Humans use the Earth's resources to provide warmth, shelter, food and transport. Natural resources, supplemented by agriculture, provide food, timber, clothing and fuels. Some natural products can be replaced by synthetic ones made by the chemical industry. For example, nylon and polyester can replace cotton and wool, and synthetic rubber can replace natural rubber.
Resources from the Earth, oceans and atmosphere are processed to provide energy and materials. A finite resource will run out because it is used faster than it forms, so crude oil and metal ores are finite. A renewable resource can be replaced as fast as we use it, so timber from a well-managed forest is renewable.
Chemistry helps to improve farming and industrial processes and to make new products. It also supports sustainable development, which is development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
To judge how big a difference is, we use orders of magnitude. Each power of ten is one order of magnitude, so something 100 times bigger is two orders of magnitude bigger. To compare other sizes, count how many tens multiply together: 100 is 10 x 10, and 1000 is ten multiplied by itself three times.