CHAPTER4: RENEWABLE AND
NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES
What is a resource?
• A resource is a source or supply from
which a benefit is produced and that has
some utility.
• Resources can broadly be classified
upon their availability-they are classified
into renewable or non-renewable
resources.
• From a human perspective, a natural
resource is anything obtained from the
environment to satisfy human needs and
wants.
Forms of energy
Nonrenewable
- single-use resource that is consumed to
extract energy
- Fossil fuels: oil, coal, natural gas
- Nuclear energy from uranium
Renewable
- Resource can be used repeatedly
- Will not run out
- Hydro, geothermal, solar, tidal, wind
A. NONRENEWABLE
resources are resources that once
extracted and utilized are forever lost and
are not capable of replacement and
renewal.
- Comes from resources that will
eventually run out, such as oil and coal.
1. MINERAL RESOURCES
- These are any naturally occurring
concentrations of a free element or
compound in solid form commonly
known as mineral deposit.
• A mineral deposit with a high
concentration of at least one metallic
element called an ore.
• Mineral resources are stock resources
that are dormant and if left alone
The Philippines has large deposits of
metallic minerals like: • Cadmium •
Chromiun • Cobalt • Copper • Gold •
Lead
• Iron • Manganese • Mercury • Nickel •
Palladium • Silver • Uranium • Zinc
Non – metallic minerals:
• Asbestos • Cement raw material •
Dolomite • Feldspar • Gypsum • Marble •
Phosphate • Sulfur • Talc
• Our mineral resources are estimated at
30 billion metric tons of which 37% are
metallic and 63% are non-metallic.
• Considered as one of the prime
contributors to the country’s foreign
exchange earnings valued at 1.19 billion
US dollars in 1988.
2. ENERGY RESOURCES
Fossil fuels are also known as
conventional fuels such as: Petroleum,
Fossilized liquid carbon, and coal
• These minerals are found beneath the
earth’s surface where they have been
stored for billion of years.
• They are processed and then burned to
produce energy.
Oil and natural gas supplied 60.9% of the
energy in the US while coal supplied
22.5% , nuclear power 8.5% and
hydropower 3.1%
• Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in
the world.
• US has 25% of the world’s coal in huge
deposits.
• Utility companies use coal to produce
electricity and industry to produce steel.
• Produce toxic damage,
• Produces more air pollutants and
matter than oil or natural gas.
• Produce large amounts of mercury.
• Contains sulfur and nitrogen which
produce acid rain.
• The first oil well in the Philippines was
drilled in Cebu in 1986.
• 92% of the country’s energy
requirements was supplied by the
thirteen countries in the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
• Produces carbon dioxide and contribute
to global warming.
• OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental
organization, created at the Baghdad
Conference in 1960, by: • Iran • Iraq •
Kuwait • Saudi Arabia • Venezuela
- It aims to manage the supply of oil in an
effort to set the price of oil in the world
market
• It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria
• OPEC membership is open to any
country that is a substantial exporter of
oil which shares the ideals of the
organization.
As of 2019, OPEC has a total of 14
Member Countries viz.
• Iran • Iraq • Kuwait • United Arab
Emirates (UAE) • Saudi Arabia • Algeria •
Libya • Nigeria • Gabon • Angola •
Ecuador • Venezuela • Equatorial Guinea
• Republic of Congo
3. GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES
• THESE ARE NON-RENEWABLE BUT
PERPETUAL ENERGY RESOURCES.
• HOT SPRINGS FORM WHEN
UNDERGROUND WATER COMES IN
CONTACT WITH HOT MOLTEN MATERIALS
BENEATH THE EARTH’S SURFACE.
• WELLS ARE DRILLED TO BRING THE
STEAM WATER INTO THE SURFACE TO BE
USED FOR SPACE HEATING IN COLD
COUNTRIES AND ELECTRICITY FOR
INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES.
➢ IN THE PHILIPPINES, EXISTING
GEOTHERMAL SOURCES AND POWER
PLANTS ARE LOCATED IN THE: PROVINCE
OF LEYTE, TIWI, ALBAY, MAKBAN IN
QUEZON, LAGUNA , NEGROS OCCIDENTAL
4. CONVENTIONAL NON RENEWABLE
NUCLEAR FISSION
- Nuclear fission was used for creative
and constructive purposes such as the
generation of electric power. It has
heralded as a cheap, clean, and safe
source of energy.
- In July 1973, the Philippine Government
announced its decision to construct a
nuclear power plant to be operated by
National Power Corporation (NPC) with a
projected generating capacity of 620MW
in the town of Morong, Bataan, 85 km
west of Manila.
