Resources and sustainability

Question 1

What are natural resources used for?

Answer 1

to provide energy for things like heating or travelling,as well as for building materials and food.

Question 2

what have natural resources been replaced by?

Answer 2

synthetic alternatives(plastic) or enhanced by agricultre.

Question 3

what is natural resource a form of?

Answer 3

without human input

Question 4

what do natural resources include?

Answer 4

anything that comes form the earth,sea or air

Question 5

can you give examples of natural resources?

Answer 5

wind is used to generate electricity by wind turbines and metals are mined from the ground can be used to make metallic objects.

Question 6

can you give an example of synthetic product that has replaced a natural resource?

Answer 6

rubber is extracted from the sap of a tree,however man-made polymers have now been made which can replace rubber in uses such as tryes.

Question 7

what does agricultre provide and can you give an example?

Answer 7

conditions where natural resources ca be enhanced for our needs.For example,the development of fertilisers has meant we can produce a high yield of corps.

Question 8

what is a renewable resource?

Answer 8

can be re-used at a similar rate to,or faster than,we use them.

Question 9

what is a finite resource?

Answer 9

can’t be formed quickly enough to be considered replaceable.

Question 10

can you give examples of renewable energy resources?

Answer 10

timber is renewable resource as trees can be planted following a harvest and only take a few years to regrow.
(vegetable crops and sustainable caught fish)

Question 11

can you give examples of finite resources?

Answer 11

fossil fuels and nuclear fuels such as uranium and plutonium. Also metal and minerals found in ores.

Question 12

what is sustainable development?

Answer 12

an approach to development that takes account of the needs of present society while not damaging the lives of future generations.

Question 13

how can chemistry improve sustainability?

Answer 13

chemists can develop and adapt processes in industry and agriculture so that we use lower amounts of finite resources and reduce damage to the environment.

Question 14

can you give an example what chemists have done to improve sustainability?

Answer 14

chemists have developed catalysts that reduce the amount of energy required for certain industrial processes.

Question 15

what are the environmental impacts and processing these resources caused by finite resources?

Answer 15

As finite resources are running out,it’s unsustainable to keep using them.
Extracting metals:can be unsustainable due to the amount of energy used and waste produced.
Processing(glass/bricks):the process often involves energy that is made from finite resources .

Question 16

how can the sustainability of finite resource be improved?

Answer 16

people to use less.RECYCLING:uses far less energy than is required to extract finite resources and helps to stop the raw materials from being used up.REUSING:an object saves more energy as no processing is required.

Question 17

what are scientists developing to prevent the shortage of the supply of copper-rich ores?

Answer 17

new ways of extracting copper from low grade ores or from the waste that’s produced when copper is extracted .

Question 18

can you give examples of methods used to extract copper from low-grade ores?

Answer 18

bioleaching and phytominig(which are expensive)

Question 19

what does bioleaching use and what does it convert?

Answer 19

bacteria,which convert copper compounds in the ore into soluble copper compounds,separating out the copper from the ore in the process.

Question 20

what is the solution produced by bioleaching?

Answer 20

the leachate,which contains copper ions(which can be extracted),for example by electrolysis or displacement with a more reactive metal.

Question 21

what does phytomining involve?

Answer 21

growing plants in soil that contains copper.

Question 22

what can the plants be in phytominig and what does the ash contain?

Answer 22

be harvested,dried and burned in a furnace.

ASH:contains copper compounds from which copper can be extracted by electrolysis or displacement using scrap iron.

Question 23

what are the cons of bioleaching and phytomining?

Answer 23

traditional methods of copper mining are pretty damaging to the environment.
They are slow,for example in phytominig it takes a long time for plants to grow and take up copper.

Question 24

what are the pros of bioleaching and phytomining?

Answer 24

They are cheap and have a much smaller environmental impact,for example they require less energy which is good for the environment because energy often contributes to climate change and other environmental problems.
The low grade ores used don’t need to be mined in the same ways as high grade ores,which protect habitats.

Question 25

how does bioleaching and phytomining benefit the habitat?

Answer 25

the amounts of the earth don’t need to be dug up,shifted,disposed of in order to obtain the ores.