Week 3: Natural resources and environmental resource management

Question 1

Basic definition:
A natural resource

Answer 1

is a source or supply that occurs in nature without human action and can be used for the benefit of human society.
The resource needs to occur and replenish itself naturally
We only talk about a resource unless it is a benefit for human kind
* Material resources of use to individuals and society: minerals, timber, fossil fuels…
* Flows of energy which can be harnessed for useful purposes: solar energy, hydro…
* Attributes of the environment that contribute something of value (aka ecosystem services): pollination by bees, purifying of water/air

Question 2

Classifications:

Answer 2

Basis of origin
* Biotic: living and organic (timber, fish)
* Abiotic: non-living and non-organic (minerals, metals, air, water)

Question 3

Stage of development

Answer 3

• Actual: surveyed and currently exploited
• Reserve: surveyed and can be exploited in future
• Stock: surveyed but currently inaccessible
• Potential: We think they are there, but have not checked

Question 4

Renewability (speed of replenishment)

Answer 4

• Non-renewable: form slowly or do not form naturally
• Renewable: form equally as fast or faster than they are used

Non-renewables:
Rate of production is much slower than rate at which resource is consumed
Examples:
* Fossil-fuels
* Nonmetallic minerals (e.g. limestone)
* Metals
* Form slowly (geological time scales)
* Decay naturally (radioactive elements)

Renewables:
Rate of production is typically equal or faster than rate at which resource is consumed
Examples:
* Soil
* ‘land’ products (e.g. forests)
* Water
* Ecosystems
* Renewable energies
* Commonly linked to biological cycles or energy fluxes

Question 5

Exhaustibility

Answer 5

Inexhaustible: uninfected by human use, will not run out in foreseeable future
* Solar radiation
* Geothermal energy
* Air (not necessarily clean air)

Exhaustible: finite, production and consumption rates are similar
* Non-renewables
* Most-renewables
* Management required

An inexhaustible recourse must always be a renewable resource, but a renewable resource is not necessarily inexhaustible

Question 6

Resource reserves

Answer 6

• Renewability is no guarantee that a resource will be maintained
• Non-renewability does not necessarily imply future scarcity
  
  • How long does it last?

Available time= Quantity of reserve/production rate

Resource Reserves- Oil
* Proven crude oil reserves (2022)
* 1,564 billion barrels
* Daily production
* 94.2 million barrels/day
* 39,941 SFU pools/day (375,000 liters)

45.5 years = 1564 billion barrels/34.4 billion barrels/year
Reserves to production ratio

Resource reserves
Factors that could change the available time of resources:
* Finding new reserves
* New technologies allowing previously inaccessible reserves (stock) to be exploited
* Changes in economic conditions
* Increase/decrease in market price make exploitation of certain reserves feasible/unfeasible
* New technologies allowing substitution of resource
* Changes in consumer behavior

Question 7

Summary
* Renewability is no guarantee that a resource will be maintained
* Management is required to ensure exhaustible resources are maintained
* Many different factors determine both reserves and production
Non-renewability does not necessarily imply future scarcity (i.e., shortage)