Renewable versus Non-renewable resource

There is no denying the fact that in Modern Economic theory, a non-renewable resource known as a predetermined reserve is a resource that does not renovate itself at an appropriate rate for supportable economic abstraction in expressive human time-frames. We can introduce a model as carbon-based progressively resulting fuel. The unique biological material, with the help of heat and pressure, becomes a gasoline such as oil or gas, Fossil Fuel which may be considered as coal, petroleum, and  natural gas, are all non-renewable resources.

Metal ores are supplementary examples of non-renewable resources. The metals themselves are present-day in vast amounts in the earth's crust, and are constantly focused and refilled over millions of years. However their extraction by humans only occurs where they are concentrated by natural processes (such as heat, pressure, organic activity, weathering and other processes) enough to become economically viable to extract. These processes generally take from tens of thousands to millions of years. As such, localized deposits of metal ores near the surface which can be extracted economically by humans are non-renewable in human time-frames, but on a world scale, metal ores as a whole are inexhaustible, because the amount vastly exceeds human demand, on all time frames. Though they are theoretically non-renewable, just like with rocks and sand, humans could never deplete the world's supply. In this respect, metal ores are considered vastly greater in supply to fossil fuels because metal ores are formed by crustal scale processes which make up a much larger portion of the earth's near-surface environment than those that form fossil fuels, which are limited to areas where carbon-based life forms flourish, die, and are quickly buried. These fossil fuel-forming environments occurred lengthily in the Carboniferous Period.

In contrast, resources such as timber (when harvested sustainable) and wind (used to power energy conversion systems) are considered renewable resources, largely because their localized replenishment can occur within time frames meaningful to humans.

Non-renewable assets are:

·         Fossil fuel

·         Radioactive fuel

·         Renewable resources

Natural resources such as coal, petroleum (crude oil) and natural gas take thousands of years to form naturally and cannot be replaced as fast as they are being consumed. Eventually it is considered that fossil-based resources will become too costly to harvest and humanity will need to shift its reliance to other sources of energy. These resources are yet to be named.

An alternative hypothesis is that carbon based fuel is virtually inexhaustible in human terms, if one includes all sources of carbon-based energy such as methane hydrates on the sea floor, which are vastly greater than all other carbon based fossil fuel resources combined. These sources of carbon are also considered non-renewable, although their rate of formation/replenishment on the sea floor is not known. However their extraction at economically viable costs and rates has yet to be determined.

At present, the main energy source used by humans is non-renewable fossil fuels. Since the dawn of internal combustion engine technologies in the 17th century, petroleum and other fossil fuels have remained in continual demand. As a result, conventional infrastructure and transport systems, which are fitted to combustion engines, remain prominent throughout the globe. The continual use of fossil fuels at the current rate is believed to increase global warming and cause more severe climate change. 

Renewable resources

Natural resources, called renewable resources, are replaced by natural processes and forces persistent in the natural environment. There are intermittent and reoccurring renewable, and recyclable materials, which are utilized during a cycle across a certain amount of time, and can be harnessed for any number of cycles.

The production of goods and services by manufacturing products in economic systems creates many types of waste during production and after the consumer has made use of it. The material is then either incinerated, buried in a landfill or recycled for reuse. Recycling turns materials of value that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources again.

The natural environment, with soil, water, forests, plants and animals are all renewable resources, as long as they are adequately monitored, protected and conserved. Sustainable agriculture is the cultivation of plant materials in a manner that preserves plant and animal ecosystems over the long term. The over-fishing of the oceans is one example of where an industry practice or method can threaten an ecosystem, endanger species and possibly even determine whether or not a fishery is sustainable for use by humans. An unregulated industry practice or method can lead to a complete resource depletion.

The renewable energy from the sun, wind, wave, biomass and geothermal energies are based on renewable resources. Renewable resources such as the movement of water (hydro-power, tidal power and wave power), wind and radiant energy from geothermal heat (used for geothermal power) and solar energy (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 sparingly.

The potential wave energy on coastlines can provide 1/5 of world demand. Hydroelectric power can supply 1/3 of our total energy global needs. Geothermal energy can provide 1.5 more times the energy we need. There is enough wind to power the planet 30 times over, wind power could power all of humanity's needs alone. Solar currently supplies only 0.1% of our world energy needs, but there is enough out there to power humanity's needs 4,000 times over, the entire global projected energy demand by 2020.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency are no longer niche sectors that are promoted only by governments and environmentalists. The increasing levels of investment and that more of the capital is from conventional financial actors, both suggest that sustainable energy has become mainstream and the future of energy production, as non-renewable resources decline. This is reinforced by climate change concerns, nuclear dangers and accumulating radioactive waste, high oil prices, peak oil and increasing government support for renewable energy. These factors are commercializing renewable energy, enlarging the market and growing demand, the adoption of new products to replace obsolete technology and the conversion of existing infrastructure to a renewable standard.

