Chapter 5 

 ENERGY, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND ENVIRONMENT 



INTRODUCTION 



The same processes that provided humankind with 

 valuable biological, mineral, water, and energy 

 resources distributed these riches very unevenly around 

 the planet, and human activity is altering these 

 imbalances still further- Limited petroleum and other 

 natural resources worldwide have underlined our mutual 

 interdependence. Further, high population growth rates 

 in some developing countries are exerting heavy demands 

 on already insufficient resources, thus exacerbating 

 the situation. There is an analogous interdependence 

 for access to technology and other fruits of human 

 inventiveness, although every nation recognizes that 

 for both resources and technology a significant degree 

 of self-reliance is essential to its national interest. 



In this situation, developing countries — and the 

 world at large — cannot afford to neglect important 

 resources that remain undeveloped or underutilized. 

 More than 70 percent of the world 1 s timber is in the 

 tropics. Recent discoveries of petroleum in Africa, 

 Latin America, and Asia illustrate the energy potential 

 of the developing countries and, as exploration 

 techniques improve, more and more major ore deposits 

 are being found in the tropics. Fuller utilization of 

 natural resources, including increased domestic 

 processing, can contribute fundamentally to 

 strengthening the economies of developing countries. 

 Jobs, productivity, foreign exchange earnings and 

 savings, capital accumulation, and national and 

 individual incomes are all affected in major ways. 



Before World War II, the world's environment was 

 not severely affected by human activities. However, as 

 with petroleum and mineral resources, assaults on the 

 planet's air and water resources and associated climate 

 have become a matter of concern for all peoples. The 



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