The topic "Geography of World Natural Resources" is one of the central topics in the school geography course. What are natural resources? What species stand out, and how are they distributed around the planet? What factors determine the geography of world natural resources? Read about it in the article.
What are natural resources?
The geography of world natural resources is extremely important for understanding the development of the world economy and the economies of individual states. This concept can be interpreted in different ways. In the broadest sense, this is the whole range of natural benefits that a person needs. In a narrow sense, natural resources mean a combination of goods of natural origin, which can serve as sources for production.
Natural resources are not just used in economic activities. Without them, in fact, the existence of human society as such is impossible. One of the most important and pressing problems of modern geographical science is the geography of world natural resources (10th grade of high school). Both geographers and economists are studying this issue.
Classification of the Earth's natural resources
The natural resources of the planet are classified according to various criteria. So, resources are allocated exhaustible and inexhaustible, renewable, non-renewable, as well as partially renewable. According to the prospects of application, natural resources are divided into industrial, agricultural, energy, recreational and tourist, etc.
According to the genetic classification, natural resources include:
- mineral;
- land;
- water;
- forest;
- biological (including resources of the oceans);
- energy;
- climatic;
- recreational.
Features of the planetary distribution of natural resources
What features are represented by the geography of world natural resources? How are they distributed around the planet?
It is immediately worth noting that world natural resources are distributed extremely unevenly between states. So, several countries (such as Russia, the USA or Australia) have endowed nature with a wide range of minerals. Others (for example, Japan or Moldova) have to be content with only two or three types of mineral raw materials.
As for consumption, about 70% of the world's natural resources are used by the countries of Western Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan, in which no more than nine percent of the world's population lives. But a group of developing countries, which account for about 60% of the global population, consume only 15% of the world's natural resources.
The geography of world natural resources is uneven not only in relation to minerals. According to the reserves of forest, land, water resources, countries and continents are also very different from each other. So, most of the planet’s fresh water is concentrated in the glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland - regions with minimal population. At the same time, dozens of African countries are experiencing an acute shortage of drinking water.
Such such an uneven geography of world natural resources forces many countries to solve the problem of their shortage in different ways. Some do this with the help of active funding for geological exploration, others introduce the latest energy-saving technologies, and minimize the material consumption of their production.
World natural resources (mineral) and their distribution
Mineral raw materials are natural components (substances) that are used by a person in production or to generate electricity. Mineral resources are important for the economy of any state. In the earth's crust of our planet contains about two hundred minerals. 160 of them are actively mined by humans. Depending on the method and scope of use, mineral resources are divided into several types:
- fuel and energy (for example, oil, coal, peat);
- ore (nickel, tin, iron ore and others);
- non-metallic (raw materials for the chemical industry, metallurgy, construction, etc.).
Perhaps the most important mineral resource today is oil. It is rightly called "black gold", for it major wars were (and are still ongoing). As a rule, oil occurs along with associated natural gas. The main regions for the extraction of these resources in the world are Western Siberia, Alaska, Texas, the Middle East, and Mexico. Another fuel resource is coal (stone and brown). It is mined in many countries (more than 70).
Ore mineral resources include ores of ferrous, non-ferrous and noble metals. The geological deposits of these minerals often have a clear link to the zones of crystalline shields - protrusions of the basement of the platforms.
Non-metallic mineral resources have completely different uses. So, granite and asbestos are used in the construction industry, potassium salts - in the production of fertilizers, graphite - in nuclear energy, etc. The geography of world natural resources is presented in more detail below. The table includes a list of the most important and demanded minerals.
Mineral resource | Leading countries for its production |
Oil | Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, USA, Iran |
Coal | USA, Russia, India, China, Australia |
Oil shale | China, USA, Estonia, Sweden, Germany |
Iron ore | Russia, China, Ukraine, Brazil, India |
Manganese ore | China, Australia, South Africa, Ukraine, Gabon |
Copper ore | Chile, USA, Peru, Zambia, DR Congo |
Uranium ore | Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Niger, Namibia |
Nickel ores | Canada, Russia, Australia, Philippines, New Caledonia |
Bauxites | Australia, Brazil, India, China, Guinea |
Gold | USA, South Africa, Canada, Russia, Australia |
Diamonds | South Africa, Australia, Russia, Namibia, Botswana |
Phosphorites | USA, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Iraq |
Granites | France, Greece, Norway, Germany, Ukraine |
Potassium salt | Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Belarus, China |
Native sulfur | USA, Mexico, Iraq, Ukraine, Poland |
Land resources and their geography
Land resources are one of the most important treasures of the planet and any country in the world. By this concept is meant a part of the Earth’s surface suitable for living, building and farming. The World Land Fund is about 13 billion hectares of land. It includes:
- forests and shrubs (31%);
- meadows, pastures (24%);
- arable land and plantations (11%);
- land occupied by cities, roads and other buildings (3%);
- unproductive land (about 28%).