After its completion group of
environmentalists, and lawyers mounted
a resistance against its operation
challenging the NPC and its builders, The
Westinghouse Electric Corporation based
on the following allegations:
• a. The Philippine Nuclear Power Plant
(PNPP) was deficient, defective and
unacceptable by any reasonable
standards.
b. Implementation of designs developed
for another plant are not suitable for
PNPP and many other.
• On September 1, 1991, the District
Court of New Jersey denied the
Philippine’s motion for summary
judgement on the “preliminary finding”
of sufficient evidence of bribery earlier
determined by arbitrators in Geneva.
- Meanwhile, The Philippine Government
is paying approximately US$335,000 a
day on interest alone for the loan
contracted for the construction of the
PNPP.
✓ Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is a
nuclear power plant, completed but
never fueled.
Reactor Supplier: Westinghouse
✓Construction cost: over US$2.3 billion
5. OTHER NON RENEWABLE RESOURCES
A. PEACOCK COAL
• IS A BLACK OR BROWNISH ROCK. WE
BURN COAL TO CREATE ENERGY.
• COAL IS RANKED DEPENDING ON HOW
MUCH “CARBONIZATION” IT HAS GONE
THROUGH.
• CARBONIZATION IS THE PROCESS THAT
ANCIENT ORGANISMS UNDERGO TO
BECOME COAL.
PEAT IS THE LOWEST RANK OF COAL. IT
HAS GONE THROUGH THE LEAST
AMOUNT OF CARBONIZATION.
Anthracite is the highest rank of coal.
There are two ways to mine coal:
✓Underground mining is used when the
coal is located below the surface of the
Earth, sometimes 300 meters (1000 feet)
deep- that’s deeper than most of the
Great Lakes.
✓Surface mining is used when the coal is
located very near the surface of the
Earth.
ADVANTAGES VS DISADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES
➢Reliable
• We can rely on its day and night,
summer and winter, sunshine or rain, to
provide fuel and electricity.
DISADVANTAGES
➢Harmful
• Mining is one of the most dangerous
jobs in the world.
• Coal miners are exposed to toxic dust
and face the dangers of cave-ins and
explosions at work.
b. Petroleum
• Also called crude oil or just “oil”, is
another popular source of nonrenewable
energy
• Petroleum is a liquid fossil fuel trapped
by underground rock formations. In some
places, oil bubbles right out of the
ground.
ADVANTAGES
• Inexpensive to extract
• Reliable and dependable source of
energy and money for the local
community
• Provides with thousands of
conveniences:
➢In the form of gasoline, it is a portable
source of energy that gives us the power
to drive places
➢An ingredient in many items that we
depend on
DISADVANTAGES
• Burning gasoline is harmful to the
environment.
• It releases hazardous gases and fumes
into the air that we breath
• There is also the possibility of an oil spill
➢ If there is a problem with the drilling
machinery, the oil can explode out of the
well and spill into the ocean or
surrounding land
➢ Oil spills are environmental disasters,
especially offshore spills
➢ Oil floats on water, so it can look like
food to fish and ruin bird’s feathers
C. NATURAL GAS
• Natural gas is the “cleanest” fossil fuel.
When burned, natural gas only releases
carbon dioxide and water vapor.
• Coal and petroleum also release gases
that can pollute the air and water
• To reach the natural gas, some
companies use a process called “hydraulic
fracturing”
• Hydraulic fracturing means they use
water, and fracturing means to split apart
the rocks underground.
ADVANTAGES
• Inexpensive and cleaner fossil fuel than
oil or coal
• When burned, it only releases carbon
dioxide and water vapor (which are the
exact gases that we breathe our when we
exhale)
• Healthier than burning coal.
DISADVANTAGES
• Extracting natural gas can cause
environmental problems.
• Fracturing can cause mini earthquakes.
• The high-pressure water and chemicals
that are forced can also lead to other
sources of water, therefore water used
for drinking or bathing can become
contaminated and unsafe.
B. RENEWABLE RESOURCES
Solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and
biomass are resources that may be used
again and never run out since they are
always being replaced.
1. SOLAR ENERGY
• Photovoltaic cells, also referred to as
solar cells, are used to collect and convert
it.
• In order for a solar cell to emit electrons
and generate a small amount of electrical
current when exposed to sunlight, various
materials, such as gallium and cadmium
sulfide, are added to pure silicon during
the manufacturing process.
2. HYDROELECTRIC POWER
• Electricity has been generated using the
kinetic energy of the falling and flowing
water in rivers and streams.
• To build a substantial reservoir, high
dams are constructed across rivers.
3. ENERGY FROM HEAT STORED IN
WATER
• Giant floating ocean thermal energy
conversion (OTEC) power plants use the
heat that the oceans store from the sun
to generate electricity.
• Warm surface water is used to
pressurize and evaporate low-boiling
fluids like ammonia after being run
through a sizable heat exchanger.
• Turbines are powered by ammonia gas
to generate electricity.
