C1 Environment and Resources

Types of Ecosystem services

Provisioning, Regulating, Cultural, Supporting

Provisioning

Products obtained from ecosystems (eg food, water, materials)

Regulating

Regulation of life cycles (eg water, air quality, climate)

Cultural

Non-material benefits that people obtain from ecosystems (eg religious, aesthetic, heritage values)

Supporting

Services that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services (eg soil formation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, water cycling)

Non-renewable resources

• Resources that have taken millions of years to form, hence their availability is finite

• No possibility of them being replenished on a timescale of relevance to human society

Renewable

• Naturally renewed within a sufficiently short timespan to be of use to the human society

Classification of resources based on Availability

Proven, Hypothetical, Conditional, Speculative

Proven reserves

• Natural resource deposits that have already been discovered, and are known to be economically extractable currently

Conditional reserves

• Natural resource deposits that have already been discovered, but not economic to be used at prevailing price levels using currently available technologies

• Eg oil sands in Canada, requires a minimum of $65 oil price to be economically viable

Hypothetical reserves

• Natural resource deposits that we may expect to find in the future in areas that have only been partially surveyed. Estimates are based on assumptions

• Eg Arctic oil and natural gas resources, shown through geological surveys but no full-scale drilling has been confirmed

Speculative reserves

• Natural resource deposits that might be found in unexplored areas due to favourable geological conditions

Type of scarcity

Absolute, relative, political

Absolute scarcity

Physical insufficiency of resources to meet human needs

Relative scarcity

Relative to demand, can be mitigated through STEM or economic comparative advantage

Political scarcity

One segment of society has access to resource, while it is unavailable to another

Mathus Population Theory

1. In the absence of checks, the human population grows at a geometric rate

2. Even in the most favourable circumstances, agricultural production will increase at arithmetic rate

Malthusian crisis: when population surpasses potential of available resources

Boserupian Theory

1. ‘Necessity is the mother of all inventions’, hence power of ingenuity will outmatch demand and technology will advance

2. Growth in human numbers will induce search for alternatives, backed by evidence during Green Revolution (pesticides, fertilisers, HYV crops, irrigation)