Why is natural resources important to us

Timber Forests are a treasured and unique resource endowment. The United States has over million acres roughly three million square kilometers of forest lands — around two-thirds of which is timberland. Agriculture The nation's land area comprises nearly 2. Resource are known as capital converted to commodity inputs to infrastructural capital processes. An example is papers, our used papers will reuse by recycling it and turn it into a new paper product.

Resources are important for the development of any country. For example, to generate energy, one need fossil fuels; and for industrial development, we require mineral resources. This allowed the United States to develop peacefully without the need to incur large war costs. Unlike Australia and Canada, the United States had temperate climates combined with fertile soil.

The early settlers found rich soil on the Great Plains. The Plains was a huge basin sculpted out by glaciers during the Great Ice Age. As a result, mountain streams from the Rockies deposited layers of sediment. These streams then cut through the sediment to create plateaus. These large flat areas were untouched by erosion. That created thick sod and productive agriculture. But the Great Plains is semi-arid. On average, it receives less than 24 inches of rainfall a year.

The Plains became the breadbasket of the world only after irrigation was put into place. The water came from streams fed by the Rockies. Water cools electricity-generating equipment, but it is returned. Families, businesses, and industries use the rest. It fueled steamships and steam-powered railroads. After the Civil War, coke, a derivative of coal, was used to fuel the iron blast furnaces that made steel.

Soon after that, coal ran the electricity-generating plants. Unlike Canada's shale oil , the United States had huge reserves of oil that were easily accessible. That made ships faster, extended their range, and allowed easier refueling. Oil was also easily available on the West Coast, allowing the Navy to extend its reach across the Pacific.

Oil made possible many innovations, including cars, trucks, tanks, submarines, and airplanes. Scientists made trinitrotoluene, known as TNT, out of toluene, which they extracted from oil. After the war, oil supplied the power for the internal combustion engine. It also powered the machinery and petrochemicals needed to boost agricultural production. The number of cars registered increased from 3.

That allowed America to move away from public transit. By , oil accounted for almost one-fifth of U. That grew to one-third by World War II. Other countries only used oil as secondary fuel. When the giant East Texas oil field was discovered in , overproduction became the main issue facing the oil industry. By , those reserves weren't as cheap. Saudi Arabia and other producers in the Middle East supplied oil more cheaply than U.

In , oil prices were high enough to fund low-cost exploration of U. America has They helped create an innovative culture, especially in technology. As a result, Silicon Valley is the world's leading tech center. Courage and flexibility spurred early immigrants to continue taking risks once they became citizens. This cultural diversity is a strength in groups if people remember their common goals.

When managed well, diversity brings fresh perspectives based on different experiences. But it takes the willingness to be open-minded and nonjudgmental about the value brought by those differences.

President John F. Kennedy was the grandson of Irish immigrants. Kennedy summed it up well when he called America, "a society of immigrants, each of whom had begun life anew, on an equal footing. This is the secret of America: a nation of people with the fresh memory of old traditions who dare to explore new frontiers The United States is blessed with an affluence of both renewable and non-renewable natural resources. It has a large land mass unencumbered by enemy borders, abundant deposits of fossil fuel, and thousands of miles of coastline.