Natural Resources

Natural resources are those materials that are present in, on, or above Earth have economic value and are not the product of human endeavor. They constitute the raw materials that are extracted by activities in the primary sector of the economy or they may represent substances that are vital to human existence or quality of life, such as water, forests, or other types of ecosystems. Natural resources may be found in abundance and in multiple locations, or they may be quite rare and obtainable in only a few places. Furthermore, the value and utility of natural resources arise and change with modifications and advancements in technology. Today, there is no global demand for whale oil, and in fact it is quite difficult (and often illegal) to obtain in most parts of the world. But in the early 19th century the oil obtained from whales was a common fuel source for lamps and also had applications in the processing of wool. Today this once vital natural resource has been all but completely replaced by other substances, and for the most part has lost both its value and utility. On the other hand, before the industrial age, rubber, both natural and synthesized, had virtually no utility and little value. Since the advent of the automobile the demand for rubber has exponentially increased, making it a valuable natural resource indeed. More recently, new sources of energy like sunlight and wind would not have been considered “natural resources” in the traditional sense of the term, but now may be classified as such since they are now used in the production of energy.

Access to natural resources is vital to economic development. In the modern global economy, the primary sources of energy remain hydrocarbon fuels, primarily petroleum, coal, and natural gas. In 2007 these so-called fossil fuels accounted for about 86 percent of global energy usage, a startling figure that highlights the essential function such resources serve in maintaining economic standards and driving growth. Countries that lack deposits of these fuel resources must acquire them if they are to remain competitive, and the geopolitics of energy is the subject of study for many scholars. In a similar fashion, strategic metals, many of which are found in only a handful of locations, are vital to modern industrial economies, and are therefore quite valuable and sought after. The country of South Africa, for example, controls 80 percent of the world’s production of platinum, a highly valuable metallic ore that has many industrial applications, as well as being used for jewelry.

There are a number of ways of classifying natural resources. In broad terms, resources may be separated into renewable and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources are those that are not fundamentally destroyed in their consumption, although they may be degraded or change form to a certain extent; or they are materials that may be reproduced by nature in a relatively short period, even if they are consumed or destroyed by use. An example of the first type of renewable resource is water, which may be drunk by humans or animals, used to irrigate farmland, piped around machinery to cool it, or employed for many other purposes, yet is not destroyed or consumed in the process. Wood is an example of the second kind of renewable resource. It may be destroyed through use (burning wood for heat, or to make charcoal, for example), but if managed properly, it is renewable because new tree seedlings may be planted and new wood produced indefinitely.