What are natural resources?

• A. Products of natural ecosystems that we harvest to sustain and support life.
• B. Man-made materials fabricated for industry.
• C. A subset of renewable energy sources.
• D. Items bought and sold in markets only.

Answer: (A)

Natural resources are materials and substances that occur in nature and can be used by people. They come from natural ecosystems and are harvested or extracted to support life and daily activities, such as water for drinking and irrigation, forests for timber and habitat, minerals for metals, soils for agriculture, and air and biodiversity that maintain ecosystems. Some resources renew if managed wisely—like forests or solar energy—while others are nonrenewable, such as fossil fuels and many minerals, because they take a long time to form. The key idea is that these resources exist in nature, are not created by humans, and are used to meet our needs. The other statements describe human-made materials, or focus on a narrow subset, or on market transactions, rather than what naturally exists in the world.