Global commodity problem
Raw materials - Material intended for further industrial processing.
The essence of the global commodity problem lies in the increasing difficulties in the supply of raw materials, which previously arose at the national or regional levels, and now began to be found at the global level. This is evidenced by the global raw material crisis of the 1970s, which had a negative impact on all raw materials industries, and on the entire world economy. Similar "failures" happened later, which testifies to the well-known cyclical development, which is associated with either an increase or decrease in demand for various kinds of raw materials.
Causes of the global commodity problem
The main reason the emergence of a global commodity problem should be considered constant growth volumes of mineral raw materials extracted from the bowels of the Earth, especially accelerated in the second half of the XX century. Suffice it to cite data that only in 1960-1980. 50% of copper and zinc, 55% of iron ore, 60% of diamonds, 65% of nickel, potassium salts and phosphorites and about 80% of bauxite from the total volume of their production since the beginning of the century were extracted.
As a result, the depletion of many basins and deposits began, the depletion of many used ores accelerated, and the amount of waste rock extracted from the bowels increased. This process affected different types mining and metallurgical, mining and chemical and other types of raw materials.
Simultaneously with the growth of production, in many cases, the mining and geological conditions of occurrence and extraction of minerals began to deteriorate. And the desire to somehow compensate for such a deterioration by developing rich deposits in new resource regions, in turn, led to a noticeable increase in the territorial gap between the centers of production and consumption, which means an inevitable increase in transportation costs.
We now turn to the characteristic ways to solve the global raw material problem.
First, the further continuation of geological prospecting and geological exploration work in order to increase the proven reserves of mineral raw materials. Special mention should be made of the prospects opening up in connection with the exploration and subsequent development of minerals on the shelf, continental slope and deep-sea bottom of the World Ocean.
Secondly, more complete and, most importantly, comprehensive use of mineral resources extracted from the Earth's interior.
Third, a more consistent and vigorous implementation of the policy of resource conservation and reduction of the total material consumption of production processes.
Fourth, the wider use of secondary raw materials, which in many developed countries has already become an important component of rational environmental management.
Fifth, the replacement of a part of natural raw materials and materials obtained on its basis with more economical artificial materials, which include plastics, ceramics, fiberglass and other types of mineral raw materials that have already found widespread use.
For Russia, as a country with a huge natural resource potential, at first glance, the raw material problem should not be relevant. In general, it was so while the country's economy was developing mainly along an extensive path.
But in recent times its resource-based economy began to experience all kinds of crisis phenomena more and more often. Depletion of deposits is taking place, the cost of extracting raw materials is growing (it is no coincidence that N.N. Moiseev characterized Russian resources as the most expensive in the world), the present and predicted resource availability is decreasing.
Therefore, for Russia it is not just important, but a transition to resource conservation and more efficient development of the raw materials sectors of the economy.
These are, first of all, the problems of reliable provision of mankind with fuel and raw materials. And it happened before that the problem of resource provision acquired a certain acuteness. But usually this applied to individual regions and countries with an “incomplete” composition of natural resources. On a global scale, it first appeared, perhaps, in the 70s, which is explained by several reasons.
Among them are the relative limitedness of proven reserves of oil, natural gas and some other types of fuel and raw materials, deterioration of mining and geological conditions of production, an increase in the territorial gap between the regions of production and consumption, the advancement of production to areas of new development with extreme natural conditions, the negative impact of industry on extraction and processing of mineral raw materials for ecological reasons, etc.
Consequently, in our era, more than ever before, it is necessary to rationalize the use of mineral resources, which, as you know, are depleted and not renewable. Huge opportunities for this are opened by the achievements of scientific and technological revolution, and at all stages of the technological chain. So, essential has a more complete extraction of minerals from the bowels of the Earth.
Example. At existing ways oil extraction coefficient of its extraction fluctuates in the range of 0.25-0.45, which is clearly insufficient and means that most of its geological reserves remain in the bowels of the earth. An increase in the oil recovery factor even by 1% gives a great economic effect.
Raw material problem - global problem providing mankind with raw materials.
The problem is caused by the following factors:
Depletion of mined deposits of coal, oil, iron and other ores;
Limited explored reserves of oil and natural gas;
Discovery and extraction of minerals in worse than previous conditions;
An increase in the territorial gap between the regions of production and consumption of minerals, etc.
The solution to the raw material problem lies in resource conservation and in the search for new technologies that would allow the use of previously inaccessible sources of raw materials and energy.
In order to consider the raw material problem and ways to solve it by developed and developing countries, it is necessary to clearly define which countries modern economy refers to developed and which to developing. It is also necessary to bring the concept of a raw material problem. Developed countries are those that ensure the development of the economy on the basis of a large accumulated amount of technically advanced capital and the availability of a highly qualified labor force. These include the United States, Canada, Japan, most European countries.
Developing countries are countries that, having significant natural resources are suffering from a lack of capital and the entrepreneurial and technical expertise required to absorb them. Average income per capita and the standard of living in such countries, therefore, is significantly lower than in industrial developed countries... Often referred to as the "third world", these countries receive support from various UN organizations, as well as countries belonging to the Eastern and Western blocs, with both blocs trying to influence them. political development.
Developing countries, in which 70% of the world's population currently live, are characterized by significant poverty of residents, insufficient and poor quality of nutrition, the prevalence of various diseases, high birth rates, overpopulation, underdevelopment of the education system and, consequently, low level literacy and dominance Agriculture... Many of them depend on the production and export of one product and therefore are highly vulnerable in foreign markets. The "third world" includes most of the countries in Africa, most of Asia and many countries in Latin America.
