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Production and consumption of natural resources are a major business in the United States, as well as throughout the rest of the world. Cartography of Natural Resources play an important role in all of the many aspects of production, transportation, consumption, conservation, and business relations of these industries, as well as the mapping of environmental damages causes by consuming these natural resources. Cartography can be used to outline the different locations of major sources of natural resources located throughout the world. It can be used to assess environmental damages that have occurred due to oil drilling such as the recent spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, and it can be beneficial in assisting in planning the most efficient way to correct these damages. On a basic level even, maps are used by truck drivers to determine the best route to deliver to gas stations across America. Cartography can also help in determining ways to conserve these natural resources and to help find cleaner and more efficient sources of energy. The following paragraphs will outline just a few examples of how cartography can be applied to the many different aspects of natural resource usage.

Consumption
The United States has been importing oil and other natural resources since the 1970s. Home oil production simply cannot meet the rising demand in this country. The yearly average in 2009 was around 21 million barrels a day while home production is only around 5 million. What is the reason for the escalating need for oil in the United States? The answer to this question is not simple, but can be summed up in the concept of exponential growth. There have been miraculous advancements in human technology in the past two centuries: there have been a growing number of factories throughout the United States since the beginning of the Industrial Era, and the number of cars per household continues to increase, along with the many other types of machinery such as lawnmowers, boats, planes, and construction equipment that are used all over the country. These modern advancements have placed civilization in a situation where it has become increasingly dependent on oil, gas, and coal (Oil.com). One thing that sets oil apart from gas and coal is the immense variety of products that can be derived from it. Such products are gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, propane, kerosene, lubricants, asphalt, plastic, toys, candles clothing, cosmetics, perfume, bubble gum, and car tires just to name a few. The amount and size of oil reserves in the United States is enormous, and it is the third most producing country after Saudi Arabia and Russia (Oil.com).

Everyone has been undoubtedly affected by rising oil prices. Conventional drilling is, and has been, in decline for several years now (Minyanville.com). We make up for this by going to deepwater reserves and unconventional refining onshore, and as the U.S. population grows exponentially, so does the global population. A big factor in the rising price of oil is the geopolitical risk in the Middle East (Minyanville.com). It is in the area of escalating use and the increasing risk of conflict in the Middle East that cartography can play a vital role; both in the education of the general public and in curbing wasteful trends in natural resource use. Choropleth maps, for example, are an invaluable tool for showing these negative trends. With these maps, it is possible to depict usage in terms of how it relates to population density. This medium is much more valuable than simple text alone. It is possible to interpret a simple choropleth map and, in just a few minutes, glean some relevant information. This same information might be much more difficult to ascertain from a wordy article in a periodical. Cartography can be used to show geographically where and how oil is produced, consumed, and traded throughout the world, while also including information on the quantity of oil that is used and a comparison of amount of oil reserves for each country.

Google Earth can be used to assist in understanding energy consumption. Google earth has developed as a tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. This is today’s main source of information when it comes to anything having to do with geospatial solving. This is more broad and useful on most levels than Geographic Information Systems (GIS). People use Google Earth for the professional world, as well as for an easy tool for individual fun use. A mail service uses Google Earth for addresses, and for delivery of postal zip codes. Families use Google Earth for finding the best route to the beach or to find a love one’s home that lives far away. Google Earth has evolved into an inexpensive and easy to access tool, and has set a foundation for other spatial tools to grow.

Google Earth uses a Keyhole Markup Language (KML); this language is mainly good for modeling and storing information for Google Earth clients. We could use Google Earth to save energy in two different ways. The first way is by finding the quickest and least energy consuming routes for traveling. It could also be used to find the best locations for a gas station for travelers. Analysis of KML could be used to determine the availability of raw materials and products as a function of locations, as well as modes of transportation as a function of emissions (Caldeira and Wickett, 2003). Businesses could use this to analyze the energy consumption of their employees. Last, this is very useful when trying to obtain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating points for the green design of buildings (Caldeira andWickett, 2003).

As we consume at least 80% of fossil fuels globally, we are quickly approaching peak oil. Even today, we don’t have a solution of cutting down on our consumption of resources. The development of Google Earth could help us cut down on resource consumption without having to make sacrifices. The “embodied energy of transportation” refers to the transportation component of the embodied energy, where embodied energy is the quantity of energy required to manufacture and supply to the point of use of a product, material or service(Caldeira and Wickett, 2003).

Conservation
Since natural gas and oil are non-renewable resources, these valuable resources will one day run out. Oil output has been suggested by experts to peak in the near future and begin declining shortly after. To maintain these resources for future generations, responsible usage and conservation must be enacted. Irresponsible use of gas and oil increase demand which in turn increases the extraction of the resources depleting their supply and also increases the United States’ reliance on unstable countries. Extracting oil and gas in the United States causes environmental damage, so the less we have to extract from our country the better off our environment would be.

Conserving oil and natural gas is a major and immediate issue. The use of cartographic techniques as well as Geographic Information Systems, which are powerful computer-based tools used to enter, maintain, store, distribute, and analyze geospatial data, play a leading role in the conservation process. In the conservation process of oil and natural gas, spatial data and spatial awareness of development and extraction impacts are needed. Once all the data for oil and gas locations are collected, the data is put into a GIS where it can be used to produce maps and be analyzed. The data can be utilized to document and examine the potential and observed effects of oil and gas development and extraction on all impacted resources including water, wildlife, cultural/historic areas, habitat, air quality, socioeconomic, and vegetation. Also, the maps created by cartographers show where oil and gas fields are diminishing in size. These locations are then studied and determined if conservation is needed for these fields. If conservation is needed, further data are collected and maps are created to help in the conservation process. Therefore, cartography and GIS provides a tool for oil and gas operations to effectively and efficiently manage development for the protection of resources and optimal production (Natural Resources Law Center).

