The Environment and Natural Resources: Social Construction, Classification, and Conservation
The Concept of Environment as a Social Construction
The environment is considered a social construction because, since the emergence of the first human societies, nature has been continuously modified to facilitate various human activities. This process became notably intensive during the Neolithic period, approximately years ago, when humans developed agriculture and began the domestication of animals. From that point onward, societies have extracted everything necessary for their survival from the natural world, such as converting vast prairies into specialized cultivation zones or distilling crude petroleum to produce combustible fuels. Furthermore, humans modify natural conditions to adapt locations to their specific interests, such as filling floodable areas to expand urban centers or constructing complex networks of roads and bridges for transport. In arid or semi-arid regions, societies go beyond simply using river water by building reservoirs to ensure availability during periods of scarcity. While these actions vary across time and geography due to social, economic, political, and cultural factors, the consistent result is the construction of an environment. Thus, environments are the product of the valuation that societies place on the natural conditions of a location over time to satisfy their needs.
The conceptualization of the environment began to evolve significantly in the century across various scientific disciplines. Initially, the field of Ecology defined the environment simply as everything that surrounds a living being. However, this definition varies between disciplines and even within specific approaches of the same field. Social sciences, including Geography, Anthropology, and History, have been responsible for consolidating the definition of the environment as a socionatural environment. This is viewed as an integrated system resulting from the interrelation of natural elements and buildings constructed by society, within which human beings develop their activities. Examples of human modification range from the megalithic monument of Stonehenge in England, which shows landscape transformation at the end of the Neolithic period, to modern cities like Hong Kong, which represent the highest degree of transformation through massive infrastructure on islands. Even in areas with low transformation, such as deserts, human constructions like roads alter the original patterns of the landscape.
The Definition and Valuation of Natural Resources
Natural elements in the environment are not automatically considered natural resources; an element only becomes a resource when society values it because it satisfies a specific social need. Common social needs that drive this valuation include the requirements for clothing, housing, food, and energy. Certain elements, such as water, solar energy, air, and soils, have consistently been considered resources throughout history because human life would be impossible without them. Other elements only transition into resources at specific historical moments depending on the socioeconomic and technological conditions of the population. Consequently, resources from the past may lose their value in the present, while elements ignored in the past may become highly valued currently or in the future. For instance, mineral coal became a fundamental energy source in the century during the Industrial Revolution when it replaced vegetable charcoal. By the mid- century, petroleum largely replaced mineral coal, though the latter remains a valued resource today.
Societies utilize natural resources in two primary ways: directly or indirectly. Direct use involves obtaining goods that are consumed without significant transformation, such as the sea providing food through fishing. Indirect use occurs when natural resources represent raw materials that are transformed into other products, such as bauxite being used in the metallurgical industry to produce aluminum. Resources are also heavily used for energy production. The most common energy resources include wood, vegetable charcoal, mineral coal, hydrocarbons, and the water from rivers. Other natural energy sources include wind for eolian energy, the sea for maritime energy, the sun for solar energy, and the internal heat of the Earth for geothermal energy. Beyond these uses, elements are valued for the conditions they present for settlement and economic activity, such as soil types and climate for agriculture, or for their aesthetic and recreational appeal, such as mountains, forests, waterfalls, streams, and beaches.
Classification of Natural Resources: Renewability and Sustainability
The most common classification of natural resources is based on their capacity for natural renewal or replenishment, dividing them into renewable and non-renewable categories. Renewable resources are those that replenish naturally, including solar energy, forests, animals, soil, and water. However, this classification can be misleading because some renewable resources, such as forests, are exhaustible if they are exploited at a rate faster than their natural renewal speed. Other renewable resources possess such a constant rate of renewal that they are considered inexhaustible, such as the force of the wind used for wind energy. Non-renewable resources are those formed and regenerated over geological timescales, such as years, encompassing most minerals and fossil fuels.
Non-renewable resources are further subdivided into exhaustible and potentially inexhaustible. Exhaustible non-renewables, or non-renewable resources in the strict sense, are elements consumed or destroyed by their use, such as fossil fuels, which will eventually disappear. Within this group are resources that can be reused or recycled, such as metallic minerals like aluminum, although they will still eventually reach depletion. In contrast, some non-renewable resources are potentially inexhaustible, such as non-metallic minerals like salt. It is also noted that certain resource extraction activities, such as coal mining, often occur under conditions that are poorly suited for the workers involved.
