Vocabulary – Chapter 7
Resources and the Environment
Conservation – The protection, restoration , and management of natural resources.
Environment – All of the resources, influences, and conditions at or near Earth’s surface.
Fossil fuel – A nonrenewable fuel that formed from the remains of organisms that lived long
ago; coal, petroleum, and natural gas.
Nonrenewable resource – A resource that exists in a fixed amount or is used up faster than it
can be replaced in nature.
Ore mineral – The valuable mineral, a metallic element, that can be separated from the rock in
which it is found.
Recycle – To collect and reuse materials from waste.
Renewable resource – A resource that can be replaced in nature at a rate close to its rate of
use.
Reserve – The known deposits of a mineral in ores that are worth mining at the present time.