Natural resources are materials from Earth that people use to meet needs, make products, and build economies. They include resources such as water, forests, fish, fertile soil, oil, coal, natural gas, and minerals. These resources are not spread evenly across the world, so different regions specialize in different products and jobs.
This uneven distribution helps explain why countries trade with one another and why transportation routes connect distant places.
Key Facts
- Renewable resources can be replaced naturally over time, such as sunlight, wind, forests, and fish, if they are managed carefully.
- Nonrenewable resources form very slowly and can run out, such as coal, oil, natural gas, copper, and iron ore.
- Exports are goods a country sells to other countries, while imports are goods a country buys from other countries.
- Trade balance = Exports - Imports.
- Resource distribution affects jobs, industries, transportation networks, and the wealth of regions and nations.
- Comparative advantage means a place can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another place, which encourages trade.
Vocabulary
- Natural resource
- A natural resource is a material or feature from Earth that people use, such as water, timber, oil, soil, or minerals.
- Renewable resource
- A renewable resource is a resource that can be replaced naturally in a short time if it is not used faster than it can recover.
- Nonrenewable resource
- A nonrenewable resource is a resource that takes millions of years to form and cannot be quickly replaced after people use it.
- Export
- An export is a good or service that a country sells to another country.
- Trade route
- A trade route is a path used to move goods between places by roads, railways, ships, pipelines, or airplanes.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming every country has the same resources is wrong because climate, geology, landforms, and location make resources unevenly distributed.
- Calling all natural resources renewable is wrong because fossil fuels and many minerals take millions of years to form and can be depleted.
- Thinking trade only benefits the country with more resources is wrong because countries can trade based on specialization, demand, technology, and transportation access.
- Ignoring transportation costs is wrong because distance, ports, railways, pipelines, and fuel prices can strongly affect whether trade is profitable.
Practice Questions
- 1 A country exports 72 billion in goods. Use Trade balance = Exports - Imports to find its trade balance. Is it a trade surplus or trade deficit?
- 2 A mining region produces 240,000 tons of iron ore. If 75 percent is exported, how many tons are exported and how many tons remain for domestic use?
- 3 Country A has large oil reserves but little farmland. Country B has fertile farmland but little oil. Explain how natural resource distribution could shape trade, jobs, and transportation links between the two countries.