Patterns of natural resources

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Patterns of natural resources

• The uneven global distribution of resources

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• There are disparities in the access to natural
  resources between and also within countries. The
  uneven global distribution and consumption may be
  analysed under the following resources
• forests
• water
• minerals
• energy

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Forests

• Forests are a particularly important resource for
  rural populations since they are a source of
  fuel, food and building materials. Developing
  countries in the appropriate tropical climate
  possess most of the worlds forest coverage (i.e.
  Brazil, Indonesia, etc.) however, it is these
  very countries that are experiencing the highest
  deforestation rates.
• It is predicted that the Amazon forests would
  have disappeared by the end the this century.

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Forests

• Most wood in Africa, South America and Asia is
  used for fuel while in North America, Europe,
  Oceania and the former USSR it is produced for
  industrial purposes (paper products, furniture,
  etc.).

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Forests

• About half of the worlds roundwood timber is
  removed by the six top producers The US, former
  USSR, China, India, Brazil and Canada. The
  developing world figures only marginally in the
  global trade of forest products except for its
  massive exports of hardwoods. Clearly, the
  developing countries export more than they
  import.

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Forests

• The increased global demand for wood and the
  continual clearing of land for cultivation has
  often led to ecologically unsustainable
  harvesting of forests in many developing
  countries. Between l981 and l990, l5.4 million
  hectares of tropical forests were removed each
  year.

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Water

• The worlds greatest concentration of freshwater
  is in the high latitudes-in the glaciers of
  Antarctica and Greenland and in the lakes of the
  former USSR and North America, areas with very
  low populations. Areas close to the equator also
  have a large proportion of the worlds freshwater
  supplies-the tropical humid zones of South and
  South-East Asia, and the Amazon Basin. Areas with
  limited supplies include the mid latitudes-Middle
  East, North Africa, northern Central Asia and
  Central Australia.

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Water

• Asia has the largest amount of annual internal
  renewable water resources(10,485 cubic
  kilometres), followed by South America(10,377).
  When the water resources are divided by
  population, Oceania leads the amount followed by
  South America, North and Central America then the
  former USSR.

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Water

• On the consumption side, Africa and Asia use most
  of their water for agricultural needs(88 and 86
  respectively). Europe and North America have the
  greatest industrial proportions of water use(54
  and 42 each). Oceania uses 64 of its water for
  domestic purposes.
• Asia dominates the average annual catches of
  marine and freshwater resources.

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Minerals

• There is no consistent natural dispersal of
  mineral wealth around the globe. However, the
  CIS (the former USSR, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
  and Georgia), Australia and China are three major
  mineral producing nations. North America, Europe,
  Japan and China consume the majority of these
  reserves.

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Energy

• Most energy is required for 3 basic purposes
• 1. electricity(coal, oil, uranium, solar,
  etc.),
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  2. industry (eg. Coal for steel
  production),
• 3. fuel for transportation.

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Energy

• Energy resources are unevenly distributed,
  Australia and the US exporting most of the
  worlds coal and Canada and Australia for
  uranium. The OPEC group of nations(Saudi Arabia,
  Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Libya, etc.) is the major
  bloc of oil producing nations as well as the
  former USSR, Western Europe and North America.
  Due to their high levels of fuel needs, Western
  Europe and North America are still net importers
  of oil.

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