In economics, a non-renewable resource is defined as goods, where greater consumption today implies less consumption tomorrow. David Ricardo in his early works analyzed the pricing of exhaustible resources, where he argued that the price of a mineral resource should increase over time. He argued that the spot price is always determined by the mine with the highest cost of extraction, and mine owners with lower extraction costs benefit from a differential rent. The first model is defined by Hotelling's rule, which is a 1931 economic model of non-renewable resource management by Harold Ho telling. It shows that efficient exploitation of a nonrenewable and non-augment able resource would, under otherwise stable conditions, lead to a depletion of the resource. The rule states that this would lead to a net price or "Ho telling rent" for it that rose annually at a rate equal to the rate of interest, reflecting the increasing scarcity of the resources. The Hart wick's rule provides an important result about the sustainability of welfare in an economy that uses non-renewable source.

However, nearly all metal prices have been declining over time in inflation adjusted terms, because of a number of false assumptions in the above. Firstly, metal resources are non-renewable, but on a world scale, largely inexhaustible. This is because they are present throughout the earth's crust on a vast scale, far exceeding human demand on all time scales. Metal ores however, are only extracted in those areas where nature has concentrated the metal in the crust to a level whereby it is locally economic to extract. This also depends on the available technology for both finding the metal ores as well as extracting them, which is constantly changing. If the technology or demand changes, vast amounts of metal previously ignored can become economically ex-tractable. This is why Ricardo's simplistic notion that the price of a mineral resource should increase over time has in fact turned out to be the opposite, nearly all metal ores have decreased in inflation adjusted prices since well before the early 20th century. The main reason he was wrong is that he assumed that metals are exhaustible on a world scale, and he also misunderstood the effect of globally competing markets; in human terms the amount of metal in the earth's crust is essentially limitless. It is only in localized areas that metal ores can become depleted, as these local areas compete with extraction costs of resources elsewhere, which does have ramifications for the sustainability of local economies.

A renewable resource is a natural resource which can replenish with the passage of time, either through biological reproduction or other naturally recurring processes. Renewable resources are a part of Earth's natural environment and the largest components of its ecosystem. A positive life cycle assessment is a key indicator of a resource's sustainability. In 1962, Paul Alfred Weiss defined Renewable Resources as: "The total range of living organisms providing man with food, fibers, drugs, etc..."

Renewable resources may be the source of power for renewable energy. However, if the rate at which the renewable resource is consumed exceeds its renewal rate, renewal and sustainability will not be ensured.

The term renewable resource also describes systems like sustainable agriculture and water resources. Sustainable harvesting of renewable resources (i.e., maintaining a positive renewal rate) can reduce air pollution, soil contamination, habitat destruction and land degradation.

Gasoline, coal, natural gas, diesel and other commodities derived from fossil fuels, as well as minerals like copper and others, are non-renewable resources without a sustainable yield.

Renewable resources endangered by the industrial world

Overfishing

Atlantic cod stocks severely over-fished leading to abrupt collapse

"Ocean over fishing is simply the taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for fished species to replace themselves."

Examples of over-fishing exist in areas such as the North Sea of Europe, the Grand Banks of North America and the East China Sea of Asia.

The decline of penguin population is caused in part by over-fishing, caused by human competition over the same renewable resources

Sustainable agriculture

The phrase sustainable agriculture was coined by Australian agricultural scientist Gordon Mc Clymont. It has been defined as "an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will last over the long term". Expansion of agricultural land has an impact on biodiversity and contributes to deforestation. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that in coming decades, cropland will continue to be lost to industrial and urban development, along with reclamation of wetlands, and conversion of forest to cultivation, resulting in the loss of biodiversity and increased soil erosion.

Poly-culture

Although air and sunlight are available everywhere on Earth, crops also depend on soil nutrients and the availability of water. Mono culture is a method of growing only one crop at a time in a given field, which can damage land and cause it to become either unusable or suffer from reduced yields. Mono-culture can also cause the build-up of pathogens and pests that target one specific species. The Great Irish Famine (1845–1849) is a well-known example of the dangers of mono culture.

