Key Concepts: Natural Resources and Their Use | Social Science Class 8 - New NCERT PDF Download

When Does Nature Become a Resource?

• Nature: Everything that exists around us, including plants, animals, water, air, and land—things not made by humans.
• Resource: When humans make use of parts of nature for their needs, such as cutting trees for wood or using river water, those parts become resources.
• Technologically Accessible: A natural resource we can get or use because we have the tools or machines needed.
• Economically Feasible: Using or getting a resource is possible without spending too much money or effort.
• Culturally Acceptable: When using a resource fits with people's beliefs and traditions. For example, cutting trees in sacred forests might be unacceptable.
• Exploitation: Taking and using natural resources. Here, it means the careful use of resources, not necessarily harming them.

Categories of Natural Resources

• Natural Resources: Materials found in nature that are useful to humans, like water, air, soil, minerals, and forests.
• Resources Essential for Life: Things we cannot live without, such as clean air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat.
• Resources for Materials: Natural materials we use to make things, like wood for furniture or stone for buildings.
• Resources for Energy: Sources that provide us with power, like coal, sunlight, wind, and flowing water, to run machines and generate electricity.
• Renewable Resources: These can be used again and again because nature replaces them naturally, like sunlight, wind, water, and trees—but only if we use them carefully.
• Non-renewable Resources: Resources that take millions of years to form and are limited, like coal, oil, and some minerals. When we use them up, they cannot be replaced quickly.
• Restoration: When nature heals itself and goes back to a healthy condition after damage.
• Regeneration: The natural process of creating new plants, animals, or resources to replace those lost.
• Sustainable Use: Using resources in a way that does not harm nature’s ability to renew them.
• Over-exploitation: Using resources too fast so they can't grow back or be replaced.

Distribution of Natural Resources and its Implications

• Distribution: Where natural resources are found in different amounts across the Earth or a country.
• Resource-rich Areas: Places that have a lot of certain natural resources, like coal mines or forests.
• Trade Patterns: How goods move from places where resources are found to where people need them.
• Conflict: Fights or disagreements that happen when people or countries want control over valuable natural resources.
• Employment Opportunities: Jobs are created when industries and businesses are set up near natural resources.
• Displacement: When people have to move from their homes because of resource extraction or development projects.

The ‘Natural Resource Curse’

• Natural Resource Curse: This means sometimes, countries or places with many resources do not become rich or develop well because they depend too much on those resources without planning for the future.
• Paradox of Plenty: Having many natural resources doesn’t always mean a country is wealthy.
• Strategic Planning: Careful thinking and management to use resources wisely and help the country or community grow.
• Technology and Skill Development: Learning new techniques and skills to use natural resources better and make useful products.

Responsible and Wise Use of Natural Resources: Stewardship

• Stewardship: Taking care of natural resources responsibly, so they can last for a long time and help future generations.
• Pollution: Harmful substances that contaminate air, water, or soil because of careless use of resources or industries.
• Biodiversity Loss: When many animals, plants, and other living things disappear because their homes are destroyed or polluted.
• Ecosystem Functions: Natural processes that keep the environment healthy, like trees cleaning the air or forests stopping soil from washing away.
• Ecosystem Services: The benefits people get from nature’s functions, such as clean water or food crops pollinated by insects.

Responsible and Judicious Use of Resources

• Judicious Use: Using natural resources carefully and wisely so they do not run out quickly.
• Groundwater Extraction: Taking water from under the ground for farming and drinking, which can cause problems if done too much.
• Organic Farming: Growing food using natural materials like compost and without harmful chemicals, which protects the soil and environment.
• Renewable Energy: Energy that comes from natural sources that do not run out, like sunlight, wind, and flowing water.
• Traditional Practices: Old customs and methods, such as water harvesting or seasonal fishing bans, that help protect nature.
• Resource Management: Planning and acting in ways that make sure natural resources are used fairly and can last a long time.