Energy problem. This global problem is associated with the limited availability of the most important organic and mineral raw materials planets. Scientists warn about the possible depletion of known and available for use reserves of oil and gas, iron and copper ore, nickel, manganese, aluminum, etc.
Output: To solve the energy and raw materials problem, efforts of all countries are required in saving raw materials and energy, using new resource-saving technologies, using secondary resources, searching for new deposits and developing unconventional energy sources.
Ways to solve the raw material and energy problem:
Decrease in volumes;
Usage;
Alternative;
Sources of energy;
Solution Ways;
Increase in efficiency;
Extraction and production.
Reducing production volumes is very problematic because the modern world needs more and more raw materials and energy, and their reduction will certainly turn into a global crisis. Increase in efficiency, incl. unpromising because for its implementation, large investments are required, and raw materials are not unlimited. Therefore, priority is given to alternative energy sources.
Modern industry, especially its branches such as chemical synthesis, smelting of light metals, is characterized by an increased demand for energy, water and raw materials. To smelt 1 ton of aluminum, it is necessary to spend tens of times more water than to produce 1 ton of steel, and to obtain 1 ton of artificial fiber, it is necessary to use hundreds of times more water than to produce the same amount of cotton fabric. Oil and gas have become the main sources of energy and at the same time important raw materials for the chemical industry. These circumstances explain the ever-increasing exploitation of oil and gas fields. The production of each new synthetic product entails "chain reactions" in technology - for example, a large amount of chlorine is required for the synthesis of plastics, the production of chlorine involves the use of mercury as a catalyst, and all together - huge expenditures of energy, water and oxygen. Almost all chemical elements that exist on Earth are involved in modern industry.
The question arose before mankind: how long will the necessary natural resources be enough for it? Gone are the days when it seemed that the Earth's resources were inexhaustible. The very division of natural resources into inexhaustible and exhaustible is becoming more and more conventional. More and more types of resources are moving from the first category to the second.Now we are already thinking about the possibility of depleting atmospheric oxygen reserves, and in the future, the same question may even arise about the resources of solar energy, although its flow still seems to us practically inexhaustible.
There are different forecasts regarding the future of our natural resources. Of course, they should be considered very indicative. When developing such forecasts, one must proceed, on the one hand, from an assessment of the prospects for population growth and production and, accordingly, the needs of society, and, on the other, from the availability of reserves of each resource. However, roll over modern trend population growth and production far into the future would be risky. Thus, it must be assumed that as living standards rise in developing countries, which account for the bulk of population growth, overall growth should slow down. In addition, scientific and technological progress will undoubtedly continue in the direction of searching for more economical, resource-saving technologies, which will gradually reduce the need for many natural sources of production.
At the same time, it is necessary to take into account that the current world average rates of consumption of natural resources cannot be considered optimal, since in developing countries they are much lower than in economically developed countries. In the “third world”, the average consumption of food in terms of calorie content is 1.5 times lower than in developed countries, and in terms of the content of animal proteins, even 5 times lower. For the average world energy consumption to reach the current US energy consumption by the year 2000, it must increase 100 times!
Based on the foregoing, one should expect, at least in the coming decades, a further increase in demand for a wide variety of natural resources. When assessing their reserves, it is important to distinguish between two large groups of resources - non-renewable and renewable. The first ones are practically not replenished, and their number steadily decreases with use. This includes mineral resources as well as land resources limited by the size of the earth's surface area. Renewable resources are either capable of self-healing (biological), or are continuously supplied to the Earth from the outside ( solar energy), or, being in a continuous cycle, can be reused (water). Of course, renewable resources, like non-renewable ones, are not infinite, but their renewable part (annual income or growth) can be constantly used.
If we turn to the main types of the world's natural resources, then in the most general form we get the following picture. The main type of energy resources is still mineral fuel - oil, gas, coal. These energy sources are non-renewable, and at the current rate of growth of their production, they may be exhausted in 80-140 years. True, the share of these sources should be reduced due to the development of atomic energy based on the use of "heavy" nuclear fuel - fissile isotopes of uranium and thorium. But even these resources are non-renewable: according to some sources, uranium will last only for several decades.
The importance of natural resources for the life of society cannot in any way diminish for the simple reason that they remain the only source of material production. Moreover, the less production is associated with local resources, the more its dependence on remote sources increases and the wider the range of such sources, many of which acquire not only national but also global significance. Let us recall the role of oil and gas fields in the Tyumen North in the economy of our country or the oil of the Persian Gulf in the world economy. We add that there are such industries National economy, and above all rural, which generally cannot "emancipate" from the local natural environment and will always be tied to it.
All types of natural resources - thermal, water, mineral, biological, soil - are associated with certain components of the natural complex (geosystem) and constitute a consumable part of these components. The ability to be consumed is a specific property of natural resources that distinguishes them from natural conditions. The latter include permanent properties of natural complexes that are not used to obtain a useful product, but which have a significant positive or negative effect on the development and location of production (for example, temperature and water regime, winds, relief, bearing capacity of soils, permafrost, seismicity).
It is important to distinguish between renewable and non-renewable resources. Some resources are renewed due to their constant influx from Space (solar energy), others - due to the continuous circulation of matter in the geographic shell (fresh water), and finally, still others - due to the ability to self-reproduction (biological resources). Non-renewable resources include mineral resources.
The resources of the earth's interior are considered non-renewable. Strictly speaking, many of them can be renewed in the course of geological cycles, but the duration of these cycles, determined by hundreds of millions of years, is incommensurate with the stages of development of society and the rate of consumption of mineral resources.
