2. Planet Earth is our only home for the time being. As global populations grow

Question

2. Planet Earth is our only home for the time being. As global
populations grow and our resources dwindle, we should
worry more about the issues of
c. Scarcity and Choice.
i. List the 5 most critical nonrenewable resources.
***do not use the following***:
(oil of any kind,
any kind of fossil fuel including coal, or natural
gas, shale oil, timber, gold, silver, copper, lead
or Uranium) please don’t use nuclear power
(it’s the output of a production process)
ii. Do some research on critical nonrenewable
resources and make your list. If you are having
trouble finding good ones, check out the rare
earth elements.
iii. For EACH of the 5, explain why it is so critical to
global economies,

Do not copy from google please

Explanation / Answer

List of 5 critical non renewable resources:

why they are so critical to global economies:-

Aluminium: Used by aircraft industries for construction of fuselage of the aircraft. It is used due to its light weight and is highly malleable. Aluminium is also used by industries to produce cans, aluminium foil wraps that are used to wrap food items, refrigerators, furniture etc. The metal is preferred as it has excellent corrosion resistance.

Silicon: This is another critical element used heavily by modern day industries. Silicon is used by the electronic industry to design computer chips, LCD TVs, semiconductors etc. It is also a key component in the manufacture of cement, which is critical for infrastructure development. It also has household uses in the form of water sealants and glass products.

Neodymium: This element has a wide range of uses. It is used to make magnets that are the most powerful ones. Neodymium magnets are used in making computer hard drives, microphones, headphones, electric motors and generators etc. It is also used in the making of high precision solid state lasers, which is used by many industries.

Ytterbium: Ytterbium is found in the US, China, India and Sri Lanka. It is used to generate radiation in X-ray machines. It is used in the making of atomic clocks, memory banks, lasers and is beginning to replace common catalysts used in industrial processes as it is relatively less polluting.

Europium: Usage of Europium began in 1960's when it was used to generate red color in color TV sets. Today it is still used for the same purpose along with many other uses such as in lasers( UV to red) and flourescent lamps. In the year 2015, it was discovered that the element could be used to design quantum memory chips, which could be used to store quantum data. This is critical as futuristic quantum computing could be developed on a production scale.

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