Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. A natural resource's value rests in the amount of the material available and the demand for it. The latter is determined by its usefulness to production. A commodity is generally considered a natural resource when the primary activities associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to creation. Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, hunting, and forestry are generally considered natural-resource industries, while agriculture is not. The term was introduced to a broad audience by E.F. Schumacher in his 1970s book Small is Beautiful.[1] The term is defined in the United States by the United States Geological Survey as "The Nation's natural resources include its minerals, energy, land, water, and biota." [2]
Contents [hide]1 Natural capital 2 Other information sources 3 See also 4 References 5 External links
[edit] Natural capitalMain article: Natural capitalNatural resources are natural capital converted to commodity inputs to infrastructural capital processes.[3][4] They include soil, timber, oil, minerals, and other goods taken more or less from the Earth. Both extraction of the basic resource and refining it into a purer, directly usable form, (e.g., metals, refined oils) are generally considered natural-resource activities, even though the latter may not necessarily occur near the former.
A nation's natural resources often determine its wealth and status in the world economic system, by determining its political influence. Developed nations are those which are less dependent on natural resources for wealth, due to their greater reliance on infrastructural capital for production. However, some see a resource curse whereby easily obtainable natural resources could actually hurt the prospects of a national economy by fostering political corruption. Political corruption can negatively impact the national economy because time is spent giving bribes or other economically unproductive acts instead of the generation of generative economic activity. There also tends to be concentrations of ownership over specific plots of land that have proven to yield natural resources.
In recent years, the depletion of natural capital and attempts to move to sustainable development have been a major focus of development agencies. This is of particular concern in rainforest regions, which hold most of the Earth's natural biodiversity - irreplaceable genetic natural capital. Conservation of natural resources is the major focus of natural capitalism, environmentalism, the ecology movement, and Green Parties. Some view this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations.
[edit] Other information sourcesNatural Resources Research Information Pages (NRRIPS) Natural Resources Weblinks (University of Denver website) Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE)
[edit] See alsoCenter for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources (WSU) Eco-sufficiency Ecoregion Exploitation of natural resources Forest farming Land (economics) List of environment topics List of minerals List of natural gas fields List of oil fields Natural environment Renewable energy development Sustainable forest management
[edit] References^ E.F. Schumacher (December 1999). Small Is Beautiful. Hartley & Marks Publishers. ISBN 0-88178-169-5. ^ Resources, USGS ^ Quentin Grafton and Robert Hill (University of New South Wales and W. Adamowicz, Diane Dupont, S Renzetti and Harry Nelson (University of British Columbia (2004). The Economics of the Environment and Natural Resources. Blackwell Punlishing. ISBN 0631215646. ^ A.Weintraub, C. Romero, T. Bjørndal, and R. Epstein (Editors) (2007). Handbook of Operations Research in Natural Resources. Springer. ISBN 0-387-71814-9.
[edit] External linksLook up Natural resource inWiktionary, the free dictionary.Statistics on Natural Resources in Canada Wind power dilemma for Lewis a BBC News article about an island in the Hebrides Research on the fair and sustainable use of natural resources Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resource"