The planet's nonrenewable resources can be divided into two large groups:
More than a hundred non-combustible materials are currently being mined from the earth's crust. Minerals are formed and modified as a result of the processes that occur during the formation of earth's rocks over many millions of years. The use of a mineral resource includes several stages. The first of these is the discovery of a sufficiently rich deposit. Then - the extraction of the mineral by organizing some form of its extraction. The third stage is processing the ore to remove impurities and converting it into the desired chemical form. The latter is the use of the mineral for the production of various products.
The development of mineral deposits, the deposits of which are located close to the earth's surface, are carried out by surface mining, arranging open pits, open pit mining by creating horizontal strips, or mining using dredging equipment. When minerals are located far underground, they are extracted by underground mining.
Extraction, processing and use of any non-combustible mineral resource causes disturbance of the soil cover and erosion, pollutes air and water. Underground mining is more dangerous and costly than surface mining, but it disturbs the soil cover to a much lesser extent. In underground mining, water pollution can occur due to mine acid drainage. In most cases, the areas where the extraction is carried out can be restored, but this is an expensive process. Mining and wasteful use of products made from fossil fuels and wood also generate large amounts of solid waste.
Estimating the amount of a useful mineral resource actually available in terms of extraction is a very expensive and complicated process. And besides, it cannot be determined with great precision. Mineral Resource Reserves are categorized into Indicated Resources and Undiscovered Resources. In turn, each of these categories is divided into reserves, that is, those minerals that can be extracted with profit at existing prices with the existing mining technology, and resources - all discovered and undetected resources, including those that cannot be extracted with profit at current prices and existing technology. Most of the published estimates of specific non-renewable resources relate to reserves.
When 80% of the reserves or estimated resource of a material has been recovered and used, the resource is considered depleted, as the remaining 20% is usually not profitable to recover. The amount of the extracted resource and thus the time of depletion can be increased by increasing the estimated reserves, if high prices force them to search for new deposits, develop new production technologies, increase the share of recycling and reuse, or reduce the level of resource consumption. Some economically depleted resources manage to find a replacement.
To increase stocks, advocates of protection the environment propose to increase the share of recycling and reuse of non-renewable mineral resources and reduce unnecessary losses of such resources. Recycling, reuse and waste reduction require less energy for their implementation and less damage to soil and pollute water and air than the use of primary resources.
Environmentalists are urging industrialized countries to move from disposable, high waste to low waste. This will require, in addition to recycling and reuse, also the attraction of economic incentives, certain actions of governments and people, as well as changes in the behavior and lifestyle of the world's population.
The main factors that determine the degree of use of any energy source are its estimated reserves, net yield of useful energy, cost, potential hazardous impacts on environmental harm, as well as social consequences and the impact on the security of the state. Each energy source has advantages and disadvantages.
Conventional crude oil can be easily transported, is relatively cheap and widely used as a fuel, and has a high net energy yield. but available stocks oil can be depleted in 40-80 years; when oil is burned, a large amount of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere, which can lead to global climate change on the planet.
Unconventional heavy oil, the remainder of conventional oil, as well as from oil shale and sand, can increase oil reserves. But it is expensive, has a low net energy yield, requires a lot of water to process, and has a more harmful effect on the environment than conventional oil.
Conventional natural gas generates more heat and burns more completely than other fossil fuels, is a versatile and relatively cheap fuel, and has a high net energy yield. But its reserves can be exhausted in 40-100 years, and when it is burned, carbon dioxide is formed.
Coal is the world's most abundant fossil fuel. It has a high net yield of useful energy in electricity generation and high-temperature heat generation for industrial processes, and is relatively inexpensive. But coal is extremely dirty, its mining is dangerous and harmful to the environment, as well as burning, if there are no expensive special devices for monitoring the level of air pollution; emits more carbon dioxide per unit of energy received than other fossil fuels, and it is inconvenient to use it for traffic and heating houses, unless it is first converted into gaseous or liquid form. Significant disturbance of the soil cover during extraction.
The heat hidden in the earth's crust, or geothermal energy, is converted into non-renewable underground deposits of dry steam, steam and hot water in various places on the planet. If these deposits are located close enough to the earth's surface, the heat obtained during their development can be used for heating premises and generating electricity. They can provide energy for 100-200 years to the regions located near the fields, and at a reasonable price. They have an average net energy output and do not emit carbon dioxide. Although this type of energy source also brings a lot of inconvenience to mining and considerable environmental pollution.
The nuclear fission reaction is also a source of energy, and a very promising one. The main advantages of this energy source are that nuclear reactors do not emit carbon dioxide and other substances harmful to the environment, and the degree of water and soil pollution is within acceptable limits, provided that the entire nuclear fuel cycle is running normally. The disadvantages include the fact that the cost of equipment for servicing this energy source is very high; conventional nuclear power plants can only be used to generate electricity; there is a risk of a major accident; net useful energy output is low; no storage facilities for radioactive waste have been developed. Due to the above disadvantages, this energy source is currently not widely used. Therefore, an ecologically clean future belongs to alternative energy sources.
Both types of these resources are equally important to us, but the division was introduced because these two large groups of resources are very different from each other.
Renewable resources deserve special attention... The whole mechanism of their renewal is, in essence, a manifestation of the functioning of geosystems due to the absorption and transformation of the radiant energy of the Sun - this is the primary source of all renewable resources. Therefore, in their location, they are subject to universal geographic laws - zoning, sectoral, high-rise tier. Hence it follows that the study of the formation and distribution of renewable resources is directly related to the field of physical geography. Renewable resources should be considered as resources of the future: unlike non-renewable ones, they are not doomed to complete extinction with rational use, and their reproduction can be controlled to a certain extent (for example, by means of reclamation of forests, it is possible to increase their productivity and wood yield).
