RENEWABLE VERSUS NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES

The key difference between renewable and non-renewable resources is that renewable resources are flow (or rate) limited; non-renewable resources are stock limited (P. Ehrlich, A. Ehrlich and J.P. Holdren, Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1977).

  • Stock-limited resources: These are notably fossil fuels that can be depleted without being replenished – certainly on a time scale of practical interest. What we mean here is that it took millions of years for stocks of oil to accumulate and will need many millions of years to accumulate new stocks. How long oil now lasts depends on our ability to find it, the rate we use it, and the cost of removing and using ...

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