Different countries have different land resources. Some have at their disposal vast expanses of free land (Russia, Ukraine), while others feel an acute shortage of free space (Japan, Denmark). Agricultural lands are extremely unevenly distributed: about 60% of the world arable land is accounted for by Eurasia, while Australia is only 3%.
Water resources and their geography
Water is the most abundant and most important mineral on Earth. It was in it that earthly life was born, and it is water that is necessary for each of the living organisms. The planet’s water resources mean all surface as well as underground waters that are used by humans or may be used in the future. Especially popular is fresh water. It is used in everyday life, in production and in the agricultural sector. The maximum reserves of fresh river flow fall to Asia and Latin America, and the minimum - to Australia and Africa. Moreover, on one third of the world's land, the problem with fresh water is especially acute.
The world's richest countries in terms of freshwater reserves include Brazil, Russia, Canada, China and the United States. But the five countries that are least provided with fresh water look like this: Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jordan.
Forest resources and their geography
Forests are often called the “lungs” of our planet. And completely justified. After all, they play the most important climate-forming, water-protective, and recreational role. Forest resources include forests themselves, as well as all their useful qualities - protective, recreational, therapeutic, etc.
According to statistics, about 25% of the earth's land is covered by forests. Their main part falls on the so-called “northern forest belt”, which includes such states as Russia, Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland.
The table below shows the countries that are leaders in terms of forest cover in their territories:
Country | Percentage of forested area |
French guiana | 95% |
Suriname | 91% |
Guyana | 85% |
Mozambique | 84% |
Gabon | 81% |
Russia | 76% |
Biological resources of the planet
Biological resources are all plant and animal organisms that are used by humans for various purposes. It is floristic resources that are more in demand in the modern world. In total, there are about six thousand types of cultivated plants on the planet. However, only one hundred of them are widespread throughout the world. In addition to cultivated plants, people actively raise livestock and poultry, and use bacterial strains in agriculture and industry.
Biological resources are classified as renewable. Nevertheless, with their modern, sometimes predatory and ill-conceived use, some of them are threatened with destruction.
Geography of World Natural Resources: Ecological Problems
Modern nature management is characterized by a number of serious environmental problems. Active mining not only pollutes the atmosphere and soil, but also significantly modifies the surface of our planet, changing some landscapes beyond recognition.
What words are associated with the modern geography of world natural resources? Pollution, exhaustion, destruction ... Unfortunately, this is true. Thousands of hectares of centuries-old forests annually disappear from the face of our planet. Poaching destroys rare and endangered species of animals. Heavy industry pollutes soils with metals and other harmful substances.
It is urgent and global to change the concept of human behavior in the natural environment. Otherwise, the future of world civilization will not look very rosy.
The phenomenon of "resource curse"
“The Paradox of Abundance,” or “the raw curse,” is the name of the phenomenon in economics, which was first formulated in 1993 by Richard Auti. The essence of this phenomenon is as follows: states with significant natural resource potential, as a rule, are characterized by low economic growth and development. In turn, countries that are “poor” in natural resources achieve great economic success.
There are really a lot of examples confirming this conclusion in the modern world. For the first time, they started talking about the “resource curse” of countries back in the 80s of the last century. Some researchers even then traced this tendency in their writings.
Economists identify several main reasons for this phenomenon:
- lack of desire for the authorities to carry out effective and necessary reforms;
- the development of corruption in the state apparatus on the basis of “easy money”;
- decrease in competitiveness of other sectors of the economy that are not so “tied” to natural resources.
Conclusion
The geography of world natural resources is extremely uneven. This applies to almost all of their species - mineral, energy, land, water, forest.
Some states own large reserves of minerals, but the mineral and raw potential of other countries is significantly limited by only a few of their types. True, the exceptional availability of natural resources does not always guarantee a high standard of living, the development of the economy of a particular state. A striking example of this are countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and others. This phenomenon has even got its name in economics - the “resource curse”.