It should be noted that anthropogenic interference in the biological cycle strongly undermines the natural process of renewal of biological resources (and derivatives from them). Therefore, as a result of economic activity, real biological resources are usually lower than potential ones. Thus, forests on Earth have been destroyed over vast areas, and in the preserved forests the annual growth of timber is often 3 to 4 times less than in undisturbed stands; irrational use of natural pastures leads to a decrease in their productivity. The resources of free oxygen in the atmosphere are also derived from the biological cycle. Their replenishment in the process of photosynthesis is steadily decreasing, and the man-made consumption (mainly when burning fossil fuel) increases.
Consider renewable resources:
It is renewed mainly in the process of plant photosynthesis; Under natural conditions, the balance of oxygen is maintained by its consumption for the processes of respiration, decay, and the formation of carbonates. Already now, mankind uses about 10% (and according to some estimates - even more) of the incoming part of the oxygen balance in the atmosphere. True, the practically loss of atmospheric oxygen has not yet been felt even with precise instruments. But under the condition of an annual 5% increase in oxygen consumption for industrial and energy needs, its content in the atmosphere will decrease, according to F.F.Davitaia's calculations, by 2/3, i.e., it will become critical for human life in 180 years, and with an annual growth of 10% - in 100 years.
Fresh water on Earth is renewed annually in the form of atmospheric precipitation, the volume of which is 520 thousand km 3. However, in practice, in water management calculations and forecasts, one should proceed only from that part of precipitation that flows down the earth's surface, forming watercourses. This will amount to 37 - 38 thousand km 3. Currently, 3.6 thousand km 3 of runoff is diverted for household needs in the world, but in fact more is used, since here it is necessary to add that part of the runoff that is spent on diluting the polluted waters; in total, this will amount to 8.2 thousand km 3, that is, more than 1/5 of the world river flow. According to M. I. Lvovich, by 2000 the world demand for water will exceed the annual volume of runoff, if the principles of water use do not change. If the discharge of wastewater is completely stopped, then the annual water consumption will be about 7 thousand km 3, but this water will not return to the rivers, i.e. in production). Additional reserves of water resources - desalination of sea water, the use of icebergs.
Large quantities of fresh water are contaminated by human activities. Let's consider this using the example of Moscow:
Moscow is the first largest and most important city in Russia, and because of its size, a huge number of industrial enterprises... The volume of industrial effluents defies any description. Thermal pollution plays an important role along with industrial effluents. The rise in groundwater temperature affects the surrounding nature. Below the city, the Moskva River almost never freezes; it has turned into a huge drainage ditch for human life. The sources of water supply for Moscow are the Moscow River and its tributaries, as well as groundwater, such as those that form in the basin of the river. Moscow due to surface runoff, and the waters of deep horizons, not associated with surface runoff.
Groundwater reserves in the Moscow region are insufficient for stable provision of the city's household and drinking needs, and therefore surface sources are used.
Within the city, the water fund is represented by the river. Moscow and more than 70 small rivers and streams with a total length of 165.0 km. A completely open channel has been preserved along seven rivers: Yauza, Setun, Skhodnya, Ramenki, Ochakovka, Ichki and Chechera. The rest of the rivers are partially or completely enclosed in collector systems and serve to divert surface runoff. In addition to polluted surface runoff, the quality of rivers is negatively affected by the discharge of insufficiently treated wastewater from industrial enterprises and city aeration stations.
Below the confluence of the Moscow-Volga canal into the r. Moscow, the flow rate of the river is as follows: 5 cubic meters. m / s - flow rate of the river. Moscow below the Rublevsky water intake; - 30-35 cubic meters m / s - design water flow rate from the Moscow-Volga canal; 10 cubic meters m / s - surface runoff (from the tributaries of the Moskva river within the city limits); 66 cc m / s waste water from the city sewerage discharged into the river. Moscow; 5 cubic meters m / s - wastewater from industrial enterprises entering the river in addition to citywide sewage networks.
River basin Moscow within the city of Moscow is under the influence industrial complex, which has a significant impact on the change in the chemical composition of water as p. Moscow and its tributaries. In the capital, there are about 30 enterprises (not counting the CHP and aeration stations), supplying from 41 thousand to 39850 thousand cubic meters. m / year of wastewater in the river. Skhodnya, Setun, Yauza, Pekhorka, Moscow, etc. In general, the r. Moscow within the city of Moscow receives up to 1,767,540 thousand cubic meters. m / year of industrial and domestic wastewater from leading industries based in the region.
Surface runoff from the territory of the city is formed due to melted snow and rainwater, as well as irrigation and washing waters. In the districts of Moscow, the value of the runoff modulus varies within 5.64 (Zheleznodorozhny district) - 15.0 l / s sq. Km (Sverdlovsk region). The average flow module for the city of Moscow is 9 l / s sq. km. In general, there is an increase in the flow modulus from the outskirts of the city to the center. Surface runoff from the city is not cleared of pollution and directly enters water bodies, carrying with them a large amount of organic, suspended solids, oil products. In general, in Moscow during the year with surface runoff, 3840 tons of oil products, 452080 tons of suspended solids, 173280 tons of chlorides, 18460 tons of organic matter (in terms of BOD) are received. As a result, oil products enter the water bodies of the city with surface runoff 1.8 times, and suspended solids almost 24 times more than with waste water from enterprises. Most of the pollution: oil products - 63%, suspended solids - 75%, organic matter - 64%, chlorides - 95%, enters the river. Moscow with surface runoff in winter and spring.
