Definitions Flashcards
Natural resource
Resources provided by the Earth’s physical systems. For example, water, minerals or timber
Human resource
There are two types of human resource, material and non-material. These are resources initiated by humans. Some examples are, buildings and roads, and examples of non-material include knowledge and technical skills.
Non-renewable
These are natural resources that are limited in supply, or finite, such as oil and minerals. Once used, they cannot be replaced, or are replaced only extremely slowly. However, some can be re-used or recycled.
Renewable
A renewable resource is a natural resource that can be replenished or regenerated if carefully managed. Some examples include: forests, soils and fresh water. However these can lose the renewable status if forests are depleted faster than they can be replaced, soils eroded away or water becoming polluted.
Inexhaustible resource
Examples of these resources are energy from tides, wind and the sun. These are resources that will never be depleted as long as the Earth’s physical systems continue to function.
Human capital
The stock of all knowledge, habits and personal attributes, including creativity, embodied in the ability to perform labour so as to produce economic value
Energy Profit Ratio
The energy returned on energy invested. The ratio of the amount of energy delivered to the energy used to obtain that energy.
Resource scarcity
Refers to the basic economic problem, the gap between limited (scarce) and theoretically limitless wants. The situation requires people to make decisions about how to allocate resources, in order to satisfy basic needs and as many additional wants as possible.
Geophysical scarcity
Scarcity that occurs as a result of spatial and time related factors. For example, the worlds fresh water is very unevenly spread. Russia’s lake Baikal alone contains nearly a quarter of the worlds fresh water, but many parts of Australia are either arid or semi arid. Where you live determines what resources are scare to you
Geopolitical scarcity
Occurs when the actions of one country lead to a reduction in the quantity, quality or timing of resource availability in another. For example, the Murray - Darking river crossing QLD and NSW.
Economic/social scarcity
The scarcity of resources due to a lack of money, or poverty. It is the scarcity of resources due to the lack of investment in proper infrastructure, or living in socially low hierarchy.
Environmental scarcity
The term given to resource scarcity that results from the impact of people. For example, water may become scarce through pollution or overuse of water supplies.
Supply-induced scarcity
Occurs when there is a decline in the amount of a resource available to people. Such scarcity results from the contamination or depletion of a resource, which may not previously have been scarce
Demand-induced scarcity
Created by population growth and increased demands placed on a resource by growth in a country’s economic activity through, for example, the intensification of agricultural activity or the expansion of manufacturing.
Peak oil
The point in time when the maximum rate of extraction is reached, at which it is expected to enter terminal decline. This is not about oil reserve decline: it is about the rate of production to consumption.
