All Topics  
Non-renewable resources

 
Non Renewable Resources

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Non-renewable resources
 
 
  Topics Non-renewable resources Topic Home

A non-renewable resource is a natural resource
Natural resource

Renewable resources Renewable resources are sometimes living resources,, which can restock themselves if used sustainably and not over- harvested....
 that cannot be produced, re-grown, regenerated, or reused on a scale which can sustain its consumption rate. These resources often exist in a fixed amount, or are consumed much faster than nature can recreate them.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Non-renewable resources'
Start a new discussion about 'Non-renewable resources'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Recent Posts

Renewable and non-renewable resources
Energy conservation and non-renewable resources
How can green design protect non-renewable resources?
What are some problems with the conservation of non-renewable resources?
Hubbert's Peak Theory
How Non Renewable and Renewable Resources are essential for life
In lakes and rivers, water interacts with sediment such as rocks, soil and silt by what?
What type of resources are nonrenewable petroleum and natural gas?








Encyclopedia


Coal Mine Wyoming
A non-renewable resource is a natural resource
Natural resource

Renewable resources Renewable resources are sometimes living resources,, which can restock themselves if used sustainably and not over- harvested....
 that cannot be produced, re-grown, regenerated, or reused on a scale which can sustain its consumption rate. These resources often exist in a fixed amount, or are consumed much faster than nature can recreate them. Fossil fuel
Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fossil source fuels, that is, carbon or hydrocarbons found in the earth?s Crust .Fossil fuel range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal....
s (such as coal
Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
, petroleum
Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds....
 and natural gas
Natural gas

Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills....
) and nuclear fuel
Nuclear power

Nuclear power is any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nucleus via controlled nuclear reactions. The only method in use today is through nuclear fission, though other methods might one day include nuclear fusion and radioactive decay ....
 are some examples. In contrast, resources such as timber
Timber

Timber may refer to:* Lumber, i.e. wood materials* Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Oregon* Timber , a 1984 arcade game by Bally Midway...
 (when harvested sustainably) or metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
s (which can be recycled
Recycling

Recycling involves processing used materials into new products in order to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virg...
) are considered renewable resource
Renewable resource

A natural resource qualifies as a renewable resource if it is replenished by natural processes at a rate comparable or faster than its rate of consumption by humans....
s . A non-renewable resource is always drawn down with anabolic
Anabolism

Anabolism is the set of metabolic pathways that construct molecules from smaller units. These reactions require energy. One way of categorizing metabolic processes, whether at the cell ular, organ or organism level is as 'anabolic' or as 'catabolism', which is the opposite....
 processes that use up energy
Energy

In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....
.

Fossil fuels

Rc Drill Rig
Natural resources such as coal
Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
, petroleum
Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds....
, and natural gas
Natural gas

Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills....
 take millions of years to form naturally and cannot be replaced as fast as they are being consumed. Eventually natural resources will 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.

Some natural resources, called renewable resource
Renewable resource

A natural resource qualifies as a renewable resource if it is replenished by natural processes at a rate comparable or faster than its rate of consumption by humans....
s, 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 are properly conserved. Solar, wind, wave, and geothermal energies are based on renewable resources. Renewable resources such as the movement of water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 (hydropower
Hydropower

Hydropower, hydraulic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of moving water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes....
, including tidal power
Tidal power

Tidal power, sometimes called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into electricity or other useful forms of power....
; ocean surface wave
Ocean surface wave

In fluid dynamics wind waves, or more precisely wind generated waves, are surface waves that occur on the free surface of oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and canals ? or even on small puddles and ponds....
s used for wave power
Wave power

Wave power is the transport of energy by ocean surface waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful mechanical work ? for example for electricity generation, desalination, or the pumping of water ....
), wind
WIND

The Global Geospace Science WIND satellite is a NASA science spacecraft launched at 04:31:00 EST on November 1, 1994 from launch pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Merritt_Island%2C_Florida, Florida aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7925-10 rocket....
 (used for wind power
Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2008, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 120.8 gigawatts....
), geothermal heat
Geothermal (geology)

In geology, geothermal refers to heat sources within the planet. Geothermal is technically an adjective but in U.S. English the word has attained frequent use as a noun ....
 (used for geothermal power
Geothermal power

Geothermal power is energy generated from heat stored in the earth, or the collection of absorbed heat derived from underground.Prince Piero Ginori Conti tested the first geothermal generator on 4 July 1904, at the Larderello dry steam field in Italy....
); and radiant energy
Radiant energy

Radiant energy is the energy of electromagnetic waves. The quantity of radiant energy may be calculated by Integral radiant flux with respect to time and, like all forms of energy, its SI unit is the joule....
 (used for solar power) are practically infinite and cannot be depleted, unlike their non-renewable counterparts, which are likely to run out if not used wisely. Still, these technologies are not fully utilized.

Economic models

Hotelling's rule
Hotelling's rule

Hotelling's rule is defining the net price path as a function of time while maximising rent in the time of fully extracting a nonrenewable resource....
 is a 1931 economic model of non-renewable resource management
Resource management

In organizational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective deployment for an organization's resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology ....
 by Harold Hotelling
Harold Hotelling

Harold Hotelling was a mathematical statistician and an influential economic theorist. His name is known to all statisticians because of Hotelling's T-square distribution and its use in statistical hypothesis testing and confidence regions....
. It shows that efficient exploitation of a nonrenewable and nonaugmentable resource would, under otherwise stable economic conditions, lead to a depletion
Resource depletion

Resource depletion is an economics term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Natural resource are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources....
 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 resources.

The Hartwick's rule
Hartwick's Rule

In resource economics, Hartwick's Rule defines the amount of investment in produced capital that is needed to exactly offset declining stocks of non-renewable resources....
 provides an important result about the sustainability
Sustainability

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems....
 of welfare in an economy that uses non-renewable resources.

See also

  • Energy conservation
    Energy conservation

    Energy conservation is the practice of decreasing the quantity of energy used. It may be achieved through efficient energy use, in which case energy use is decreased while achieving a similar outcome, or by reduced consumption of energy services....
  • Green design
  • Hubbert's peak
  • Liebig's law of the minimum
    Liebig's law of the minimum

    Liebig's Law of the Minimum, often simply called Liebig's Law or the Law of the Minimum, is a principle developed in agricultural science by Carl Sprengel and later popularized by Justus von Liebig....
  • Peak oil
    Peak oil

    Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum Extraction of petroleum is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline....
  • Overfishing
    Overfishing

    Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
  • Renewable resource
    Renewable resource

    A natural resource qualifies as a renewable resource if it is replenished by natural processes at a rate comparable or faster than its rate of consumption by humans....

External links

  • at NASA.gov
  • at University of Illinois.edu