ENV100Y5 Lecture : ENV100 Minerals & Water (Week 13 & 14)
69
ENV100Y5 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
69 documents
Document Summary
Replenishable in principle but requires long time (groundwater & soil); susceptible to mismanagement. Critical flow resources: rate of withdrawal>rate of replenishment. Earth resources extracted from the solid earth, non-renewable on a humanly accessible scale. Living resources are living, growing, regenerating populations (fish & trees); renewable in theory. Critical flow resources (effectively non-renewable because of mismanagement) Live in closed system but earth resources very large. Static lifetime: lifetime expectancy of a resource at current rates of production and use. Difficult to calculate (lying, the enormous size of resources and large scale operations) Mineral: naturally occurring solid chemical element or inorganic compound with a crystal structure, a specific chemical composition, and distinct physical properties (i. e. tantalite with elements: oxygen, iron, manganese, tantalum) Mining: systemic removal of rock, regolith, or other materials for purpose of extracting minerals for economic. Grade: level of concentration of ore in a deposit. New extraction technologies reach more minerals at less expense.
