The concept of natural resources encompasses all sources of energy or matter that are produced naturally and can be used for the benefit of human beings.
According to their durability, these can be divided into two large groups : renewable and non-renewable. Within the first group are found those resources that can be exploited indefinitely (sun and wind), while non-renewable ones, as their name indicates, are limited and tend to exhaustion (as in the case of oil and gas ).
Exploitation by human beings
Throughout history, human beings have used natural resources without major concerns or even knowing the possibility of their depletion. Only from the 20th century onwards is it truly aware that demographic growth and limited availability lead to a future in which it will no longer be possible to have certain resources .
Elements such as carbon and oil take a long time to form, while industrialized societies consume these products indiscriminately and at a rate that their use has an expiration date .
Faced with the prospect of a future of scarcity, we are betting on a philosophy of greater respect for the environment.
The production of energy through renewable and inexhaustible natural resources has taken on greater importance
Sunlight and wind are elements that make it possible to obtain energy in a clean and unlimited way, since their exploitation does not impact the ecosystem.
Although human beings are aware that the depletion of natural resources would mean the extinction of their own species, currently, commercial interests prevail over any other type of approach.
Large companies that are dedicated to the exploitation of natural resources exert all kinds of pressure on governments to maintain a “ status quo”, so that their economic benefits are not affected by policies that limit the exploitation of these resources .
Political parties with an ecological and environmental orientation have emerged, in large part, as a response to this phenomenon to preserve the natural environment and prevent private interests from irreversibly damaging the resources that the planet offers us.