4. ENERGY FROM WIND
• Wind energy has been harnessed to
power numerous small industrial ships,
process grains, pump water, and propel
ships.
• A small to intermediate-sized wind
turbine can produce 10-1000 kilowatts of
power with an average wind speed of
14-34 mph.
4. BIOMASS
• This is made possible via
photosynthesis. • It is an organic material
that may either be burned straight as a
fuel source or transformed into gaseous
or liquid biofuels by distillation and
pyrolysis.
Pyrolysis is the heating of an organic
substance—like biomass— without
oxygen.
• Estimated to supply up to 15% of the
world's commercial energy in the first ten
years of the twenty-first century.
 CHAPTER5: POPULATION AND HUMAN
ECOLOGY
• The Earth’s human population has
doubled in less than fifty years and will
reach 9 billion in the coming years.
Source: United Nations
2015 : the world’s population stands at
7.3 billion 2030: 8.5 – 9 billion
2050 : 9.7 2100: 11 billion
THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OF MAN
‘• Of all the planets in our solar system,
the Earth is the only one which is
habitable, the natural environment of
man and the varieties of life that live on
it.
• Life on Earth depends on the
fundamental processes of cycling matter
and the oneway flow of high-quality
energy from the sun.
• All the forms of life depend for their
existence on the materials that comprise:
1.Solid lithosphere, consisting of the
upper surface of the earth’s crust,
containing soil and deposits of matter,
energy resources, and the earth’s upper
mantle.
2. Hydrosphere, which is the collective
mass of water (in liquid, solid, or gaseous
form) found on, under or over the earth’s
surface.
3. Gaseous atmosphere extending above
the earth’s surface as liquid water, ice and
water vapor; and
4. Biosphere
• containing all the water, minerals,
oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and other
nutrients that living things need.
• Everything in the biosphere is
interdependent:
• air helps purify water that
keeps animals and plants alive;
• plants are the food of some
animals, and they also renew the soil and
air.
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
• The Earth receives energy from an
outside source, the sun.
• Therefore, the earth operates as an
open system.
• However, the earth is a closed system in
terms of matter:
a. Earth’s Energy Equilibrium: An Open
System - The earth is a dynamic system
because of the infusion of radiant energy
coming from the thermonuclear reactions
deep within the sun.
b. Earth’s Physical Matter: A Closed
System
• Air, water, and material resources are
physical matter.
• Originally, these are found on earth
since the initial formation of the planet.
No significant new quantities of matter or
material have entered the system.
EARTH SYSTEM CONCEPTS
• A system is any ordered, interrelated
set of objects, things, components, parts
and their attributes, as distinct from their
surrounding environment.
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF SYSTEM:
A. OPEN SYSTEM - A natural system that
is not self-contained: inputs of energy
and matter flow into the system, and
outputs flow from the system.
B. CLOSED SYSTEM - A system that is
shut off from the surrounding
environment so that it is self-contained.
EARTH FOUR SPHERES
1. Atmosphere
• The atmosphere is a thin, gaseous veil
surrounding the earth held by the force
of gravity.
• It is a combination of nitrogen, oxygen,
argon, carbon dioxide, and little amounts
of trace gases.
These gases are from within the earth’s
crust and interior, and the exhalation of
all living things.
2. Lithosphere
• The earth’s crust and a portion of the
upper mantle directly below the crust
forms the lithosphere.
• The crust is quite brittle which explains
its motion in response to an uneven
distribution of heat and pressure.
• The lithosphere is sometimes
considered as the entire solid planet.
3. Hydrosphere
• The earth’s mass of water in the
atmosphere, on the surface, and in the
crust near the surface, in liquid, solid, and
gaseous forms.
• Water occurs as either fresh or saline
(salty).
• It exhibits important heat properties
and is the universal solvent.
4. Biosphere
• It refers to the intricate web that
connects all organisms with their physical
environment.
• It is sometimes called the ecosphere,
where the physical and chemical factors
form the context of life.
• The biosphere has evolved, reorganized
itself at times, faced extinction, gained
new vitality, and managed to flourish
overall.
• The earth’s biosphere is the only one
known in the solar system to support life.
EARTH PAST ATMOSPHERE
The evolution of the earth occurred in
four historical stages:
a. The constituent of the earth’s
primordial atmosphere was derived from
the original solar nebula.
b. The evolutionary atmosphere is
thought to persist for relatively short
periods.
c. The living atmosphere has existed over
much greater time spans.
d.The modern atmosphere has also
existed over much greater time spans.
ATMOSPHERE COMPOSITION,
TEMPERATURE, AND FUNCTION
CLASSIFICATIONS
Based on Chemical Composition
a. Heterosphere
- Hetero means “not uniform” or “not
evenly mixed.” The heterosphere ranges
from 10,000 kms (6,000 mi) in altitude
down to 80 kms (50mi).
