RESOURCE DEPLETION

Prepared by:Mayur Mevada

Roll No-03, Sem-IIIM.Sc.ES, HNGU, Patan

Contents

Definition Types Causes Exploitation of Natural

Resources Why Resources are Under

Pressure Problems arising from the

Exploitation of Natural Resources

Oil Depletion Over Drafting Consumer Capitalism Overconsumption Fish kill Logging Acid Mine Drainage Mountaintop Removal

Mining

Definition

Resource Depletion is term used to describe the resources

in a country or area being used up and has no more of the

current resource.

Resource Depletion includes the depletion of resources

such as trees, oil, fish, fossil fuels, minerals etc.

Once these resources excessive used to the extent that they

cannot be replace in time to fulfill the needs of mankind in

time, they become exhausted and may eventually disappear

from the earth altogether.

Types

Renewable and Non-renewable resources. Renewable resources such as wind, solar energy, etc are

endless but are generally more expensive than non-renewable resources.

Non-renewable resources cannot be reused after being used for the first time, while renewable resources can be reused even after being used for the first time.

This problem, resource depletion, may be due to the “over-populating” of the world, or that there are too little resources in the world.

Causes of Resource Depletion

Over-consumption / excessive or unnecessary use of

resources

Overpopulation

Slash and burn agricultural practices

Technological and Industrial Development

Erosion

Habitat degradation leads to the loss of Biodiversity

Irrigation

Mining for Oil and Minerals

Aquifer Depletion

Pollution or Contamination of resources

Exploitation of Natural Resources

The exploitation of natural resources started from 19-20th century. Today, about 80% of the world’s energy consumption is sustained by the extraction of fossil fuels, which consists of oil, coal and gas.

Another non-renewable resource that is exploited by humans are Subsoil minerals such as valuable metals that are mainly used in the production of industrial property.

Intensive agriculture is an example of a mode of production that hinders many aspects of the natural environment, for example the degradation of forests in a terrestrial ecosystem and water pollution in an aquatic ecosystem.

Why Resources are Under Pressure

Increase in the complexity of technology enabling natural resources to be extracted quickly and efficiently.

A rapid increase in population. This leads to greater demand for natural resources.

Cultures of consumerism. Materialistic views lead to the mining of gold and diamonds to produce jewelry, unnecessary property for human life or advancement.

Excessive demand often leads to conflicts due to intense competition.

Non-equitable distribution of resources.

Problems Arising from the Exploitation of Natural Resources

Deforestation Desertification Extinction of species Forced migration Soil erosion Oil depletion Ozone depletion

Greenhouse gas increase Extreme energy Water pollution Natural hazard/Natural

disaster Extinction of rare

minerals

1) Trees

2) Animals

3) Water

4) Fertile Soil

Different Types of Resource Depletion

Trees play an important role in our life. They provide us with a lot of things such as paper, oxygen, bark, wood, food, fruits etc.

Now, the rate at which humans cut down trees far exceeds the rate of both natural reforestation or managed reforestation.

Currently, we are cutting trees so fast that we are actually cutting 12 million hectares of forest every year. If there are no steps taken to stop this action, soon we will lose almost all our forests in the world.

Trees

Impacts of Excessive Deforestation

Actually, deforestation itself is not a bad thing. The problem now is that we are doing excessive deforestation, which means that we cut down more trees than we plant them which will eventually mean running out of trees to cut and affecting our future living conditions.

1. The Carbon Cycle2. The Water Cycle3. Soil Erosion4. Destruction of Animal Habitats

Animals

Hunting animals for their meat or certain parts of their body has been carried out for hundreds of years, since humans were just cave people.

Instead of killing and hunting these animals, why not conserve them, if we continue this rate of hunting, we may not only upset the balance in the ecosystem, but also may make a species extinct.

Water

The Earth is about 70% covered by water, however, out of that 70%, only about 3% of it is consumable water that we are able to consume.

