Natural Resources

What is urbanization?

• when cities can't get enough water
• movement of population from rural areas to cities
• cities are often warmer than surrounding areas
• when topsoil is eroded away and nothing will grow

What is "urban crisis"?

• When more people live in a city than its infrastructure can support, the living conditions deteriorate
• cities are often warmer than surrounding areas because buildings and paved surfaces retain more heat than plants and trees
• dust storms caused by removing native plants and plowing the ground so the topsoil dries out and blows away
• loss of variety in animal and plants in an area

What is deforestation?

• throwing someone out of a window
• selectively cutting trees for lumber, making sure the forest remains healthy
• allowing more animals to graze on the land than it can support
• cutting and removal of rainforest

What are some bad things attributed to population growth?

• autism & genetic diseases
• religious conflict
• low wages & unemployment
• burning fossil fuels & increased CO2 production

What are impacts of overgrazing?

• pollution and use of more resources
• loss of biodiversity, loss of native topsoil, desertification
• more people than the infrastructure can support
• creation of heat islands

What are some reasons deforestation occurs?

• clearing land for agriculture, ranching, and mining
• just wanting to destroy things
• Population moving from rural areas to cities
• to make room for infrastructure

What are some consequences of deforestation?

• increased population in cities
• building of more infrastructure
• soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, loss of ability to remove CO2
• more mercury and cyanide released into rivers

Which human activity would most likely deplete nonrenewable resources?

• use of natural enemies to eliminate insect pests
• development of wildlife refuges 
• governmental restriction of industrial pollution 
• increased use of fossil fuels

How has human use of the lithosphere changed over the years?

• We have gone from a more urban to a more rural population
• We have gone from a more rural to a more urban population
• We have gone from tunnel mining to strip mining
• We ahve gone from grazing cattle to growing crops

Growing different crops in succession in the same field.  This helps replenish soil nutrients.

• clear cutting
• crop rotation
• monoculture
• tillage