Natural resources are the materials and substances provided by Earth that sustain all life and human development. These resources are broadly classified into two categories: non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels and mineral ores, which exist in fixed amounts and replenish over geological timescales; and renewable resources, like timber, fish stocks, and fresh water, which regenerate naturally over human timescales. Sustainable use is the practice of managing these assets in a manner that allows current generations to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their own. This approach recognizes that human survival and prosperity are linked to the health and continuity of the natural systems that provide our food, clean air, and raw materials.
Maintaining Ecosystem Integrity
Unsustainable resource consumption directly drives the degradation of Earth’s complex ecosystems, undermining the biological processes that support human civilization. This degradation often begins with habitat destruction, which accelerates the loss of biodiversity, threatening approximately one million species with extinction. The reduction of biological variety weakens the resilience of natural systems, making them less capable of withstanding environmental shocks.
Healthy ecosystems provide functions which are difficult and costly to replace artificially. For instance, the decline of pollinator species, necessary for the reproduction of over 75% of global food crops, poses a direct threat to agricultural production. Similarly, the ongoing destruction of wetlands has resulted in a 35% global loss of these areas since 1970, diminishing natural water filtration and flood control capabilities.
Agricultural practices that ignore ecological limits are a primary driver of this decline, leading to widespread land degradation. Globally, an estimated 24 billion tons of fertile soil are lost annually due to erosion and unsustainable farming techniques. This loss directly affects food security, as land degradation has already resulted in lower crop yields for approximately 1.7 billion people across the world.
Ensuring Resource Availability for Future Generations
The current rate of global resource extraction challenges intergenerational equity, requiring that today’s actions do not diminish the prospects of tomorrow’s population. For non-renewable resources, this involves the finite depletion of materials like metals and fossil fuels. These resources are being consumed far faster than the millions of years required for their geological formation, even when technological advances reveal new reserves.
The challenge is equally acute for renewable resources when they are exploited beyond their natural capacity for regeneration. For example, overfishing has pushed approximately one-third of the world’s assessed fisheries beyond their biological limits, meaning populations cannot recover quickly enough to maintain current harvest levels. The global rate of deforestation, primarily driven by agricultural expansion, also significantly outpaces reforestation efforts.
Managing this temporal imbalance requires converting finite natural wealth into forms of permanent capital that benefit future societies. The Norwegian government’s sovereign wealth fund offers a model, transforming revenues from oil and gas extraction into a diversified financial asset base. This strategic approach ensures that the depletion of a non-renewable resource is offset by the creation of lasting economic security for future generations.
Promoting Economic Resilience and Stability
A global economy built on the linear model of “take-make-waste” is inherently exposed to volatility because it relies on a constant flow of increasingly scarce virgin resources. The price of commodities, from coking coal to fish meal, becomes sensitive to geopolitical instability, supply chain disruptions, or environmental shocks like El Niño events. This reliance creates market instability, resulting in price spikes that ripple through industrial and consumer sectors.
Sustainable practices function as a strategic de-risking mechanism for businesses. The circular model focuses on designing out waste, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. By maximizing the reuse, repair, and recycling of materials, companies reduce their dependency on volatile raw material markets and lower their input costs.
This shift to resource efficiency enhances a business’s long-term financial stability and resilience. Studies have indicated that companies demonstrating a higher degree of circularity also exhibit a lower risk of defaulting on debt. Transitioning to this regenerative system decouples economic growth from the consumption of finite resources, fostering a more predictable and robust economic environment.
Mitigating Global Environmental Hazards
Unsustainable resource use directly contributes to large-scale hazards, particularly climate change and widespread pollution. The combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) for energy and transportation is the largest source of these hazards, accounting for over 75% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. This massive input of carbon dioxide is the primary driver of global warming.
Resource-intensive industries also generate pollution that fundamentally alters planetary systems. The production of plastic, for example, is highly dependent on fossil fuels, with over 98% of plastic derived from petroleum products. Approximately 11 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the ocean every year, creating a persistent global pollution problem that harms marine life and contaminates food webs.
Furthermore, the excess carbon dioxide absorbed by the oceans directly results in ocean acidification. Since the start of the industrial era, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by 26%. This severely impairs the ability of marine organisms, such as corals and shellfish, to build and maintain their calcium carbonate shells and skeletons. These systemic environmental changes highlight the need to manage resource use within the Earth’s ecological boundaries.