The hydrogeological situation in Moscow has developed under the influence of prolonged and unacceptably intensive water withdrawal from artesian aquifers of the Carboniferous, and, on the other hand, is characterized by the development of processes of flooding by groundwater and backwater from hydraulic structures. The increasing difference in the heads of artesian and groundwater contributes to the flow of contaminated ground and surface waters down to the drinking horizons of the Carboniferous. These processes are most pronounced where there is no Upper Jurassic clay dividing stratum lying between ground and artesian waters.
The main sources of groundwater pollution in Moscow are as follows: leaks from sewers, seepage of contaminated atmospheric precipitation through contaminated soils, filled up and built-up landfills, leaks and filtration from treatment facilities, technological communications and from sewage and unanalyzed industrial sites.
Historically, a strong custom has developed to locate landfills in spent quarries and ravines, that is, as close as possible to groundwater; to locate factories, treatment facilities, filtration fields, warehouses - in river valleys, i.e. where natural protection of groundwater is often lacking.
Ground waters are the most polluted on the territory of Moscow. Their pollution is mainly associated with the extremely widespread distribution of liquid municipal waste, as well as gaseous waste from vehicles, industrial enterprises, thermal power plants, etc. Pollutants are represented by chlorides, sulfates, organic substances, nitrogenous compounds and heavy metals.
Groundwater with this type of pollution is mainly fresh, mixed, due to contamination of the composition. The change in the degree of their pollution obeys spatial patterns: the concentrations of pollutant components increase in the direction of water movement from the elevated areas of the relief - the central parts of interfluvial spaces to the lower ones - river valleys, lakes, pits, reservoirs. In this case, the concentration gradient increases from tens to the first hundreds of milligrams per liter. At the same time, the total mineralization of groundwater also increases.
They are made up of plant and animal mass, the one-time supply of which on Earth is measured in the order of 2.4 10 12 tons (in terms of dry matter). The annual increase in biomass in the world (i.e. biological productivity) is approximately 2.3 10 11 tons. The bulk of the Earth's biomass (about 4/5) falls on forest vegetation, which gives more than 1/3 of the total annual increase in living matter ... Human activities have led to a significant reduction in the total biomass and biological productivity of the Earth. True, by replacing part of the former forest areas with arable lands and pastures, people received a gain in the qualitative composition of biological products and were able to provide food, as well as important technical raw materials (fiber, leather, etc.) to the growing population of the Earth.
Food resources make up no more than 1% of the total biological productivity of land and ocean and no more than 20% of all agricultural products. Taking into account population growth and the need to provide adequate nutrition to the entire population of the Earth by 2000, the production of crop products should be increased at least 2 times, and livestock products - 3 times. This means that the production of primary (plant) biological products, including feed for animals must be increased by at least 3-4 times. Calculations for the expansion of cultivated land are unlikely to have serious grounds, since the reserves of suitable areas for this are extremely limited. Obviously, a way out should be sought in the intensification of agriculture, including the development of irrigated agriculture, mechanization, breeding, etc., as well as in the rational use of the biological resources of the Ocean. The necessary conditions and resources are available, but the calculations of some authors on the possibility of feeding tens and hundreds of billions and even several trillions of people on Earth cannot be regarded as anything other than utopian.
Among other biological resources, wood is of the greatest importance. Now on the exploited forest areas, which make up 1/3 of the entire forest land area, the annual timber harvest (2.2 billion m 3) is approaching the annual growth. Meanwhile, the demand for timber will grow. Further exploitation of forests should be carried out only within the framework of their renewable part, without affecting the "fixed capital", ie, the area of forests should not decrease, felling should be accompanied by reforestation. In addition, it is necessary to increase the productivity of forests through land reclamation, to use wood raw materials more rationally and, as far as possible, to replace it with other materials.
Finally, a few words must be said about land, or, more precisely, territorial resources. The earth's surface area is finite and non-renewable. Almost all favorable land for development is already being used in one way or another. Remained mostly undeveloped areas, the development of which requires large expenditures and technical means (deserts, swamps, etc.) or practically unusable (glaciers, high mountains, polar deserts). Meanwhile, with the growth of the population and further scientific and technological progress, more and more areas will be required for the construction of cities, power plants, airfields, reservoirs, the need for agricultural and recreational land is growing, many areas must be preserved as reserves, etc. More and more land is "eaten up" communications and large engineering structures. In Russia, only under construction sites for power plants in 1975-2000 it took up to 25 thousand km 2 of the area, if we focus on the station of average power. An area exceeding the water area of the Caspian Sea is already occupied under artificial reservoirs on Earth, and the size of this area tends to grow further. It should be taken into account that, in addition to direct land loss due to flooding, the creation of reservoirs often also leads to indirect losses of land resources, more precisely, to a deterioration in their quality in areas adjacent to reservoirs due to flooding (and, as a result, waterlogging or salinization) ... Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers on Earth are under dumps, waste heaps, worked-out peat bogs, dumps.
Prospects for solving the problems associated with the exhaustion of land resources should hardly be reduced to fantastic projects of human settlement in high towers, on floating platforms, at the bottom of the Ocean and in the depths of the earth's crust. Some authors justify the inevitability of such decisions by extrapolating the current rate of population growth to an indefinitely distant future. With such a hypothetical situation, in 700 years, every inhabitant of our planet would have only 1 m2 of area. However, there is no basis for such extrapolations.
The realistic way, first of all, presupposes the restructuring of the existing land use on a scientific basis, that is, the rational organization of the territory. The optimal social function must be determined for each site. Of course, the rational organization of the territory presupposes both the reclamation of lands disturbed by previous economic use, and the intensification of agriculture, and a thoughtful approach to the creation of reservoirs, and much more.
V modern world there are a lot of problems associated with the extraction of raw materials. Both economic and technical. The most urgent one is ignorance of real data, about how many resources are left. Let's consider it in two examples.
