Angela Covington
Natural Resources
Environmental Studies
PHS 100
David Terrell
Warner Pacific College
April 29, 2010
Natural Resources
God has blessed us with all of the natural resources that we need, right here on earth. We have air, food, water, energy, trees, plants, and animals. Everything that we need to survive, we have. Over the years with the population growth and over consumption of resources, our natural resources have become limited, resulting in costs to all of us.
At one time we were free to use all of the natural resources that we have, abundantly. People were careless, uneducated about our environment, and even greedy and decided to use more than they needed, and caused a problem for the environment as a whole. A lot of times people don’t really give much thought to human nature, and our environment, and what it takes to preserve it. We take a lot for granted, not thinking that all of the things that we have access to, might one day be in jeopardy. Like for instance, our water, and our air. We consume and use a lot of water, and a lot of it is wasted. We run water to keep our grass green, then there becomes a shortage, and the government steps in and asks us to slow down on our water usage, by not flushing our toilets every time it is used, or don’t water our grass in the summertime. We pollute our air by driving cars that burn oil that pollutes it. There are several things that we can do to help cut down on using too many of our resources too quickly.
For the most part, I believe the reason for our resources being depleted comes from us not being educated, and knowing what it takes to preserve those resources, which is why the government had to step in to place restrictions on what and how much of each of the resources we could use. That is another reason why we pay so much for our water and sewage, natural gas, and electric bills. After reading and getting a little better understanding on our environment, I think it was something that had to be done, in order for us to continue to have some of the important resources that we have today. If those regulations had been put in place a lot earlier, we would probably have a lot of those non-renewable resources that we no longer have today.
A lot of us don’t think about the future of our children, or those to come after us, and that is no different than the polluting of the rivers. Those that are further upstream don’t think about the effects of what they are throwing into the water, may have on those that are further downstream.
Like for example, there was a time when a person could go fishing, and catch as many fish as they wanted to, or could catch. That created a problem for all of us. There became a shortage of fish, so there would not be enough fish for everyone else. If everyone had the same mentality of greed, all of our resources would be depleted very quickly.
Based on our cultural backgrounds, this could differ in what is important and what is not and can influence our personal perception of the world, and our place within it. Like the Mirrar clan from Jabiluka, they believed that the land they lived on was sacred, and they fought to keep hazardous wastes that the mine would create, out of it.
By the government placing environmental regulations on, it helps us to understand the importance of preserving these resources, and knowing which resources are renewable and those that are not renewable. Once educated, we can all do our part to preserve those resources that are still around, by recycling, cutting down on paper waste, doing our part to keep our air clean by buy smarter cars, etc. It is going to take each one of us doing our part to change things so that we can have a healthier environment for our future generations to come.
References
Withgott, J., & Bennan, S. (2008). Environment: The Science Behind the Stories (3rd ed.). New
York. Pearson Benjamin Cummings.
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