Crop rotation and long-term crop rotations confer the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops, and can improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants. Other methods to combat lost soil nutrients are returning to natural cycles that annually flood cultivated lands (returning lost nutrients indefinitely) such as the Flooding of the Nile, the long-term use of bio char, and use of crop and livestock land races  that are adapted to less than ideal conditions such as pests, drought, or lack of nutrients.

Agricultural practices are the single greatest contributor to the global increase in soil erosion rates. It is estimated that "more than a thousand million tons of southern Africa's soil are eroded every year. Experts predict that crop yields will be halved within thirty to fifty years if erosion continues at present rates." The Dust Bowl phenomenon in the 1930s was caused by severe drought combined with farming methods that did not include crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops, soil terracing and wind-breaking trees to prevent wind erosion.

The tillage of agricultural lands is one of the primary contributing factors to erosion, due to mechanized agricultural equipment that allows for deep plowing, which severely increases the amount of soil that is available for transport by water erosion. The phenomenon called Peak Soil describes how large-scale factory farming techniques are jeopardizing humanity's ability to grow food in the present and in the future. Without efforts to improve soil management practices, the availability of arable soil will become increasingly problematic.

Methods to combat erosion include no-till farming, using a Keyline design, growing wind breaks to hold the soil, and widespread use of compost. Chemical fertilizer and pesticides can also have an effect of soil erosion, which can contribute to soil salinity and prevent other species from growing. Phosphate is a primary component in the chemical fertilizer applied most commonly in modern agricultural production. However, scientists estimate that rock phosphate reserves will be depleted in 50–100 years and that Peak Phosphate will occur in about 2030.

Industrial processing and logistics also have an effect on agriculture's sustainability. The way and locations crops are sold requires energy for transportation, as well as the energy cost for materials, labor, and transport. Food sold at a local location, such a farmers' market, have reduced energy overheads.

Deforestation

Deforestation is a good example for renewable asset because woods procured from the forest can be treated as an economic good as it has opportunity cost which is foregone to next best desired alternatives. As well as being a renewable resource for fuel and building material, trees protect the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide and by creating oxygen. The destruction of rain forests is one of the critical causes of climate change. Deforestation causes carbon dioxide to linger in the atmosphere. As carbon dioxide accrues, it produces a layer in the atmosphere that traps radiation from the sun. The radiation converts to heat which causes global warming, which is better known as the greenhouse effect. Deforestation also affects the water cycle. It reduces the content of water in the soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture. Deforestation reduces soil cohesion, so that erosion, flooding and landslides ensue. Rain forest shelter many species and organisms providing local populations with food and other commodities. In this way bio-fuels may well be unsustainable if their production contributes to deforestation.

 Endangered species

Some renewable resources, species and organisms are facing a very high risk of extinction caused by growing human population and over-consumption. It has been estimated that over 40% of all living species on Earth are at risk of going extinct.[26] Many nations have laws to protect hunted species and to restrict the practice of hunting. Other conservation method includes restricting land development or creating preserves. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Internationally, 199 countries have signed an accord agreeing to create Biodiversity Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatened species.

A natural wetland

There is no denying the fact that water   can be considered a renewable material when carefully controlled usage, treatment, and release are followed. If not, it would become a non-renewable resource at that location. For example, groundwater is usually removed from an aquifer at a rate much greater than its very slow natural recharge, and so groundwater is considered non-renewable. Removal of water from the pore spaces may cause permanent compaction (subsidence) that cannot be renewed. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water, and 3% is fresh water; slightly over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction (0,008%) present above ground or in the air. Water pollution is one of the main concerns regarding water resources. It is estimated that 22% of worldwide water is used in industry. Major industrial users include hydroelectric dams, photoelectric  power plants, which use water for cooling, ore and oil refineries, which use water in chemical processes, and manufacturing plants, which use water as a solvent.

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. Common applications of renewable energies are electricity generation and motor fuels. The reported problem with these renewable resources is that it is difficult and expensive to harness enough power from them to match the effectiveness of non-renewable resources.

Solar Energy

Solar energy is the most abundant and easily available renewable resource, and has been harnessed by humans since ancient times. The solar energy not used by man is used by plants and other organisms in photosynthesis. In one year, the Sun delivers more than 10,000 times the energy that humans currently use, and almost twice the amount of energy that will ever be obtained from all of the planet's non-renewable resources.

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photo voltaic indirectly using concentrated solar power . Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photo voltaic convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect.