The proven oil reserves in the world are estimated at 140 billion tons, and the annual production is about 3.5 billion tons.However, it is hardly worth predicting the onset of a global crisis in 40 years due to the depletion of oil in the bowels of the Earth, because economic statistics operates with numbers of proven reserves. that is, reserves that are fully explored, described and quantified. And this is not all the reserves of the planet. Even within the boundaries of many explored fields, unaccounted or not fully accounted oil-bearing sectors remain, and how many fields are still waiting for their discoverers.
Over the past two decades, mankind has dredged more than 60 billion tons of oil from the bowels. Do you think proved reserves were reduced by the same amount? Not at all. If in 1977 the reserves were estimated at 90 billion tons, then in 1987 they were already at 120 billion, and by 1997 they had increased by another twenty billion. The situation is paradoxical: the more you extract, the more remains. Meanwhile, this geological paradox does not at all seem an economic paradox. After all, the higher the demand for oil, the more it is produced, the more capital is poured into the industry, the more active is the exploration for oil, the more more people, technology, brain is involved in exploration and the faster new deposits are discovered and described. In addition, the improvement of oil production technology makes it possible to include in the reserves that oil, the presence (and quantity) of which was previously known, but which could not be obtained at the technical level of previous years. Of course, this does not mean that oil reserves are unlimited, but it is obvious that humanity has more than one fortieth anniversary to improve energy-saving technologies and introduce alternative energy sources into circulation.
The most striking feature of the location of oil reserves is their superconcentration in one relatively small region - the Persian Gulf basin. Here, in the Arab monarchies of Iran and Iraq, almost 2/3 of the proven reserves are concentrated, and most of them (more than 2/5 of the world reserves) are in three Arabian countries with a small indigenous population - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Even taking into account the huge number of foreign workers who flooded these countries in the second half of the 20th century, there are just over 20 million people here. - about 0.3% of the world population.
Among the countries with very large reserves (more than 10 billion tons each, or more than 6% of the world) are Iraq, Iran and Venezuela. These countries have long had a significant population and, more or less developed economy, and Iraq and Iran are the oldest centers of world civilization. Therefore, the high concentration of oil reserves in them does not seem so blatantly unfair as in the three Arabian monarchies, where yesterday's illiterate and semi-savage nomadic pastoralists bathe in oil and petrodollars.
Russia with its seven billion tons - even though the largest country in the world - lags far behind the six "great oil powers." We are not that much ahead of Mexico and Libya. There is little consolation in the fact that the United States and China have even smaller reserves. However, there is a special conversation about US reserves. Many analysts believe that this country deliberately underestimates its oil reserves in order, if possible, to preserve its oil in the bowels "for a rainy day" and, at the same time, having arrived in this way, to assert its presence in the Middle East, citing "vital interests ".
In all major regions of the world, except overseas Europe and the territory of the USSR, the ratio of oil reserves as of 1997 to the reserves of 1977 is more than 100%. Even North America, despite "conservation" in the United States, has significantly increased total proved reserves thanks to intensive exploration in Mexico.
In Europe, the depletion of reserves is associated with the region's relatively low natural oil content and very intensive production in recent decades: by forcing production, the countries of Western Europe are trying to destroy the monopoly of Middle Eastern exporters. However, the North Sea shelf - Europe's main oil barrel - is not infinitely oil-rich.
As for a noticeable decrease in proven reserves on the territory of the USSR, this is due not so much to the physical depletion of the subsoil, as in Western Europe, and not so much with the desire to hold on to its oil, as in the United States, as with the crisis in the domestic exploration industry. The pace of exploration for new reserves lags behind the pace of other countries.
There is no unified system for accounting for coal reserves and its classification. Reserve estimates are reviewed by both individual experts and specialized organizations. At the XI session of the World Energy Conference (MIREK) in 1980, reliable reserves of all types of coal were determined at 1320 billion tons, and at the next session, and in 1983 - at 1520 billion tons, including stone ("bituminous"), including anthracite -920 billion tons, brown ("sub-bituminous" and pygnites) - 600 billion tons billion tons).
The largest reliable reserves outside the territory of the former Soviet Union are in the United States (a quarter of the world's reserves), China (1/6), Poland / South Africa and Australia (5-9% of world reserves each), more than 9/10 the use of currently existing technologies (estimated as a whole around the world about 515 billion tons), according to MIREC of 1983, is concentrated in the USA (1/4), on the territory of the former USSR (more than 1/5), China (about 1/5 ), South Africa (more than 1/10), Germany, Great Britain, Australia and Poland. Among other industrially developed countries, Canada and Japan have significant reserves of coal, India and Indonesia from developing countries in Asia, Botswana, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique in Africa, Colombia and Venezuela in Latin America.
The most economical development of coal deposits is open-pit mining. In Canada, Mozambique and Venezuela, up to 4/5 of all reserves can be developed in this way, in India - 2/3, in Australia - about 1/3, in the USA - more than 1/5, in China - 1/10. These reserves are used more intensively, and the share of opencast coal is, for example, more than 1/2 in Australia and more than 3/5 in the USA.
The qualitative composition of coals is of great importance, in particular, the proportion of coking coals.
The largest share in the total coal reserves in Australia (about 3/4), Germany (3/5); in China and the USA it is more than 1/3, in India - almost 1/3, in Poland - 1/5, in Great Britain - 1/10. As a rule, the share of coking coals in production is higher than their share in reserves. In connection with the aggravation of environmental problems in many countries and the deterioration of environmental legislation, its high sulfur content is considered as a serious shortage of coal. Coal mining in the world is carried out at the level of about 3.5 billion tons per year, brown - about 1 billion tons per year.
