Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Resource use 8.2 - Coggle Diagram
Resource use 8.2
Renewable natural capital like living species are self producing and self maintaining + use solar energy in photosynthesis. This natural capital (eg trees) can yield marketable goods (eg wood) but also services which are not marketable (eg climate regulation). These can also be non-living features like groundwater or the Ozone layer
-
Non-renewable natural capital like fossil fuel's or resources in which use implies partial depletion of the stock. Their use is not sustainable because their formation takes billions of years.
Services may not be marketable but have costs. eg removing natural vegetation has a “cost” = Loss of carbon uptake, disruption of water and nutrient cycles and loss of aesthetic value. Prescribing a value is hard = hard to conserve or allocate importance as economically this is not valuable
The value of resources changes over time = Stone Age, fossil fuels were worthless because engines didn't exist, but arrowheads were very valuable because they allowed people to hunt and eat.
Modern times = need fossil fuels to maintain processes in society. Fossil fuels have high economic value. Arrowheads are no longer economically valuable.
Use
-
-
Consumptive use = harvesting food products, timber for fuel or housing and hunting animals for food and clothing
Optional value = derive from potential future use of ecosystem goods and services - not currently used. May be used by yourself (option) or offspring (bequest)
-
Unsustainable
The extraction, transport and processing of renewable natural capital can have huge negative env ramifications = unsustainable
-
Shale rocks have recently become an important resource because of the shale gas that they contain. eg In the US a supply of shale rock has been discovered. The country is determined to achieve 'energy security' and is therefore investing in technology to transport + extract shale gas