nautral resources include goods and services
NATURAL CAPITAL= NATURAL RESOURCES+ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
natural resources: air, water, nonrenewable minerals, soil, nonrenewable energy, renewable energy, life, land
ecosystem services: air purification, climate control, UV protection, water purification, water treatment, soil renewal, population control, pest control
INEXHAUSTIBLE: solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy
RENEWABLE: trees, topsoil, freshwater
NONRENEWABLE (EXHAUSTIBLE): fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal, iron and copper
exhaustible resources will eventually run out. they are non sustainable resources. inexhaustible resources will never run out. they are sustainable resources
renewable resources depend on how you use them. if you use them slower and give them time to renew, you can use them indefinitely. if you use them faster than they can renew themselves they will run out.
sustainability is to use a resource in a way that allows them to regenerate
to achieve this you must:
- use a resource slowly so it can regenerate
- do not degrade or pollute the ecosystem
everyone has an ecological footprint which is the amount of natural resources they use or degrade.
ecosystems can takes a certain amount of use and damage and they can regenerate and recover from a small amount of use. this is called biocapacity of the ecosystem.
the ecological footprint has been less than the biocapacity of the local environment= sustainable
right now the ecological footprint is much more than the bio capacity of the world which is unsustainable
in 2012 the worlds ecological footprint was 50% higher than the planets estimated long term biocapacity