The largest amount of bituminous coal is mined in China (over 1 billion tons per year), in the USA (over 850 million tons with a total coal production of about 1 billion tons), in India (over 250 million tons), in South Africa (200 million tons), in Russia (200 million tons), in Australia (about 200 million tons) and in Poland (140-150 million tons per year). In the 50-80s. in a number of industrially developed countries of Europe (in particular, in Germany, France, Great Britain), in Japan, in a number of regions of the USA, where mining conditions are unfavorable and where a significant part of the mined coals have a high sulfur content, the coal industry has experienced acute crisis... The decline in coal production, especially in the main traditional mining areas, has had far-reaching social consequences; these areas (for example, the Ruhr in the Federal Republic of Germany, the North of France, the Appalachians in the USA) became areas of chronic economic depression and mass unemployment, which stimulated the intensification of the restructuring of their economies and significantly influenced their specialization. The coal industry in Australia, South Africa and Canada, where there was an increase in coal production with a focus mainly on export, was distinguished by other development trends. The share of these three countries in the world coal production, which was in the early 60s. several percent, already in the mid-1980s exceeded 1/10, and in world exports it reached 2/5, with Australia overtaking the United States as the largest exporter of coal.
The growth in production in Australia is largely due to strong demand for coal from Japan. The export orientation of the Australian coal industry is also favored by the fact that large deposits of coal suitable for opencast mining are located close to the coast. In many respects, Japan's demand explains the development of coal mining in the western provinces of Canada, where Japanese capital actively participated in the development of deposits and the creation of the corresponding infrastructure. The rapid development of the coal industry in South Africa, which has come out on top in coal mining among countries with market economy, due to the presence of large reserves of coal (mainly energy), the lack of its own reserves of oil and natural gas, very cheap labor and the creation of a powerful infrastructure counting on large coal exports (a special coal port Richards Bay and a main railway to the port from the area coal mines in the Transvaal). In all these countries, the export of hard coal is unusually high (from 1/4 in South Africa to more than 4/5 in Canada); in this respect, Colombia, which entered the 1980s, is similar to them. among significant producers (about 20 million tons per year) and exporters of coal.
About 11% of the total world coal production is exported (i.e., more than 400 million tons per year at the beginning of the 90s), of which more than 4/5 is shipped by sea. In the 70s. 2/3 of exports fell on coking coals, but due to the crisis in ferrous metallurgy and a reduction in the specific consumption of coke in blast furnace production, as well as an increase in demand for thermal coals from the thermal power industry, the demand for energy grades of coal began to grow faster. By the beginning of the 90s. The export of thermal and coking coal has approximately equalized, and the transportation of thermal coal by sea in 1990 for the first time turned out to be greater than that of coking coal. In the same year, the European Economic Community overtook Japan in coal imports.
The main directions of coal export: from Australia and Canada - to Japan, from the USA and South Africa - to Western Europe... Germany, more recently - in the 70-80s. - formerly a major net exporter of coking coal and the world's largest exporter of coke, has become a net importer of coal with steadily declining capacity and coal production. The export of coal from Great Britain, a country that at the beginning of the XX century. was the largest supplier of coal to the world market.
The overwhelming part of the proven reserves of brown coal and its production is concentrated in industrialized countries. The United States, Germany and Australia are distinguished by the size of the reserves, and the extraction and use of brown coal are of the greatest importance in the energy sector of Germany and Greece. Most of the brown coal (more than 4/5) is consumed at thermal power plants located near mines. The cheapness of this coal, which is mined almost exclusively by the open-cut method, ensures, despite its low calorific value, the production of cheap electricity, which attracts electric-intensive industries to the areas of large brown coal mines. The capital invested in the lignite industry has a large share of the funds of the electric power companies. Unlike the coal industry, the lignite sub-industry was practically not affected by the structural crisis.
As can be seen from all of the above, the problems associated with raw materials are very acute in our time. Resource reserves are depleted. These are mainly energy resources. As a consequence, it is necessary to pay attention to renewable energy sources. Among them, the greatest practical significance has "white coal" - the energy of water flows, but the full use of the world's hydropower resources could provide only half of today's electricity needs. The largest renewable energy source is the rays of the sun. In theory, it is possible to “capture” almost as much solar heat annually as is contained in all fossil fuels. However, in practice, this is impracticable due to the low flux density of the sun's rays: solar power plants require large areas. The situation is similar with the energy of tides, wind and internal heat. The use of these sources is effective only in certain favorable local conditions (on coasts with especially high tides, in areas with stable strong winds, in places where hot springs are accumulated, etc.). The greatest potential lies in the use of "light" nuclear fuel - hydrogen isotope deuterium (by fusing helium nuclei from it). Although this source is also essentially non-renewable, it is practically inexhaustible, since the full use of thermonuclear energy would exceed the effect of all other real energy resources by millions of times. The use of "light" nuclear fuel will become possible when ways of controlling the thermonuclear reaction are found.
There is also a danger of wasting non-energy resources: biological, mineral, fresh water, free oxygen. The way out of this problem can be the recycling of waste, the economical use of water, the transition to more durable and lightweight materials (carbon fiber reinforced plastics).
The main thing is that people know about this problem and try to solve it, and not sit idly by.
1. A.G. Isachenko, "Geography in the Modern World". / 1998
2. State report on the state of the environment in Moscow / 1992
3.G.V. Stadnitsky, A.I. Rodionov. "Ecology".
4. Newspaper "Geography". No. 3, No. 5, No. 6/1999
5. V. V. Plotnikov "Introduction to ecological chemistry", 1989.
Problems that do not concern any particular continent or state, but the entire planet, are called global. As civilization develops, it accumulates more and more of them. Today there are eight major problems. Consider the global problems of mankind and ways to solve them.
