- What are inexhaustible resources?
- Examples of inexhaustible resources
- Inexhaustible resources and renewable resources
- Nonrenewable resources
We explain what inexhaustible resources are and various examples. Also, differences with renewable and non-renewable resources.
What are inexhaustible resources?
The inexhaustible resources are those natural resources whose quantity is such that human exploitation activities cannot deplete them, given that they are overwhelmingly abundant (for this reason they are also known as superabundant resources) or possess rhythms creation far superior to those of consumption.
The inexhaustible natural resources are specific, however, and are generally linked to the chemistry fundamental of universe, or to physical phenomena that are perpetuated in the weather, regardless of its use or not by the industries human. In this way, it is possible to consume them without fear that they will run out or degrade.
Obviously, when we classify a resource as inexhaustible, we do so considering the human perspective. Thus, the solar energy is virtually inexhaustible for us today, although we know that billions of years from now, the Sun will culminate your Lifecycle and it will emit much less Energy, a totally natural process for any star.
Examples of inexhaustible resources
Some examples of inexhaustible natural resources are:
- The solar energy. As we said before, in human times the energy of the Sun is infinite. Thus, every day the Sun bombards our planet with heat and various types of electromagnetic radiation, which the human being it is just beginning to take advantage industrially, through the use of solar panels and other mechanisms of transformation of the light energy in electricity.
- The Seawater energy and wave power. These are two ways to obtain electric power from the movements proper to the nature of the sea: tides and waves. In both cases, the force of the liquid is used to move turbines, without this hindering the normal cycle of the oceans, which is repeated and repeated ad infinitum.
- Hydrogen. One of humanity's energetic hopes lies in nuclear fusion, a chemical process in which two hydrogen atomic nuclei fuse to form atoms denser, releasing huge amounts of energy in the process. This process is already underway in the fearsome H-bombs or hydrogen bombs, but it has not yet managed to be tamed for peaceful use. Hopes are pinned on it since hydrogen is the most abundant material in the world. universe and easier to obtain within the chemical elements acquaintances.
Inexhaustible resources and renewable resources
Biofuels are renewable if the rate of consumption is not excessive.
Inexhaustible resources should not be confused with renewable resources. The former are basically unlimited, completely unrelated to human industries.
On the contrary, renewable resources suffer the impact of their industrial use. However, as long as our employment criteria are rational, their quantities or their quality are renewed at such a rate that they do not run a real risk of exhaustion.
For example, the biomass (organic material vegetable) can be used to obtain biofuel through sowing and harvesting cycles that are sustainable, but provided that their consumption is within parameters. If we do it excessively, we will not have enough time to sow and harvest to replenish biofuel stocks.
Nonrenewable resources
Non-renewable natural resources are those that cannot be replaced at a rate comparable to that of their consumption, that is, they run the constant risk of running out or degrading and ceasing to be useful to human beings. This, moreover, usually involves a huge environmental cost, since its extraction and use brings with it profound changes in the nature.
A clear example of this type of resource is the fossil fuels, forged underground over billions of years, the result of mass extinction dynamics that left buried organic matter, subjected to intense chemical processes that turned it into Petroleum, coal or hydrocarbon gas.