Question

Overexploitation of natural resources causes ______.

Answer 1

Humans are dependent on natural resources for their various activities. With an increase in population size, there is also an increased burden on these resources to fulfill the ever-increasing demands of humans.

Complete answer:
A resource is anything that is useful for mankind. Natural resources are those useful substances that are obtained from the earth. Their origin and existence in first place in the environment is independent of human actions. Examples of natural resources include sunlight, water, fossil fuels, forests, etc. These natural resources are used by humans in various sectors such as energy sources, food, clothing, etc. Lately, the overexploitation of natural resources has led to their depletion.

Additional Information: Natural resources are of two types based on whether they can be replenished or not. These are renewable and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources can replenish themselves naturally. These include sunlight, wind, water, etc. Human consumption does not reduce its quantity. But some renewable resources like water, due to its over usage have led to the problems of shortage in various parts of the world.
Non-renewable natural resources are the ones that take millions of years for its formation and thus once used, takes another million years for its replenishment. Thus their rate of consumption far exceeds their rate of recovery. Fossil fuels like coal and petroleum are one of the main examples of non-renewable resources.
The depletion of natural resources has urged the government to take some crucial steps against their overexploitation and misuse. Like excessive deforestation has caused an imbalance in ecosystems with loss of habitat and fragmentation.

Note:
- An ecosystem can be defined as a functional unit of nature, where interaction between living organisms takes place among themselves and also with the surrounding physical environment.
- Every ecosystem has nonliving or abiotic like temperature and living or biotic components like plants.