What factors define a society's natural resources?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: A natural resource is anything that is created through natural processes that people use and value. Examples of natural resources include plants, animals, coal, water, air, land, metals, sunlight, and wilderness. If the resource is naturally produced at rates similar to our use we call it a renewable resource. Natural resources are especially important to geography because they are the specific elements of the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere with which people interact. Natural resources can be distinguished from humanmade resources, which are human creations such as money, factories, computers, information, and labor. A substance is merely part of nature until a society has a use for it. Consequently, a natural resource is defined by culture, technology, and economic systems.
Cultural values influence demand for commodities, affecting a society's willingness to influence supply and demand through policy. Technology has a tremendous influence on our ability to use certain resources, and on the relative costs and benefits of using those resources. A society's economic system affects whether a resource is affordable and accessible. In a market economy, supply and demand are the principal factors determining affordability. The same elements of society apply to the study of any example of a natural resource, whether it be oil, diamonds, forests, or clean air. In every case, a combination of the three factors is necessary for a substance to be valued as a natural resource.
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Using the Three Gorges Dam on China's Yangtze River as an example, what are the benefits and costs associated with building dams?
What will be an ideal response?
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A) subsistence. B) peasant. C) labor-intensive. D) swidden. E) none of the above