Present distributions of this consumable water : 70% Agriculture 20% Industrial 10% Personal use

Sources of Consumable Water

1. Surface Water

2. Ground Water

3. Desalination

4. Glaciers

Causes of Water depletion

1. Overpopulation2. Wastage of water Some people like to waste water even though they know

they are doing it. However, wasting water like that is not helping in the water

depletion problem. Taking water for granted is not a solution. What we can do

is just to do simple water conservation, conserving water whenever possible.

Impact of Consumable Water Depletion

Shortage of freshwater in countries - Currently, the world has more than 6.2 billion population.

Irrigation - Farming is one of the most important trades in countries. Without proper water supply, farming would definitely be harder and might not be able to provide enough food to sell.

Power plants and factories also need water for cooling purposes too. Lack of water would mean certain disaster for these factories and power plants.

This could affect the production of electricity and may also

affect the trade and industry of a country greatly.

Water for personal use - In developing countries like China

and India, growing population may pose a big problem

when the shortage of water arrives.

Without consumable water and proper cleanliness of the

water supply, many people are certainly going to suffer

greatly.

Soil (Fertile) Depletion Agriculture is a very important part

of our survival. It provides us a source of income, and also a source of food.

Due to our growing population, we have been using up the soil’s minerals at a very alarming rate. Some areas are even experiencing low nutrients content in the soil.

This would eventually lead to poor quality of crops growing there and soon, we may experience a shortage of food.

Usually, the soil would fill its nutrient content naturally.

However, the process takes quite a while; we are using the

nutrients of the soil up faster than it can fill itself.

In areas where there was once fertile soil, now it is just a

piece of barren land.

An example is the “fertile crescent”, which is somewhere

around Iraq. It was once a place where many crops could

grow, the soil was full of nutrients, but now much of it is a

desert.

Causes of Soil Depletion

There are a few reasons on why the depletion of fertile soil happens. Some reasons include soil erosion, salinization, etc.

Soil erosion is due to deforestation, because the roots of the trees are no longer there to hold the soil together, resulting in soil erosion.

Salinization is the process in which salt enters the soil. It is actually a natural process, but over the years, human involvement is causing the salinity of soil to increase.

By building dams and reservoirs, we are disturbing the water cycle, increasing the salinity of some area.

Impacts of soil (fertile) depletion

1. Quality of agricultural products decreased

2. Shortage of food

Oil is actually fossil fuel, natural gas, coal, etc. It is burnt in power plants to produce steam so as to turn the turbines to give power to the city.

Using oil to produce electricity in actual fact makes even more air pollution.

People are debating that the effects of climate change will be a bigger concern than oil depletion, while others say that without oil, it would be harder to fight climate change.

The prices of oil have recently rose very high. It is because of oil depletion that the price of oil per barrel has risen.

According to survey, the world is using 28 billion barrels per year. If this continues, the oil reserves will run out very fast.

This will eventually become a global problem as everyone would be thinking about alternatives to oil.

Over drafting Over drafting is the process of extracting groundwater

beyond the safe yield or equilibrium yield of the aquifer. Since every groundwater basin recharges at a different rate

depending upon precipitation, vegetative cover and soil conservation practices, the quantity of groundwater that can be safely pumped varies greatly among regions of the world.

Some aquifers require a very long time to recharge and thus the process of over drafting can have high cost of effectively drying up certain sub-surface water supplies.

Subsidence occurs when excessive groundwater is extracted from rocks that support more weight when saturated. This can lead to a capacity reduction in the aquifer.

Consumer Capitalism

Consumer capitalism is a theoretical economic and social

political condition in which consumer demand is

manipulated, in a purposeful and coordinated way, on a

very large scale, through mass-marketing techniques, to the

advantage of sellers.

It suggests manipulation of consumer demand so effective

that it has a coercive effect, amounts to a departure from

free-market capitalism, and has an adverse effect on society

in general.

Overconsumption

Overconsumption is a situation where resource use has

outpaced the sustainable capacity of the ecosystem.

A prolonged pattern of overconsumption leads to expected

environmental degradation and the eventual loss of

resource bases.

