8.2 Resource Use in Society

What are examples of resources?

• Fossil fuels

• Phosphorus - fertilisers

• Iron - construction in industry

• Trees - construction and air purification

Define natural capital

Resource that has some value to humans (resources are goods/services that we use)

Define natural income

The yield we get from the resource

What are goods?

Resources that have physical value

What are services?

Resources that support life

Define renewable natural capital

Can be generated/replaced as fast as it is used

What is an example of renewable natural capital?

• Living species/ecosystems using solar energy for photosynthesis

• Non-living items e.g. groundwater, ozone layer

What can renewable natural capital be used as if used sustainably/unsustainably?

• Sustainably: produce natural income in form of goods, services

• Unsustainably: used beyond natural income

Define non-renewable natural capital

Either irreplaceable or replaced over geological timescales

What are examples of non-renewable capital?

• Fossil fuels

• Soil

• Minerals

How to preserve non-renewable resources?

Recycle

What are supporting services?

Essential for life

What are provisioning services?

• Services from which people obtain goods

• Goods can be from heavily managed ecosystems (intensive farming/aquaculture) or semi-natural (hunting/fishing)

What are the examples of provisioning services?

• Food

• Fuel

• Fibre

• Freshwater

• Timber

What are regulating services?

Benefits obtained from regulating environmental processes

What are examples of regulating services?

• Climate regulation

• Flood regulation

• Wildfire regulation

What are cultural services?

Non-material benefits from our interactions with nature

What are examples of cultural services?

• Recreation and tourism

• Aesthetic values

• Cultural heritage

• Spiritual values

What are the values of a resource?

• Aesthetic - looks good

• Cultural - cultural significance

• Economic - value determined by market price

• Environmental/ecological - no market price but essential to humans

• Intrinsic - right to exist irrelevant of value to human

• Social - place people go to socialise

• Spiritual - e.g. Uluru

• Technological - e.g. rare metals used in mobile phones

What is the dynamic nature of natural capital?

The importance of resources change over time

What do technocentrists believe about the dynamic nature of capital?

Technocenrists believe that new discoveries will provide new solutions to old problems

• Hydrogen fuel cells replacing hydrocarbon based fuel

• Algae as a major food source

• Flint used for weapons (arrow heads) and tools is no longer in demand

• Uranium has only become useful in the last u0 years (fuel for electricity in nuclear power plants)

• Cork - first used by ancient Egyptians then increased to be used for cork shoes, then decreased in 1980s/90s when synthetic stoppers introduced, increased again in 2010s to become more environmentally friendly

• Lithium value increased as increasing demand to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles

Define use valuation

Natural capital we can put a price on - not just marketable goods, also includes ecological functions and recreational functions

Define non-use valuation

Natural capital that is impossible to put a price on:

• Intrinsic value - right to exist

• Future uses we do not yet know

• Value for future generations - existence value

What is a case study of trying to put value on things that don’t have value?

Economists at Stockholm environment institute have estimated cost of climate change on oceans will amount to 2 trillion dollars annually by 2100 or 0.4% global GDP

What was the estimate based on?

• Loss of fisheries

• Reduced tourism revenues

• Economic cost of rising sea levels

• Cost of increased storm activity

• Ocean acidification