Can A County S Natural Resourc Essay, Research Paper
Imagine the world 50 years from now; picture the scenario of dark skies, gloomy clouds everything around you either is dying or has died. This exactly will take place if nobody takes action against the ” potentially earth shattering problems”. This horrible scenario would be the result of mankind’s failure to cooperate and live in harmony with the environment. All that is left will be memories of the past.
There is always an earthly unbalance between Mother Nature and the human race; nothing we do can even achieve a stable equilibrium to this. Hence we have to identify the various natural resources and the methods in exploiting them. The production of minerals often conflicts with the conservation of other resources, especially as needs grow while environmental quality shrinks.
Firstly, mining activities: used to mine several key and important mineral resources like iron ore and coal. Damages caused? During open surface mining operations, it alters the land-use pattern, destroys fertile topsoil, rendering it unproductive. Mining produces pollutants, including dust and noise pollution, caused by rock mining. Land surfaces and the environment are affected. Although these by hereby are short listed effects I m sure that this is often the overlooked part to mining.
Moving on to the second part, Oil and Gas, the petroleum industry is no different than any other business. It exists to make money and will pursue any means to profit. The world doesn’t realize how much of an impact the petroleum industry has on the world economy. Oil indirectly links to the combustion process that happens in every petroleum powered car, but we never seem to think twice when fill every bit of our tank with petrol; we actually take a piece of the environment with it. Petrol use affects the environment negatively. For example, the burning of fuels causes pollutants, dust and black smoke, and oil-based lubricants are deposited into the sewerage system and water cycles.
We always heard reports of BSP that it uses safe methods of oil drilling and such. But how high is Brunei s Public Awareness? Are we notified of oil spills, accidents, inside problems and other secret cleanup operations? I thought as much; we as the people have the right to know, but most of us aren t environmentally aware of such matters. Rumors over the years have reported that the petroleum industry has kept new innovative products off the market that could help reduce our problems considerably. They do this by buying the copyrights or paying people not to produce the products. This can be easily done by an industry that carries a big wallet. Advertising has also kept the industry going. Advertisers portray a different picture that gets your mind off the problem. Petroleum companies play on your automotive desires, like gasoline that performs well and gives you more power. They also play on the convenience of their stores by selling unrelated products such as groceries. The industry has changed only to meet economic needs. The automobile industry has also done little to comply with a growing attitude of change. With stricter pollution standards hovering over combustion engines, they continue trying to perfect hundred-year-old technology. The combustion engine just keeps being refined enough to be in compliance with law. The fact is that we are still using petroleum products in an industry that is growing by leaps and bounds all over the world.
Advancing to the third point, Coastal and Marine resources. There was been over-exploitation in the fisheries industry, the over-exploitation of the “free-for-all” fishery resources has led to their rapid deterioration. Coastlines and marine environments are degraded due to infrastructure and urban development, industry, agriculture and commercial aquaculture. Illegal commercial fishing by trawling and push nets has destroyed the natural environment within 3,000 meters of the coast. Highly intensive aquaculture, (e.g., giant tiger prawns, an important export) is unsustainable and produces negative effects on the environment and other manufactures in the area. Irresponsible tourism destroys seawater quality and coral in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea.
One of the last points I wish to mention is the forest resource. The devastation of the rainforest may be compared to playing a game of Russian roulette. One-forth of existing medicines is derived from tropical plants whose homes are in the rainforests of South America. It is the ruthless logging companies along with the complete ignorance of the local peasants and governments that aid in the yearly loss of the hundreds of thousands of acres of essential rainforest.
The greed for money and lust for land are just two flames at the heart of the fire. This is man s apparent nature and can the rage of man s strive against the gentle force of nature? Only time will tell.
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