Generally the discussion of overconsumption parallels that

of overpopulation; that is the more people, the more

consumption of raw materials to sustain their lives.

Fish Kill Fish kill known also as fish die-off and as fish mortality, is

a localized die-off of fish populations which may also be associated with more generalized mortality of aquatic life.

The most common cause is reduced oxygen in the water, which in turn may be due to factors such as drought, algae bloom, overpopulation, or a sustained increase in water temperature.

Infectious diseases and parasites can also lead to fish kill. Toxicity is a real but far less common cause of fish kill.

Fish kills are often the first visible signs of environmental stress and are usually investigated as a matter of pressure by environmental agencies to determine the cause of the kill.

Pollution events may affect fish species and fish age classes

in different ways.

If it is a cold-related fish kill, juvenile fish and species that

are not cold-tolerant may be selectively affected.

A reduction in dissolved oxygen may affect larger

specimens more than smaller fish as these may be able to

access oxygen richer water at the surface, at least for a short

time.

Causes Depleted oxygen levels are the most common cause of fish

kills. In this way eutrophication can have disturbing consequences for the health of benthic life

Fish kills may result from a variety of causes. Of known causes, fish kills are most frequently caused by pollution from agricultural runoff or biotoxins.

Ecological hypoxia (oxygen depletion) is one of the most common natural causes of fish kills. The hypoxic event may be brought on by factors such as algae blooms, droughts, high temperatures and

thermal pollution.

Fish kills may also occur due to the presence of disease, agricultural and sewage runoff, oil or hazardous waste spills, hydraulic fracturing wastewater, sea-quakes, inappropriate re-stocking of fish, poaching with chemicals, underwater explosions, and other terrible events that upset a normally stable aquatic population.

Because of the difficulty and lack of standard protocol to investigate fish kills, many fish kill cases are designated as having an 'unknown' cause.

Blast fishing

Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is the practice of using

explosives to shock or kill schools of fish for easy

collection.

This often illegal practice can be extremely destructive to

the surrounding ecosystem, as the explosion often destroys

the underlying habitat that supports the fish.

The frequently unprepared nature of the explosives used

also means danger for the fishermen as well, with accidents

and injuries.

Underwater shock waves produced by the explosion shock

the fish and cause their swim bladders to rupture.

This rupturing causes an unexpected loss of buoyancy; a

small number of fish float to the surface, but most go under

the surface to the sea floor.

The explosions indiscriminately kill large numbers of fish

and other marine organisms in the surrounding area and can

damage or destroy the physical environment, including

extensive damage to coral reefs.

Bottom Trawling Bottom trawling is trawling along the sea floor. It is also

referred to as "dragging". The scientific community divides bottom trawling into

benthic trawling and demersal trawling. Benthic trawling is trawling a net at the very bottom of the

ocean and demersal trawling is trawling a net just above the benthic zone.

Bottom trawling can be contrasted with midwater trawling, where a net is towed higher in the water column.

Midwater trawling catches pelagic fish such as anchovies, tuna, and mackerel, whereas bottom trawling targets both bottom living fish (groundfish) and semi-pelagic species such as cod, squid, shrimp, and rockfish.

Bottom trawling can be carried out by one trawler or by two trawlers fishing cooperatively (pair trawling).

Cyanide fishing

Cyanide fishing is a method of collecting live fish mainly for

use in aquariums, which involves spraying a sodium cyanide

mixture into the desired fish's habitat in order to shock the

fish.

The practice hurts not only the target population, but also

many other marine organisms, including coral and thus coral

reefs.

Habitat destruction Many fishing and diving areas across the world, already

severely damaged from the impact of dynamite fishing, have been ruined or totally lost through cyanide fishing.

Cyanide concentration slows photosynthesis in zooxanthellae, which results in coral reefs losing colour; it also eliminates one of their major food sources. Even at very low doses, cyanide results in higher mortality levels among corals.

Most legal and illegal fishing methods cannot by themselves destroy a stable ecosystem. However, through the effects of synergy, they have led to the breakdown of large coastal areas which were formerly strong fishing grounds.

