The term depletion of natural resources applies when natural resources, whether renewable or non-renewable, are consumed faster than they can be replaced or renewed. This leads to permanent impairment or damage, commonly referred to as ‘resource depletion.
As mentioned earlier, it’s evident that the problem of depletion of natural resources is closely related to the use of islands, the seas, as well as soil and all other resources within a certain area.
Such resources include farming practices, water allocation, fossil fuel usage, fishing, and mining. Additionally, the value of and resource is based on its utmost potential availability within natural surroundings.
What is Resource Depletion?
It refers to the reduction of the available level of the item due to either overuse and depletion of resources such as fossil fuels, water, fish, trees, and minerals. Resource depletion can be defined as the use of renewable and nonrenewable resource at an increasing rate beyond the rate at which they can be replenished.
As defined in Wikipedia, resource depletion refers to;
“Resource depletion is the consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished. Natural resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources. Use of either of these forms of resources beyond their rate of replacement is considered to be resource depletion.”
When compared to a readily available natural resource, one that is rare because of depletion is often given a higher value. As the global population continues to grow, the deterioration of natural resources also increases.
In relation to this, the world’s eco-footprint is estimated to be one and a half times the ability of earth to sustainably provide each individual with enough resources that met their level of consumption. Following this is an explanation of the causes, effects, and solutions of Natural resource depletion.
Causes of Depletion of Natural Resources
1. Overpopulation
Worldwide population stands at just above seven billion people. Nonetheless, there is persistent growth in the global population which has proven to be a substantial driving factor in the depletion of natural resources. With an increase in population comes the need for more food, land, and other resources to support these people.
Even if the entire population of nearly eight billion people adopted a materially simplistic lifestyle, there would still be the exhaustion of natural resources.
Ecological contamination would also increase. Additionally, other sources suggest that countries that are considered less developed continue to industrialize for their constantly growing population, which keeps consuming more resources. The above statements suggest that natural resources will be exhausted as long as the world’s population increases.
2. Poor Farming Practices
Humans are inflicting extreme stress on land resources because of the dependency on food production to satisfy daily nutritional needs. An example of insufficient irrigation is the overwatering of soil, which leads to its salinization and alkalinization.
Altering soil management practices, and the increasing use of high powered tractors and farm machinery, destroy soil structure to a degree that renders it unfit for plant growth. Notably, the excessive vibrations of soil coupled with soil destruction is obliterating the volcanic ash soil, which is a resource greatly essential for sustenance.
The overuse of modern farming techniques pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides destroy vital micro-organisms living in the soil as well. No crop farming practice also makes the soil susceptible to erosion, resulting in severe degradation of the soil.
3. Logging
Between 1990 and 2016, the world lost an estimated 1.3 million square kilometers of forest, and in subsequent years, this loss increased to 13 million hectares per year. By July 2022, the total area of forested land decreased by an approximate 17 million hectares.
The rate of deforestation is 1 percent a year in tropical rainforests, particularly in the Latin American region. The main driver behind this is the agricultural expansion due to the significant increase in population density.
In addition to this, a significant amount of deforestation is taking place to accommodate new residential and commercial buildings. The ecological implications are staggering, as whole populations of trees, thousands of animals, and a myriad of plant species are becoming extinct along with the destruction of their homes.
As a consequence of these activities, many flora and fauna species have become scarce, threatened, or even extinct. In addition, the increased logging activities also results in the soil erosion of natural soil minerals.
4. Overconsumption of Natural Resources
The Industrial Revolution in the 1760s saw the large-scale exploration of oil and minerals, and this practice while gradual is growing at an alarming rate, which increases depletion of oil and mineral reserves.
With the development in technology, development, and research in the modern world, exploiting minerals is easier than before and people are excavating deeper for more ores. Increased use of exploitable minerals has caused a downward trend in the availability of some of them.
For instance, the estimated production of gasoline, copper, and even zinc will be drastically lowered in two decades. Furthermore, there is a continuous increase in oil mining, since the number of petrol powered engines fuelled by oil keeps rising, further accelerating the race to deplete oil reserves.
The scenario need not worrying dupert economics tells put forward the peak oil theory will be eg coming to pass while contemplating the need combat to dreaded capitalistic overharvesting of oil. There are many countries at the moment make the crude oil at an ever increasing rate.
Once peak is reached the oil extraction crosses the cap the herb fuel production curves, the fuel will be spent and the only possible path of extracting crude oil left will be ultra low terminal, virtually zero.
5. Pollution
Modern human initiated activities including the birth rate are some of the most significant drivers of endless waste disposal into the ecosystem, which greatly sustains nature’s balance ecosystem productivity .
Lakes, rivers, and the ocean are abused and filled with human and industrial waste, chemicals, and even radioactive waste materials. Such practices actively result in the destruction of natural resources and resources needed for human survival.
These adverse environmental transformations have diminished the remaining supply of natural and fuel resources.
Measurement give as reason to believe such conditions of humanity that is these life the humanity has to exist with has forces unseal his expect unbearable pain for the ecosystem and deepen new ideas for existence, Over decades evolution process in which countless plants and animals have changed is now pushed driven towards extinction.