- It is mainly composed of distinct layers
of molecules and atoms of nitrogen and
oxygen
B. Homosphere - It is below the
heterosphere and envelopes the earth
from 80kms (50mi) down to the earth’s
surface.
• Homo means the region is composed of
an even mixture of gases, behaving as a
single gas.
BASED ON TEMPERATURE, THE
ATMOSPHERE IS DIVIDED INTO FOUR
DISTINCT ZONES
a. Thermosphere
• It is typically about 200ºC (360ºF)
hotter in the daytime than at night, and
roughly 500ºC (900ºF) hotter when the
sun is very active than at other times.
• Temperature in the upper
thermosphere can range from about
500ºC (932ºF) to 2,000ºC (3632ºF) higher.
b. Mesosphere
• It is directly above the stratosphere and
below the thermosphere.
• It extends from about 50 to 85 km (31
to 53 miles) above our planet.
Temperature decreases with height
throughout the mesosphere.
• The coldest temperatures in earth’s
atmosphere, about -90ºc (-130ºf), are
found near the top of this layer.
c. Stratosphere
• The second layer of the earth’s
atmosphere, just above the troposphere,
and below the mesosphere.
• The stratosphere is stratified (layered)
in temperature, with warmer layers
higher and cooler layers closer to the
earth.
d. Troposphere
• As the density of the gases in this layer
decrease with height, the air becomes
thinner. Therefore, the temperature in
the troposphere also decreases with
height in response.
• As one climbs higher, the temperature
drops from an average around 62ºF
(17ºC) to -60ºF (-51ºC) at the
troposphere.
➢ The goal of ecology is to find out the
interactions among the five (5) levels of
the organization of matter: Organism,
Population, Communities, Ecosystem,
Biosphere
GOAL OF ECOLOGY
• An organism is any form of life. Similar
and interacting organisms are called
species.
• Each species is composed of a similar
unit known as population or a group of
(or individual) organisms of the same
species that occupy a particular area at a
given time.
• The place it naturally thrives in is called
habitat.
• A community in ecological terms is
made up of all the populations of plants
and animals living and interacting in a
given habitat.
• An ecosystem is the combination of a
community and the chemical and physical
factors making up its living environment.
• It can be a tropical rainforest , an
ocean, a lake, a desert, a grassland, a
fallen log, a terrarium, or a puddle of
water as long as it consists of a
self-regulating community of plants and
animals interacting with one another and
with their living environment.
EVOLUTION OF MAN
• The theory of organic evolution explains
• the diversity of living organisms,
• their characteristics and
• their distribution as a result of gradual
and continuous change from previously
existing forms as expounded by
• Charles Darwin,Alfred Wallace, and
other naturalists.
The concept of natural selection was
based on the following observable facts:
1. All organisms show variations;
2. In nature, all organisms produce more
offsprings that survive;
3. Struggle for survival;
4. Some individuals of species have better
chances of survival than others;
5. The result of natural selection; and
6. Through natural selection, new species
evolved
NATURAL SELECTION - It is the process
through which populations of living
organisms adapt and change.
• Organic evolution is supported by
pieces of evidence coming from several
sources.
• Humans were hunters and gatherers of
the limited natural productivity of the
environment.
POPULATION STRUCTURE AND
PROJECTION
• Today, the world population is at a
critical turning point. If we plot the
estimated number of people on earth,
the resulting curve roughly resembles the
shape of the letter “J”.
• In 1971, the world’s population was 5.3
billion and was increasing by 3 births per
second or about a quarter of a billion per
day.
• A United Nations official survey found
the Philippines to be the 17th most
populous country in the world and the
8th in Asia. (2010)
• Currently the Philippines population is
estimated at 109,581,078 people at
midyear according to United Nation data.
It is equivalent to 1.41% of the total
world population. The Philippines ranks
number 13 in the list of countries by
population.
PEOPLE VS. EARTH
• The increasing population is eating
away the earth itself.
• In 2001, the philippines poverty rate
was estimated to be 40% of the 77 million
Filipinos.
• Starting 2020, poverty incidence in the
Philippines is projected to fall below 20%.
• According to the world bank, poverty
rate is seen declining at 19.8 percent next
year and 18.7 percent in 2021. By the end
of 2019, the poverty incidence rate is
expected to be around 20.8
• This is in relation with the availability of
the final 2018 Family Income and
Expenditure Survey (FIES), that farmers,
fisherfolks, individuals residing in rural
areas, and children posted the highest
poverty incidences among the basic
sectors in 2018.
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
• OVERPOPULATION
• POPULATION DENSITY AND
DISTRIBUTION
• POLLUTION
• WAR
• TECHNOLOGY
• POLITICS
• NATURAL CALAMITIES