Resource Classification

What is a resource?

A resource is anything people find useful, above all water, food and energy, plus minerals and materials. Geographers classify resources so they can compare them. There are two splits to learn, and the crucial thing is that they are asking different questions.

Two questions, two answers

Every resource gets one answer from each column. They are not alternatives, and knowing one tells you nothing about the other:

One resource, two answers

Timber comes from trees, so by origin it is _____, and because a forest can be replanted it is also _____. Iron ore comes from rock, so by origin it is _____, and because there is a fixed amount of it in the ground it is _____. Every resource gets one answer from each split.

Renewable, but is it biotic?

Wind power is a renewable resource. Is it also a biotic one?

• No: wind comes from the non-living physical world, so it is abiotic
• Yes: anything renewable must be biotic
• Yes, because wind is caused by the sun warming plants and forests
• Neither term applies to an energy source

Renewable does not mean unlimited

A renewable resource is replaced naturally, but only at a certain rate. Take it faster than that and it runs down exactly as a finite one would: - A forest cleared faster than it regrows. - A cod stock netted faster than it breeds. - Groundwater pumped faster than the rain refills it. Geographers call that unsustainable use. Notice what this means: the label *renewable* describes the resource, but whether it actually lasts depends on how people use it.

The vanishing cod

A cod fishery is netted so heavily that the stock falls year after year and the fish become scarce. Which statement is correct?

• Cod are still a renewable resource, but this fishery is being used unsustainably
• Cod have become a non-renewable resource
• Cod were never renewable, because they can be caught and killed
• The fishery will recover on its own, because renewable resources always do

Exploiting environments

People exploit environments to get what they need: damming rivers and pumping groundwater for water, farming and fishing for food, mining and drilling for energy. Meeting rising demand means taking more and more from the natural world, and each way of taking leaves a mark: - Clearing forest for timber or farmland causes deforestation and destroys habitats. - Open-cast mining scars the landscape and washes pollutants into rivers. - Burning coal, oil and gas pollutes the air and warms the climate. - Pumping groundwater faster than rain refills it makes water tables fall and wells run dry.

What does each one do to the environment?

Mark the claims

Five statements about exploiting resources. Tap the TWO that are WRONG.

• Meeting rising demand means taking more and more from the natural world.
• Exploiting a resource more heavily increases the total amount of it that exists.
• Open-cast mining can pollute rivers as well as scarring the landscape.
• Damming a river to store water leaves the land downstream unchanged.
• Clearing forest for farmland destroys habitats as well as trees.

An uneven world

Resources are not shared out evenly, and neither is the using of them. These are two separate unevennesses, and an exam answer that treats them as one loses marks:

Have and use

Resources are spread _____ across the world: some countries sit on huge reserves and others have almost none. Consumption is uneven too, but it does not simply follow the reserves, because a country with few resources of its own can _____ them and still use a great deal. In general, _____ countries consume far more energy, water and food per person. The same unevenness appears _____ the UK, from one region to another.

Classify a resource

Classify a shoal of fish in the sea, one decision at a time.

• By origin, is a shoal of fish biotic or abiotic?
• By replenishment, if the fish are caught at a rate the stock can replace?
• Now they are caught faster than they can breed. What has changed?

Have little, use a lot

A country has almost no fossil fuels of its own, yet is one of the world's largest consumers of energy. Explain how that is possible, and what it shows about resources.

• Say what "uneven distribution" means, in your own words
• Say what "uneven consumption" means, and why it is a separate idea
• Explain how a country can consume far more of a resource than it holds
• Say what this means for a country that holds a great deal of a resource but consumes little of it

Resource summary

Resources from living things are _____, while those from the physical world are abiotic. Fossil fuels like coal are _____ because they are finite, but solar and wind are renewable. Renewable does not mean unlimited: taken faster than it replenishes, a renewable resource is being used _____. Across the world, resources are distributed _____, and consumption is uneven as well.