LSPB 6: Natural Resources and its Threats

Our environment provides us with necessary goods to fulfil our needs. These natural resources
include air, water, minerals, soil, climate and solar. These resources are then being categorized
into biotic, which is the living parts of nature, and abiotic, which is the non-living parts of
nature. The interactions between living organisms and its abiotic is called ecosystems.
Ecosystems act as resource producers and processors. As a producer, ecosystems have both
renewable and nonrenewable resources.

Natural resources can be divided into several categories,

- Natures goods: extractable resources (such as: fossil fuel, biological supplies, and
metallic ores).
- Natures service: provided in the matter of the well-being of the environment (such as:
soils for production, hydrology cycle, purification of air, carbon cycle, and ozone
shield).
- Natural amenities: non-essential (such as: recreation, and aesthetic aspect).

Relating on to the Article CL-2, Indonesia is known as the largest archipelago country that
stretches on top of the equator between Asia and Australia. It has a marvelous biodiversity and
theoretically this country sits on top of two giant tectonic plates. This makes Indonesia has a
high potential in renewable and nonrenewable resources. Unfortunately, these natural resources
have been heavily exploited by irresponsible individuals.

Though, throughout history, humans have manipulated natural resources to produce the
materials they thought they needed to sustain growing human populations. This refers primarily
to food production, however, many other entities of natural resources have been extracted.
Often the exploitation of natural resources has been done in non-sustainable way, which is
causing increasing concerns, as the exploitation of natural resources in non-sustainable way
threatens the human existence.

For years, Indonesia has been producing crude oil, coal, natural gas and other raw materials.
This country is well-supplied with medium and low-quality coal. In addition to that, oil is a
major sector in the Indonesian economy. There are considerable amounts of oil in Sumatra,
Java, Borneo, and Papua. As astounding as it sounds, the production of coal and oil puts high
risks of environmental degradation. Moreover, many forests in Indonesia have been deforested,
as timber is still the second most important resources as well as it is one of the exported goods.
The deforestation, or environmental degradation, would eventually result in the more terrible
disasters and conflicts. Mining industries in Indonesia have become more aggressive in taking
the land and mining it. It may be categorized as overexploitation, since the act of restoring the
damages they have made is contradictory to the act of damaging.

At this current state, Indonesia is now focusing on the development of the economic. Money
becomes the dominant subject of interest. Every individual (in this case, company) are trying
to get as many profit as possible, and some of them might considering the negative effect of it.
Some of them also try to restore or even minimize the damage. However, in real life, local
people are left to manage the environmental damages done to their communities, without
gaining a single benefit. In the long run, sustainability of the economic benefits becomes a
concern.

Other reasons as to why natural resources are under pressure,

- The refinement of technology causing natural resources to be extracted quickly and
efficiently.
- A rapid increase in population, causing the increase of natural resources necessity.
- Cultures of consumerisms, leads to excessive amount of natural resources being
extracted, though consume only several percent of it.
- Excessive demand, could lead to conflicts due to intense competition.

If overexploitations were to keep happening, several consequences could arise from the
careless and overconsumption, as listed below,
- Deforestation
- Desertification
- Extinction of species
- Soil erosion
- Oil depletion
- Increase in greenhouse gas
- Pollution
- Natural disaster
In every problem, there will always be a solution. These are the solutions that we thought will
minimize or even solve the problem,
- Ramping up corporate investment into resource and development, recycling, and
resource substitution.
- Supporting the pro-environmental NGOs.
- Increasing efficiency.
- Limiting waste material and energy at production level.
- Using the least amount of non-renewable energy.