Ecological problem
Today, it is she who is considered the main one. For a long time, people used the resources given to them by nature irrationally, polluted the environment around them, poisoned the Earth with a variety of waste - from solid to radioactive. The result was not long in coming - according to the majority of competent researchers, environmental problems in the next hundred years will lead to irreversible consequences for the planet, and therefore for humanity.
There are already countries where this issue has reached a very high level, giving rise to the concept of a crisis ecological area. But the threat looms over the whole world: the ozone layer, which protects the planet from radiation, is being destroyed, the earth's climate is changing - and people are unable to control these changes.
Even the most developed country so that states unite to tackle important environmental challenges together. The main solution is considered to be the rational use of natural resources and the reorganization of everyday life and industrial production so that the ecosystem develops naturally.
Rice. 1. The threatening scale of the environmental problem.
Demographic problem
In the 20th century, when the world's population exceeded six billion, everyone heard about it. However, in the 21st century, the vector has shifted. In short, now the essence of the problem is this: the number of people is decreasing. A competent family planning policy and improving the living conditions of each individual will help to resolve this issue.
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Food problem
This problem is closely related to the demographic and consists in the fact that more than half of humanity is experiencing an acute shortage of food. To solve it, it is necessary to use the available resources more rationally for food production. Experts see two development paths - intensive, when the biological productivity of already existing fields and other lands increases, and extensive - when their number increases.
All global problems of mankind must be solved together, and this is no exception. The food issue arose due to the fact that most of the people live in areas unsuitable for this. Combining the efforts of scientists from different countries will significantly speed up the solution process.
Energy and raw materials problem
The uncontrolled use of raw materials has led to the depletion of mineral reserves that have been accumulating for hundreds of millions of years. Very soon, fuel and other resources may disappear altogether, therefore, scientific and technological progress is being introduced at all stages of production.
The problem of peace and disarmament
Some scientists believe that in the very near future it may happen that to look for possible ways there will be no solution to the global problems of mankind: people produce such a quantity of offensive weapons (including nuclear) that at some point they can destroy themselves. To prevent this from happening, world treaties are being developed on the reduction of armaments and the demilitarization of economies.
Human health problem
Humanity continues to suffer from fatal diseases. Scientific advances are great, but diseases that cannot be treated still exist. The only solution is to continue scientific research in search of drugs.
The problem of using the World Ocean
The depletion of land resources has led to an increase in interest in the World Ocean - all countries that have access to it use it not only as a biological resource. The mining and chemical sectors are actively developing. This gives rise to two problems at once: pollution and uneven development. But how are these issues resolved? At the moment, scientists from all over the world are engaged in them, who are developing the principles of rational oceanic nature management.
Rice. 2. An industrial station in the ocean.
The problem of space exploration
To master outer space, it is important to join forces on a global scale. The latest research is the result of the consolidation of the work of many countries. This is the basis for solving the problem.
Scientists have already developed a layout of the first station for settlers on the moon, and Elon Musk says that the day is not far off when people will go to explore Mars.
Rice. 3. Model of the lunar base.
What have we learned?
Humanity has many global problems that can ultimately lead to its death. These problems can be solved only if efforts are consolidated - otherwise the efforts of one or several countries will be reduced to zero. Thus, civilizational development and the solution of problems of a universal scale are possible only if the survival of a person as a species becomes higher than economic and state interests.
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Introduction
The end of the twentieth century. led to a broad rethinking of the ways of social development. The concept of economic growth, which approaches the analysis of material production from a purely economic point of view, was applicable as long as natural resources seemed inexhaustible due to the limited impact of human production activities. Currently, society comes to the understanding that economic activity is only part of human activity and economic development should be considered within the broader concept of social development.
Indeed, the problems of the natural environment and its reproduction are becoming more and more important.
The use of raw materials on our planet is growing at a significant rate. Irrational use of raw materials, uneven distribution of resources among different regions of the world, their production and consumption will continue to increase.
The concept and causes of the commodity problem
raw natural fuel fossil
The raw material problem is a global problem of providing mankind with raw materials. The problem is caused by the following factors:
- * depletion of the developed deposits of coal, oil, iron and other ores;
- * limited proven reserves of oil and natural gas;
- * the discovery and extraction of minerals in the worst in comparison with the previous conditions;
- * an increase in the territorial gap between the areas of production and consumption of minerals, etc.
The solution to the raw material problem lies in resource conservation and in the search for new technologies that would allow the use of previously inaccessible sources of raw materials and energy.
In order to consider the raw material problem and ways to solve it by developed and developing countries, it is necessary to clearly define which countries the modern economy classifies as developed and which countries are developing. It is also necessary to bring the concept of a raw material problem.
Developed countries are those that ensure the development of the economy on the basis of a large accumulated amount of technically advanced capital and the availability of a highly qualified labor force. These include the United States, Canada, Japan, most European countries.
Developing countries are countries that, with significant natural resources, lack the capital and entrepreneurial and technical expertise needed to develop them. Average per capita income and living standards in such countries are therefore significantly lower than in industrialized countries. Often referred to as the "third world", these countries receive support from various UN organizations, as well as from countries belonging to the Eastern and Western blocs, both of which are trying to influence their political development. Developing countries, in which 70% of the world's population currently live, are characterized by significant poverty, malnutrition and poor quality of nutrition, prevalence of various diseases, high birth rates, overcrowding, underdeveloped education systems and, consequently, low literacy and agricultural dominance. Many of them depend on the production and export of one product and therefore are highly vulnerable in foreign markets. The "third world" includes most of the countries in Africa, most of Asia and many countries in Latin America.