Ghost Net Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been

left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. These nets, often nearly invisible in the

dim light, can be left tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea.

They can trap fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, including the occasional human diver.

Acting as designed, the nets restrict movement, causing starvation, scratch and infection, and suffocation in those that need to return to the surface to breathe.

Sea turtle entangled in a ghost net

illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

Illegal fishing takes place where vessels operate in destruction of the laws of a fishery. This can apply to fisheries that are under the authority of a coastal state or to high seas fisheries regulated by regional organisations.

Unreported fishing is fishing that has been unreported or misreported to the relevant national authority or regional organization, in breaking of applicable laws and regulations.

Unregulated fishing generally refers to fishing by vessels without nationality, or vessels flying the flag of a country not party to the regional organization governing that fishing area or species.

Overfishing

Overfishing is the act whereby fish stocks are depleted to unacceptable levels, regardless of water body size. Resource depletion, low biological growth rates, and critically low biomass levels result from overfishing.

The ability of a fishery to recover from overfishing depends on whether the ecosystem's conditions are suitable for the recovery.

Dramatic changes in species composition can result in an ecosystem shift, where other equilibrium energy flows involve species compositions different from those that had been present before the depletion of the original fish stock.

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales primarily for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC.

While the freeze has been successful in prevention the extinction of whale species due to overhunting, contemporary whaling is subject to powerful debate.

Anti-whaling countries and environmental groups say whale species remain in danger and that whaling is corrupt, unsustainable, and should remain banned permanently.

Logging Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and

loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. In forestry , the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow

sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a load yard.

Illegal logging refers to what in forestry might be called timber theft. It can also refer to the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws.

Logging usually refers to above-ground forestry logging. Submerged forests exist on land that has been flooded by damming to create reservoirs.

Such trees are logged using underwater logging or by the lowering of the reservoirs in question.

Clear cutting Clear cutting, or clear felling, is a harvest method that

removes essentially all the standing trees in a selected area. Depending on management objectives, a clear-cut may or

may not have reserve trees left to attain goals other than regeneration, including wildlife habitat management, mitigation of potential erosion or water quality concerns.

Silviculture objectives for clearcutting, and a focus on forestry distinguish it from deforestation.

Other methods include shelterwood cutting, group selective, single selective, seed-tree cutting, patch cut and retention cutting.

Acid Mine Drainage

Acid mine drainage, or acid rock drainage (ARD), refers to the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines.

However, other areas where the earth has been disturbed may also contribute acid rock drainage to the environment.

In many localities the liquid that drains from coal stocks, coal handling facilities, coal washeries, and even coal waste tips can be highly acidic, and in such cases it is treated as acid rock drainage.

Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering process but is exacerbated by large-scale earth disturbances characteristic of mining and other large construction activities, usually within rocks containing an abundance of sulfide minerals.

The same type of chemical reactions and processes may occur through the disturbance of acid sulfate soils formed under coastal or estuarine conditions after the last major sea level rise, and constitute a similar environmental hazard.

Mountaintop Removal Mining Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), also known as

mountaintop mining (MTM), is a form of surface mining that involves the mining of the summit or summit ridge of a mountain.

Coal seams are extracted from a mountain by removing the land, or overburden, above the seams. The land may be dumped back on the ridge and compacted to reflect the approximate original curve of the mountain.

Excess rock and soil loaded with toxic mining byproducts

are often dumped into nearby valleys, in what are called

holler fills or valley fills.

Mountaintop mining has serious environmental impacts,

including loss of biodiversity and toxification of

watersheds.

There are also adverse human health impacts which result

from contact with affected streams or exposure to airborne

toxins and dust.

References

Depletion of Natural Resources and the Status of

Conservation By Alan K. Craig

Natural-Resource Depletion, Habit Formation, and

Sustainable Policy By Daniel Leigh and Jan-Peter Olters

Resource depletion, peak minerals and the implications

for sustainable resource management By Prior T, Giurco D,

Mudd G, Mason L and Behrisch J.

Thank You…