Everything about Non-renewable Resources totally explained
A
non-renewable resource is a
natural resource that can't be re-made, re-grown or regenerated on a scale comparative to its consumption. It exists in a fixed amount that's being consumed or used up faster than it can be made by nature.
Fossil fuels (such as
coal,
petroleum and
natural gas) and
nuclear power are non-renewable resources, as they don't naturally re-form at a rate that makes the way we use them
sustainable and consumer materials to produce electricity. A
renewable resource differs in that it may be used but not used up.
This is as opposed to natural resources such as
timber, which re-grows naturally and can, in theory, be harvested sustainably at a constant rate without depleting the existing resource pool and resources such as
metals, which, although they're not replenished, are not destroyed when used and can be
recycled. It is a resource that can not be re-used
A non-renewable resource is always drawn down with
anabolic processes that use up
energy.
Carbon-based non-renewables
Natural resources such as
coal,
oil, or
natural gas, take millions of years to form naturally and can't be replaced as fast as they're consumed. Eventually that'll become too costly to harvest and humanity will need to find other sources of energy. At present, the main energy sources used by humans are non-renewable;
renewable resources, such as
solar energy,
tidal,
wind, and
geothermal are yet to be fully utilized.
Some natural resources, called
renewable resources, are replaced by natural processes given a reasonable amount of time. Soil, water, forests, plants, and animals are all renewable resources as long as they're properly conserved. Solar, wind, wave, and geothermal energies are based on renewable resources. However, non-renewable resources may take billions of years to form.
Renewable resources such as water,
wind power,
sun radiation, tidal etc are practically infinite - they can't be depleted - unlike their non-renewable counterparts, which are likely to run out if not used wisley.
Economic models
Hotelling's rule is a 1931 economic model of non-renewable
resource management by
Harold Hotelling. It shows that efficient exploitation of a nonrenewable and nonaugmentable resource would, under otherwise stable economic conditions, lead to a
depletion of the resource. The rule states that this would lead to a net price or "
Hotelling rent" for it that rose annually at a rate equal to the
rate of interest, reflecting the increasing scarcity of the resource.
The
Hartwick Rule provides an important result about the
sustainability of welfare in an economy that uses non-renewable resources.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Non-renewable Resources'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://non-renewable_resources.totallyexplained.com">Non-renewable resources Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
