What is the first law of thermodynamics, and what are its implications for natural resource management?

What will be an ideal response?


This law says that the total energy and matter in the universe are constant and conserved. This law is important because it says that there is a finite amount of energy on Earth. Humans cannot make new energy or create new mass, and the energy and mass in all chemical reactions are equal between reactants and products (reactants = products). Matter and energy change form in chemical reactions, but they are neither created nor destroyed in those reactions. In terms of our management of resources, especially those that are nonrenewable, it implies that efficient and sustainable use of energy and materials is extremely important since their abundance is limited.

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

You might also like to view...

Explain why as incomes rise we draw more from nature's ecological credit card, and what the suspected consequences are

What will be an ideal response

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

The star nearest the Earth is

A) the Sun. B) Alpha Centauri. C) Polaris. D) the Moon.

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

Erosional remnants of rock that lie at some distance from the shore are:

a. wave-cut cliffs b. wave-cut platforms c. spits d. stacks

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

The driving force for mass wasting is gravity.

Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences