Resource

In common parlance, a resource refers to a supply of any living being, inanimate material, service, or information that can be used for a desired outcome. In geography, the term typically refers to a natural resource, any nonhuman resource derived from the earth, including its land, water, and air. Resources do not exist outside of human valuation or use. For example, coal has existed in the earth for millions of years but was not considered a resource until the Industrial Revolution.

Resources frequently are divided into two categories: nonrenewable and renewable. Nonrenewable resources, such as fossil fuels, minerals, and biodiversity, are those for which there is a finite exhaustible supply on human time scales. Renewable resources are those that have the potential to be replenished. Most renewable resources, such as fisheries and groundwater, can be depleted if the rate of use is greater than the rate of replacement. A special class of renewable resources, perpetual resources, is inexhaustible on human time scales; sunlight is a good example.

Warnings about exhaustion of natural resources have long provoked arguments about resource scarcity and sustainability. Thomas Malthus warned in 1798 that population growth inevitably surpasses food supplies. Paul Ehrlich argued in 1968 that population growth soon would outstrip natural resource availability. Others, such as Julian Simon, have argued that technology and human ingenuity always will find new resources to substitute for old ones.

Resource use is sustainable if current use levels do not diminish the potential for future use. Thus, only renewable resources can truly be used sustainably, and only when the rate of harvest is less than or equal to the rate of replenishment. Of greater concern than the sustainable use of any particular resource is whether development as a whole is environmentally sustainable. This condition might involve substituting some resources for others, but in a way that keeps intact ecosystem services necessary to maintain human livelihoods into the indefinite future. Environmental sustainability requires not only the continued availability of renewable resources but also adequate sinks for pollution produced by using those resources.

Concern about sustainability and resource depletion has led to the study of natural resource management, conservation, and preservation. Preservationist[Page 411] views call for limited or no use of certain natural resources, whereas conservationist or utilitarian views suggest that resources should be protected for use that results in the maximum good for the largest number of people. One important factor in determining sustainability is valuation—whether resources are priced or valued to reflect ecological services and intangible qualities such as the beauty of wilderness.

Geographers also study access to resources—which groups have access to what resources and why. The study of access to and control over natural resources is particularly important in political ecology, which analyzes the environmental and social causes and consequences of (often) unequal resource access. Inequitable resource access can be found at all scales of contemporary social organization. At the global scale, the United States uses far more than its fair share of natural resources; with less than 5% of the world's total population, the United States consumes more than one quarter of all oil used.

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