Natural Resources

Presented By: Anna OrtizJune 23, 2015

Geography

& the United States

What are natural resources?

Natural resources are materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain.

Water• The average American household uses about 300 gallons of water per day. • The average Californian family uses about 360 gallons of water per day.• 3.9 trillion gallons of water are consumed in the United States per month.• Only 2.5% of all Earth's water is freshwater (which is what life needs to survive). • According to water.org, “The average American uses 176 gallons of water per day

compared to 5 gallons of water the average African family uses each day.”

Water & California

Folsom Lake

Oroville Lake

Shasta Lake

Lake Lanier

Water & the World

Fossil Fuel & Natural Gases

• Fossil fuel is a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials, formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.

44.9% gasoline for use in automobiles 29.8% heating oil and diesel fuels 20.5% other products, including those derived from petroleum

for the manufacturing of chemicals, synthetic rubber, and plastics. 9.5% jet fuel 2.0% asphalt

Fossil Fuel & Natural Gases• According to InstituteForEnergyResearch.org, The United States Natural

Gas Consumption for the year of 2014 was:

34% Industrial 30% Electric Power 19% Residential 13% Commercial 3% Transportation

We rely heavily on fossil fuels as a source of energy in our day to day lives. Without the production of goods from industries we wouldn’t have common household items and it would be a detrimental to our economy.

• Earth Policy Institute states, all together, governments are shelling out nearly $1.4 billion per day to further destabilize the earth’s climate. (damage our climate)

Fossil Fuels & Earth

Forest & Soil

• Soil provides ecosystem services critical for life : soil acts as a water filter and provides habitat for billions of organisms, contributing to biodiversity; & supplies most of the antibiotics used to fight diseases. Soil is the basis of our agroecosystems which provide us with feed, fiber, food and fuel.

• Soil pollution is the change in physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the soil through mans intervention resulting from degradation in quality and productivity of the soil.

• Each year the United States factories release over 3 million tons of toxic chemicals into the air, land, and water. – The Mississippi river carries about 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen

pollution into the Gulf, annually.

Soil contamination

• Forests are an extremely important natural resource that can potentially be sustainably harvested

• Unfortunately, in most cases forests have been unsustainably overharvested, resulting in the "mining" of the forest resource and widespread ecological degradation.

• Deforestation: the clearing of trees, transforming a forest into cleared land.– It causes increases in temperatures as well as changes in

rainfall patterns which generally create a drier climate. • Forests are an important part of the water cycle. They

move water from the soil into the atmosphere through 'evapotranspiration'. This moisture eventually falls as rain. The evapotranspiration also results in a cooling effect; the effects of deforestation are drier and warmer conditions.