Natural Resources in a Planetary Perspective
Natural Resources in a Planetary Perspective
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地球视角下的自然资源
DOI：
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发表时间：
2014
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
K. Ragnarsdóttir
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
H. Sverdrup;K. Ragnarsdóttir
人类在下个世纪面临的最大挑战之一是为文明提供足够的资源。从将元素聚集到矿体中的过程，到开发用于寻找元素的勘探技术，地球化学发挥着核心作用。地球化学对于赢得资源并重新分配资源的过程也很重要，但同时也会带来环境污染的风险和对人类健康的威胁。作为地球化学家，退一步，从全球的角度看待资源的大图景，考虑它们在历史上的位置，思考它们的重要性，是很有用的。我们文明的未来取决于它们的明智使用，而地球化学处于核心地位--确保充足的供应，并将毒害我们自己的风险降至最低。这一视角总结了许多自然资源目前和未来的可获得性。但主要的关注点是最重要的金属和磷。这些金属被归类为六大金属(铁、铬、锰、铝、铜和锌)，对贵金属(金、银和铂族金属)和其他金属的讨论较短。这些其他金属是钢铁(Nb、钒、镍、钼)、技术(钽、锆英石、铟、镓、锗)、可再生能源工业(Eu、Tb、Nd、Li)和化学工业(铂族金属、钴和稀土元素)新技术开发所需的金属。
所有这些资源的一个发人深省的共同方面是，现有数据表明，它们的产量要么已经见顶，要么将在未来50年内见顶。纵观历史，世界各国经济的主要部分都直接或间接地受到自然资源的获取和利用的推动，现在仍然如此。我们的主要发现是，世界正在走向对当今人类使用的关键资源的限制，这些限制将对世界经济和子孙后代的生活方式产生深远影响。挑战是接受这种知识，并在我们仍有时间和可能性的情况下为未来找到必要的解决方案和适应措施。历史将会评判我们对当前资源挑战的反应有多好。
One of humankind’s biggest challenges over the next century is to provide adequate resources for civilisation. Geochemistry plays a central role, from the processes that accumulate elements into ore bodies, to developing exploration techniques that are used to find them. Geochemistry is also important for the processes that win the resources and redistribute them with the accompanying risks of environmental contamination and threats for human health. As geochemists, it is useful to take a step back and look at the big picture of resources from a global perspective, to consider their place in history and to contemplate their importance. The future of our civilisation depends on their wise use and geochemistry lies at the centre – for ensuring adequate supplies and for minimising the risk of poisoning ourselves. This Perspective summarises the current and future availability of many natural resources. But the main focus is on the most important metals and on phosphorus. The metals are grouped into the big six (iron, chromium, manganese, aluminium, copper and zinc), with some shorter discussion of precious (gold, silver and platinum group metals) and other metals. These other metals are those needed for steel (niobium, vanadium, nickel, molybdenum), for technology (tantalum, zircon, indium, gallium, germanium), for new technological developments in the renewable energy industry (europium, terbium, neodynium, lithium), and the chemical industry (platinum group metals, cobalt and rare earth elements).
The sobering common aspect for all of these resources is, that available data suggests that their production has either peaked already or will peak within the next 50 years. Throughout history, the major part of the economy of the world’s nations has been driven directly or indirectly by access to and use of natural resources, and this still remains so. Our main findings are that the world is heading towards a restricted access to the key resources that are used by humanity today and these restrictions will have a profound impact on the world economies and life styles of future generations. The challenge is to accept this knowledge, and to find the necessary solutions and adaptions for the future while we still have time and possibility to so. History will judge how well we responded to current resource challenges.