Resources

A RESOURCE IS any item or substance that is in scarce supply and has some value. Resources are normally considered to be physical items, such as oil and natural gas. However, it is also possible to consider humans resources, since they are finite in number and are perishable under current technological conditions. Resources, when used in the context of computer or virtual environments, meanwhile, are inherently intangible in nature, although the hardware that produces them is not.

It is customary, when considering resources, to distinguish between those that are renewable and those that are nonrenewable. Resources such as oil are consumed in use and are, therefore, nonrenewable. However, in a number of other cases, it is possible to recreate or recycle some resources either in the original form or, at least, some components of the original. Glass and plastic bottles may, to some extent, be recycled into different forms and so value is created from spent resources that appear to be valueless. Considerable effort has been expended in determining which resources may be recycled or recreated in this way and, in some countries, it has led to significant social change as people become accustomed to considering the issues involved and sorting out recyclable household waste. Trie process is mirrored at the industrial level, too, especially when economic incentives are provided to encourage this behavior.

Improved technology has also provided two other means of increasing the stock of resources, or at least minimizing their depletion. Trie first is to employ more commonly occurring resources for more rare ones. This substitution may be seen in the prevalence of plastic bags, which are dispensed with alacrity at many retail outlets. More recently, the negative impact of those plastic bags has prompted the search for other materials that would be more environmentally friendly (more biodegradable). Trie process of beneficiation, on the other hand, is one in which technology enables the gathering or exploitation of resources which were previously considered to be too difficult or expensive to obtain. Trie search for coal deeper underground or in mines located underwater is an example of this, while the continuing demand for oil and the ability to extract it means that sources previously ignored have become of considerable strategic importance.

For example, water is considered a renewable resource, because once used, it can be returned to the circulatory system that returns it to use via evaporation and precipitation. However, the modern world has seen a growth in populations and demand for water, together with climate change, that has demonstrated the extent to which water resources are in fact insufficient for future use, given current trends for demand. It is possible to characterize the Middle Eastern wars between Israel and neighbors as the result of fighting for scarce water resources, while the conflict in Darfur in Sudan has been characterized as resulting from nomadic movements of people searching for water.