Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Source: Wikimedia Creative Commons, author: Loren Cobb. Data source: US Geological Survey Data Series 140
extraction and utilization, and outlines some of the
environmental consequences associated with the
exploitation of key resources.
we will see how Malthusian notions of absolute
environmental limits can blind us to the complex
processes by which resources are distributed and
used.
This chapter begins with a brief analysis of
current trends within human resource extraction
and use. The chapter then moves on to explore
theories of human-resource relations. Particular
emphasis is placed in this section on the ways in
which a geographical perspective can enable us to
develop a better understanding of the nature of
resource use and shortage. The
final section
of this
chapter explores a specific geographical case study
of environmental resource management: the issue
of water supply in the Nile Basin.
2.2.1 Mineral fuels
Mineral fuels are an area of resource use that has
seen particularly pronounced increases during
the Anthropocene. Mineral fuels include coal,
peat, dry natural gas, natural gas liquids, petroleum
and uranium. Mineral fuels such as these have
provided the energy on which the Anthropocene
has been based. These are the fuels that are used
to power factories, heat homes, generate electricity
and power the motor vehicles that we drive.
Historically, coal and peat were the most signifi-
cant fuels in the early stages of the Anthropocene.
Coal has been used intermittently over significant
stretches of human history, but it was not until the
thirteenth century
AD
onwards we see it becoming
a significant domestic energy source and basis for
industrial energy production. Coal gradually
replaced wood and charcoal as the main source
of human energy and provided the basis for
the industrial revolution in the eighteenth and
RESOURCE USE
In order to begin our analysis of resource use in
the Anthropocene, this section sets out current
patterns of human resource extraction and use.
Analysis outlines the major resource groups
that humans use, considers the geographical
variations that exist in their relative levels of