There are many domestic applications of solar power including solar cookers, solar stills, solar water heating, solar heating and air conditioning.

A wind farm in Spain.

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy. Most modern electrical wind power is generated by converting the rotation of turbine blades into electrical currents by means of an electrical generator. Windmills provide mechanical power, and were originally developed for milling grain for food production. The basic technique adopted in the blades of windmill to facilitate proper rotation is the pressure difference among the blades. Other industrial uses of windmill machinery are wind pumps, used for water pumping or drainage. Wind power is also used to propel ships using sails. Hydro power is energy derived from the movement of water in rivers and oceans, originally used for irrigation and the operation of various mechanical devices. Since the early 20th century, the term is used almost exclusively in conjunction with the modern development of hydro-electric power. Conventional hydroelectric power involves creating a dam, and using the resulting water force to turn a water turbine and generator. Other electricity generating methods are run-of-the-river hydroelectricity, which captures the kinetic energy in rivers or streams, without the use of dams, and pumped-storage hydroelectricity, which stores water pumped during periods of low demand to be released for generation when demand is high.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy comes from the Earth's crust and originates from the original formation of the planet (20%) and from radioactive decay of minerals. The available energy from the Earth's crust and mantle is approximately equal to that of incoming solar energy.

Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for heating applications. Since paleolithic times, naturally occurring Hot springs have been used for bathing.

Geothermal electricity is electricity generated from geothermal energy using technologies like super heaters, flash steam power plants and binary cycle power plants. The first geothermal power station was built at Larderello, Italy. Other countries that have geothermal power stations are Japan, Iceland, the Philippines and the United States. In Iceland, geothermal energy is used for electricity and heat. Brazil has bio ethanol made from sugarcane available throughout the country. Shown a typical petroleum gas station at Sao Paulo with dual fuel service, marked A for alcohol (ethanol) and G for gasoline.

Bio-fuel

A bio-fuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Bio-fuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases. Bio-ethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from carbohydrates produced in sugar or starch crops such as corn, sugarcane or switch grass.

Bio-diesel is made from vegetable oils and animal fats. Bio diesel is produced from oils or fats using trans esterification and is the most common bio-fuel in Europe.

Biogas is methane produced by the process of anaerobic digestion of organic material by anaerobes., etc. is also a renewable source of energy.

Renewable materials

Biomass is biological material from living, or recently living organisms, most often referring to plants or plant-derived materials. As a renewable energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or indirectly—once or converted into another type of energy product such as bio-fuel. The use of biomass helps to sustain climate change, increase energy efficiency, and decrease greenhouse gas emission.

Biomass is all biologically produced matter based in carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The estimated biomass production in the world is 146 billion tons a year, consisting of mostly wild plant growth. Biomass energy is derived from six distinct energy sources: garbage, wood, plants, waste, landfill gases, and alcohol fuels. Historically, a human have harnessed biomass derived energy since the advent of burning wood to make fire, and wood remains the largest biomass energy source today. The biomass used for electricity generation varies by region. Forest by-products, such as wood residues, are common in the United States. Agricultural waste is common in Mauritius (sugar cane residue) and Southeast Asia (rice husks). Animal husbandry residues, such as poultry litter, are common in the UK. The biomass power generating industry in the United States, which consists of approximately 11,000 MW of summer operating capacity actively supplying power to the grid, produces about 1.4 percent of the U.S. electricity supply.

Bio-plastics

Bio plastics are a form of plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, pea starch or microbiol.  The most common starch. Other forms include Cellulose  bio plastics, bio polyester, Poly lactic acid, and bio-derived poly ethylene.

The production and use of bio plastics is generally regarded as a more sustainable activity when compared with plastic production from petroleum (petrol plastic), however manufacturing of bio plastic materials is often still reliant upon petroleum as an energy and materials source. Because of the fragmentation in the market and ambiguous definitions it is difficult to describe the total market size for bio plastics, but estimates put global production capacity at 327,000 tons. In contrast, global consumption of all flexible packaging is estimated at around 12.3 million tons.

Bio asphalt

Bio asphalt is an asphalt alternative made from non-petroleum based renewable resources. Manufacturing sources of bio asphalt include sugar, molasses and rice, corn and potato starches, and vegetable oil based waste.

In view of the above, it is evident that renewable and non-renewable assets are both vitally important in the sense that these are economic goods and economic values are obtained from it. We are getting oils and gases from the nature with which our industries are directly dependent on it  as renewable goods are no less important. We should appoint our efforts and energy to procure and utilize these resources in a significant manner.