Human Actions and Earth's Resources

Use and Conservation of Resources

• We use natural resources for many things. Natural resources give us food, water, recreation, energy, building materials, and luxury items.
• Many resources vary in their availability throughout the world. Some are rare, difficult to get or in short supply.
• We need to conserve our natural resources, protecting them from pollution and overuse.
• We can use materials less or recycle to conserve resources.
• We can also make efforts to reduce pollution and soil erosion in order to conserve resources.

Energy Conservation

• It takes energy to get energy. We use the term 'net energy' to refer to the amount of energy left for use after we expend energy to get, transport and refine other forms of energy.
• Once the energy is available, we use it for some purpose, but sometimes do so inefficiently.
• We can conserve energy resources by reducing energy use.
• We can also use energy more efficiently by getting more work out of the energy that we use.
• Examples of this include driving smaller cars and using fluorescent light bulbs.