Case Study: Construction of the Environment in the Colca Valley
The Colca Valley in the western province of Cayllona, Arequipa, Peru, serves as a definitive example of a constructed environment. This Andean valley extends approximately and is characterized by high mountains and a deep canyon carved by the Colca River. Despite harsh natural conditions like steep slopes, brief and scarce precipitation seasons, and frequent frosts, the local economy is based on agriculture, specifically in the middle and lower zones between and above sea level. To make the land cultivable, inhabitants build terraces—steps on the mountain slopes supported by stones and filled with fertile soil. They also developed irrigation infrastructure including reservoirs and a network of canals that transport snowmelt or stream water to the terraces. These constructions began with the Collaguas and Cabanas people between the years and AD. During the Inca period, these works were expanded and improved, but development halted under Spanish rule starting in as the colonizers prioritized indigenous labor for mining, leading to the deterioration and abandonment of the agricultural systems.
The agricultural engineering of the Colca Valley provides several advantages, including erosion control and soil moisture retention. It also allows farmers to exploit various microclimates at different altitudes; for example, maize thrives below , while white potatoes develop better above . The irrigation infrastructure is essential because the depth of the Colca River canyon makes direct use of its water extremely difficult for irrigation. This complex system of social modification transform an otherwise difficult landscape into a productive agricultural environment.
Petroleum as a Strategic and Industrial Resource
Petroleum had limited use in antiquity for construction, medicine, and crafts due to its lack of surface availability. It was not until the end of the century that it became a prominent energy resource with the exploitation of oil fields. The proliferation of automobiles in the following decades spiked demand, as did its use in ships, industrial furnaces, domestic heating, locomotives, and electricity production. Since the s, global industrialization further increased demand, leading to petroleum replacing mineral coal as the primary energy source for humanity. Currently, petroleum supplies approximately of global energy needs and serves as the vital raw material for the petrochemical industry, which produces fertilizers, asphalts, detergents, plastics, and waxes.
Petroleum is classified as a strategic resource. Strategic resources are non-renewable elements essential for the development of technology, the advancement of productive activities, or those whose use allows an entity to exert influence over the global system or specific territories. A primary reason for its strategic status is that roughly of the world's transport is powered by fuels derived from petroleum, making global movement and trade heavily dependent on this single resource.
Soil Composition, Classification, and the Concept of Soil Virtualization
Soil is defined as the superficial layer of the Earth's crust where life develops, acting as the foundation for species essential to social sustenance. Soil is a dynamic product of environmental interactions, including changes in climate, geological processes, and social transformations. It consists of minerals, organic material, water, and air, forming through the disintegration of rocks. Fertile soil is biologically dense; one hectare of such land can contain over small invertebrates like insects and earthworms, while a single handful may contain bacteria and hundreds of thousands of yeast and fungi cells. Microorganisms and organic matter release nutrients and bind mineral particles, a process facilitated by the production of humus, which provides fertility and prevents erosion.
Soils are classified by their physical properties into four main types. Sandy soils have large, loose grains where water infiltrates rapidly, leaving few nutrients for plants. Silty soils have intermediate grain sizes but are heavy and nutrient-poor. Clayey soils consist of very small particles that do not drain easily, making them heavy; though fertile, they harden into tough blocks when dry, making cultivation difficult. Loamy (franco) soils are a balanced mixture of sand, silt, and clay; they are fertile, maintain moisture well despite quick drainage, and are easy to cultivate. In the current global economy, the overexploitation of soil to meet the demand for food and raw materials has led to the concept of "virtual soil." This refers to the hidden export of soil nutrients when agricultural products like grains, meat, or wood are sold to other countries. This permanent extraction of nutrients can lead to a loss of fertility, eventually making the soil unproductive.
Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation
Biodiversity refers to the variety of animal and plant species present in an environment. It is highest in warm, humid climates found in tropical forests and jungles where high temperatures and significant rainfall support a vast range of species. Throughout Earth's history, species have gone extinct naturally through the cycle of life or due to climatic shifts. However, contemporary extinctions are often driven by social interference, such as the transformation of natural habitats, the introduction of exotic species, or the direct killing of the last specimens of a species. Such actions generate ecological imbalances. Conserving biodiversity is critical not only for maintaining the ecological balance of the planet but also for economic reasons. Many industries, especially the pharmaceutical sector, rely on biodiversity as a raw material, extracting essential components for medicines from the unique species found in tropical environments.