Consumption and Conservation of other Natural Resources
Cartography plays an important role in the consumption and conservation of other natural resources as well. One issue that is always at the forefront of discussions on consumption is deforestation. This has become a huge problem in many countries throughout the world. Problems have been encountered here in the United States as well. In recent years, however, steps have been taken to ensure that forests are harvested responsibly.

Deforestation
The use of cartography is able to help combat deforestation by allowing lumber companies to keep better track of what areas are available to be harvested and which already have been. By using maps detailing the progress of forests planted at different times, companies can effectively plan ahead for future logging projects. Timber consumption mapping would be especially useful in over harvested countries, such as Haiti. In the past century, Haiti’s forest cover has dwindled from around 60% in the 1920s to only 2% in 2006 (Country Profile, 10). The government enacted the “15-year Environment Action Plan” in 1999 to help combat this problem. In this situation, the use of maps could be helpful in planning the planting of new forests rather than mapping existing ones for example, Haiti has virtually no forests left to map. Maps can also ensure that certain protected areas remain untouched. Also, conservation agencies can use maps from different dates to educate the public about problems related to over logging and deforestation.

Wind Power
Another resource that is overlooked but quickly becoming more popular is wind power. With more and more people becoming concerned about pollution from the consumption of fossil fuels, the movement to make wind energy a more available resource has really taken off. To be able to harness the wind takes a thorough knowledge of it, of course. It would be pointless to place wind turbines in the bottom of a canyon that rarely gets a breeze. Maps can be very helpful in choosing the placement of new turbine sites. Maps of average wind intensities help locate the proper region. Current meteorological maps using contour lines, or istaches, which show up-to-date wind speed and direction, are great for planning the more exact location for turbines. Studying maps can help predict future wind patterns.

Transportation
Cartographic techniques can be used to display movement. Cartography is used to display the transportation of oil and gas from areas such as Canada to the United States. Color schemes in North American maps makes it immediately obvious to the viewer that Canada is the main focal point. Maps are also informative in that they reveal how important consumers in the United States are to the producers in Canada and vice versa. If the viewer were to compare the amount of distribution in new maps with past maps, the economic state of the country would also become obvious.

The article What is Cinematic Cartography? states that, beginning around World War II, cinematographic concepts have played a big role in changing the way information is displayed on maps (Caquard et. al., 1). The author states that spatial events such as transportation can be better understood when combining cartographic techniques with cinematographic techniques (Caquard et. al., 1). Maps that display where a resource such as oil or gas is transported from can have an emotional impact on people in the country where the resources are being delivered (Caquard et. al., 2). Caquard believes that these emotions can be connected to either actual experiences or to random opinion (Caquard et. al., 2). In order to be useful to the viewer, a map should treat distances to be traveled as “problem-specific and/or context-specific manners” (Andrienko et. al., 5). An example of this would be to somehow display the costs associated with transporting a resource across a country. In order to show how long it would take to transport a resource, a cartographer could also include a time line along with the map to make it easier for the reader to interpret (Andrienko et. al., 5). Maps that are used to display the complicated means and methods of transporting oil and gas across Europe are considered to be “very important tools” when it comes to understanding the subject (Nies, 9). When viewing maps that reveal pipelines and other transportation lines that cross European borders, a discerning viewer cannot help but think of these subjects in a historical context (Fig. 4) (Nies, 12). For example, the end of the USSR made possible the development of new oil and gas pipeline projects, as well as the utilization of different routes (Nies, 12). A map displaying political boundaries is crucial to understanding the emotions and incentives of the people involved in the country where the pipeline is being built or the transport route is planned (Nies, 99). (See figure below “Druzhba” Pipeline) It is very important for the entities involved to really grasp the “geopolitical relationships” between the countries, both past and present (Nies, 99). As mentioned in previous paragraphs, the consumption of natural resources has been growing at alarming rates in recent years, and with this increase of consumption and procedures used to extract these resources from Earth comes an increase in environmental damages. Cartography can play a very valuable role in helping to make aware of these problems and, in turn, be useful for determining actions that need to be taken to prevent this destruction from occurring in the future. In April of 2010, a malfunctioning oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico caused an oil spill that resulted in environmental and economic damages all throughout the gulf and coastal cities across the southern United States. The oil spill lasted for months, and as a result, oil was continuously polluting the waters, causing destruction to many ecosystems. Unfortunately, oil spills like this occur on a fairly regular basis. Cartography can assist in assessing these damages and understand natural Earth cycles to determine what can be done to solve problems like this when they occur. The example shown to the right is a map that outlines the 2010 spill area, and included is the gulf stream pattern used to demonstrate how the spilled oil can circulate throughout the Gulf. This information can be very beneficial in determining areas that are at risk of destruction. Having this kind of knowledge from cartographic tools allows for an easier assessment of preventative measures that should be taken to contain damages that have the potential to get out of control. This makes cartography an extremely important tool and a key element in assisting with the processes involved with natural resource extraction. In conclusion, cartography plays an important role in all aspects of the consumption, extraction, production, transportation, and communication of natural resources. It can be used to develop an accurate assessment of resource reserve locations and to develop the most efficient method for extraction. It is an important tool for damage control and problem solving and can assist in developing proper communication and transportation between different regions. Possibly one of the most important benefits of using cartography in the field of natural resource use is that it can assist in the planning and development to find cleaner energy solutions that can contribute to a cleaner environment in the future. In the past, before humans had the scientific knowledge that they have now, it was more difficult to understand the extent of the damages that are caused by depleting and using these resources. However, with the spread of this information and cartographic knowledge, combined with proactive, cleaner solutions, there is hope for the future of the environment.