of natural
resources.
• Creating awareness makes it easy to
encourage people to restore and preserve
the natural environment by participating in
conservation initiatives and efforts.

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Protecting Coastal and Wetland
Ecosystems
• Wetlands are areas with lots of
groundwater that sustain vegetation cover.
• Coastal and wetland ecosystems are crucial
in sustaining the food chain.
• They replenish the food chain and avail the
nutrients and minerals necessary for animal
and plant biodiversity.
• Coastal ecosystems also help to protect
marine life from overfishing.

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