Resource
From
a human standpoint, a resource is
anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants.
Examples include food, water, shelter, manufactured goods, transportation,
communication, recreation, etc. On our short human timescale, we classify the
material resources we get from the environment as perpetual, renewable, or
nonrenewable .
Solar energy is called a perpetual resource because on a human
time scale it is renewed continuously. It is expected to last at least 6 billion years as the Sun completes
its life cycle.
A renewable resource can be replenished through natural processes
as long as it is not used up faster than it is replenished. Examples are
forests, grasslands, wild animals, fresh water, fresh air, fertile soil, etc. Groundwater may become a nonrenewable
resource because of its slower rate of recharge compared to very fast rate of
consumption. It has taken hundreds or even thousands of years to accumulate
and usually only a small portion of it is recharged each year by percolation of
precipitation.
Nonrenewable resources are present in limited supplies and are depleted by
use. Natural processes do not replenish non-renewable resources
within a reasonable period of time on the human time scale. Fossil fuels, for
example, take millions of years to form. People in the US and other
highly developed nations tend to consume most of the world’s nonrenewable
resources. Earth has a finite supply of
nonrenewable resources that
sooner or later will be exhausted.
In time, technological advances may enable us to find or develop substitutes
for nonrenewable resources. Therefore, slowing
the rate population growth will help us
buy time to develop such alternatives.
Fig:
Different types of resources with examples
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