Resources can be understood as all valuable substances in nature and human society, including natural resources and social resources. Natural resources exist on the earth's surface and inside, including constant energy sources such as sunlight, wind energy and tides that directly supply or affect some resources on the earth. Social resources in a broad sense include human resources, technology, management, information and other resources, which are important resources that are easily overlooked.
China is famous for its vast territory and large population, but it should be analyzed in detail. As far as land area is concerned, China is 9.6 million square kilometers, ranking behind Russian and Canadian, which can be described as "huge". The total amount of natural resources is also in a similar position, which can be described as one of the resource-rich countries. More specifically, the cultivated land area is 96.85 million hectares, ranking fourth; The available grassland area is 224.67 million hectares, ranking third; Forest area115.33 million hectares, ranking seventh; The proven and retained reserves of iron ore are 49.6 billion tons, ranking third; Phosphate rock reserves133.5 billion tons, ranking second and among the best in the world. Other resources, such as fresh water, oil, natural gas, copper and other important resources for industrial and agricultural production, rank lower and the total amount is still considerable. Generally speaking, China is a country with rich natural resources and complete varieties. Among 160 kinds of mineral resources, there are more than 150 kinds of basically proven reserves in China. The whole country spans all climatic zones in tropical, subtropical, temperate and cold zones from south to north, from below sea level to the highest peak in the world at an altitude of 8848 meters, and has the conditions to basically establish an independent economic system by relying on its own resources. It can be said that there are not many countries in the world that have such conditions.
However, China's natural resources are also deficient, which is manifested in absolute shortage and relative shortage. First of all, the absolute supply of natural resources is insufficient, which is closely related to the large population. For example, the cultivated land area in China only accounts for 7% of the world, the per capita forest area only accounts for 16%, and the population accounts for 2 1% of the world. Secondly, there is a structural relative shortage, which can be divided into three situations: first, there is a structural shortage of overall resources, that is, some important resources in the overall resources are insufficient, such as oil, natural gas, copper and gold in important metal and nonmetal deposits. The second is the structural shortage of similar resources, that is, the quality structure of high quality and inferior quality in resources with strong substitution. For example, in fossil energy, the proportion of high-quality energy such as oil and natural gas is low, while the proportion of inferior energy such as coal is high, which is unfavorable for improving economic benefits and reducing environmental pollution. Third, the structural shortage of development conditions and costs, that is, the difficulty of resource development and utilization and the structural problems of mining and utilization costs. For example, the grassland area ranks third in the world, but it is mostly distributed in arid, semi-arid and alpine regions. The quality of forage grass is not high, and the stocking rate per unit area is low; Another example is that some mineral resources are buried deeply or mixed, which increases the difficulty of mining and smelting and requires high technology and cost.
Whether it is the absolute shortage of natural resources or the structural relative shortage, the contradiction of per capita possession is very prominent. At present, China's per capita forest area is less than 1/6 of the world average, water resources are insufficient 1/3, and grassland is insufficient 1/2, so the population is under great pressure on resources. This pressure comes not only from the low level of per capita possession, but also from the "weighted effect" of population growth on resource consumption in development. As we all know, production makes consumption possible, and consumption further promotes production. From a certain point of view, human society evolved and developed in the movement of unity of production and consumption, which led to the continuous expansion of production and the continuous improvement of consumption level. With the development of social productivity and the improvement of labor productivity, consumption materials have made a new leap in variety, quantity and quality, which makes population growth as the "denominator weighting effect" of shared resource consumption very prominent. For example, from 1960 to 1985, the world population increased from 3 billion to 4.8 billion, an increase of 60%; In the same period, the world energy consumption increased by 1.30%, which was more than twice the population growth, because the per capita energy consumption increased by 45% in the same period. China is a country with a low consumption level, but it is one of the countries with the fastest increase in consumption level in recent 20 years. The increase of net income of urban and rural residents leads to consumption growth, population urbanization promotes consumption growth, and the change of consumption mode of urban and rural residents to modern consumption mode promotes consumption growth. The cohesion formed by the interaction of the three promotes consumption, making the growth of resource consumption much faster than that of population, and population growth shows a strong denominator "weight effect" on resource consumption. The government of China has solemnly announced the development goal of "three steps", and this "weight effect" will be more obvious in 2 1 century. In other words, in the future development, the scarcity of resources will be highlighted.
The per capita water resources in China are less than 1/3 of the world average. The picture shows an advertisement for cherishing water.
Facing the increasing contradiction between population growth and resource scarcity in China in the future, in order to seek the sustainable development of population and resources, besides vigorously controlling population growth, we must first fully understand the scarcity of resources and establish the concept of resource scarcity. Non-renewable resources can not be recycled after utilization, showing an absolute decreasing trend, and some resources have shown us a "yellow card warning"; If the renewable resources such as cultivated land, forest and pasture cannot meet the needs of population growth, including the "weighting effect", the severity of the shortage will increase. Second, vigorously promote the strategy of resource conservation. Including the rational development and utilization of natural resources, improve the utilization rate of resources, and not waste resources; Realize the transformation of economic growth from extensive to intensive, and strive to save resources. Thirdly, the establishment of the corresponding management mechanism is conducive to the rational development, utilization and conservation of resources, and the waste of resources will be punished; Clarify resource property rights and implement effective supervision. The Outline of the Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of People's Republic of China (PRC) approved by the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress clearly puts forward the policy of "saving and protecting resources and realizing sustainable utilization" and puts forward specific targets for important resources. For example, in 2005, the effective utilization coefficient of irrigation water reached 0.45, the reuse rate of industrial water reached 60%, and the national water supply capacity increased by 40 billion cubic meters during the tenth five-year plan period; Adhere to the basic national policy of protecting cultivated land, increase the consolidation and reclamation of urban and rural and industrial and mining land, and adjust the land use structure; Strengthen forest fire prevention, pest control and logging management, improve the forestry administrative law enforcement management system and facilities, strengthen grassland protection, prohibit indiscriminate mining and reclamation, and strictly implement the grassland system; Strengthen the legal management of mineral resources, strengthen the industrialization of waste materials recycling, and promote the transformation into usable resources. These clear regulations and requirements will help to realize the sustainable development of resources.
The pressure of overpopulation on traffic.