Our Environment Contents

4. Resources

Sustainability can be threatened by the depletion of non-renewable resources.

Non-renewable resources

For non-renewable resources, depletion or exhaustion arises from their finite nature. In the case of some previously renewable resources, it arises as a consequence of harvesting or utilisation by industry and society at a rate faster than that at which the resource can be naturally renewed. In both instances depletion generates critical threats to sustainability.

What is the core condition for non-depletion of a renewable resource?