6. Industrial and Technological Development
Modern technologies strike the world today as immeasurable. There is a large scale industrialization in many countries due to new technological breakthroughs being achieved, but the ever-growing technological advancements and breakthroughs leads to an equally vast scale increase in industries that are more toxic and poisonous and throw their chemical waste into lakes, oceans, soiles, and lands.
There are an unlimited number of owing factors of this case to be called industrial waste. Some of these include organic substances, metals, radioactive substances, and other hazardous(toxic) wastes. This, in turn, poisons whatever living ecosystem or nature is left unspoilt: e.g., Water systems and fauna.
Some examples include, not limited to, lakes turning acidic, dead biosphere zones, extinction of fauna and fish. There is also increase in consumption of materials which require basic blank specimens needed for their construction, hence industry and technology policy makers are required to have a strongly updated level of information.
The consumption of resources to meet industrial demand and supply is striking resource limits. Furthermore, there is the demolition and degradation of habitat incurred by growing industrial land as well as athe ddition of toxic desert (waste) lands. Hence ,the net outflow from these resources is constantly on the rise.
Effects of Depletion of Natural Resources
1. Water shortages
Water resource depletion is the resulting outcome from bad agrarian techniques, environmental deterioration, and pollution for the reason that they consume, waste and destroy natural surface water reservoirs.
As of today, around two billion people do not have access to clean water due to deforestation and contamination of water sources and groundwater. The unavailability of sufficient water resources can exacerbate the famines and food crises.
There are an estimated two billion cases of diarrhea among children under five years of age due to lack of clean water accessibility, along with three million cases of cholera and eleven million cases of typhoid fever. In addition, the incidence of waterborne diseases and fatalities is on the rise.
The alarming rise in global water consumption at over twice the rate of population growth is aggravating the situation further and putting pressure on the need for solutions to prevent further degradation of ecological balance.
2. Oil depletion
Oil is a nonrenewable source of energy. Oil constitutes around 40% of total global energy consumption. Oil serves a number of purposes and is even more widely used with advances in technology.
With the high rate of oil exploitation, the International Energy Outlook by EIA predicted that available oil will last for only 25 more years. Furthermore, EIA’s research stated that oil consumption will reach 118 million barrels per day by 2030.
The global consumption of energy is growing at an alarming rate, while the methods of generating energy are not improving at an equal pace. Oil is vital in the production of goods, agriculture, construction, and moving people and items from place to place. Ascertaining the impact of its consumption becomes evident.
Some of the American oil depletion impacts are loss of companies, high nesting out in comparatively growing economical states, and suspicious the flow of business in other economies. Mint also disused oil suppreses the generation gap panic and the need with increasing world strife to get accesses to the remaining rental rest of the world oil is likely to lead.
3. Loss of forest cover
Every year 18 million acres of forest are clear-cut. This signifies that half of the world’s natural forest cover has already been cleared and millions of animal and plant habitats are destructed.
In addition, the past 30 years have witnessed an alarming jump in deforestation which is believed to account for approximately 12 to 17 percent increase in global greenhouse gasses emissions. On account of refraining from using trees, the global temperature becomes elevated and warmer gets harsher.
Apart from the above listed impacts soil degradation, carbon gas expulsion, extinction of various forms of life, increased floods, the land devoid of much water, and the increase in soil erosion as a result of water flow are some of the results of the destruction of forest on earth.
4. Depletion of minerals
To sustain the ever-growing global population, there has been rampant overexploitation of minerals such as phosphorus gasoline, copper, and zinc.
The Global Phosphorus Research Institute claims that the world is likely to deplete phosphorus reserves, which is vital for plant growth, within the next 50 to 100 years.
With the current rate of fuel, minerals, and construction materials like copper, sand, gravel, and stone, US Geological Survey estimates non-renewable resources are being overconsumed in ceaselessly decreasing intervals.
Alongside the increased exploitation of natural minerals, the cost for the materials is also skyrocketing. Together with the shrinking returns on investment, the economic consequences of depleting these minerals are likely to exceed the impacts of global warming.
5. Extinction of Species
Depletion of natural resources has led to extreme changes in climate, which has altered the ecosystems of many animal species, resulting in some being driven to extinction. Destruction of habitats is the leading cause behind the severe endangerment or extinction of many plant and animal species.
Regions covered with forest are known to be home to thousands of wildlife, however, forest habitats are being destroyed with deforestation. The same can be said for practices like overfishing and pollution which have greatly reduced the population of marine life such as tuna.
Some of the species which have recently gone extinct include: the ivory-billed woodpecker, splendid poison frog, Lake Lanao freshwater fish, and smooth handfish. Other recently extinct include bramble cay melomys, spix’s macaw, baiji, and western black rhinoceros. While counting the extinct species, 32 species of orchids and 65 North American flora species also went extinct.
Solutions to Depletion of Natural Resources
1. Controlling Deforestation
Programs created to control deforestation like REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) which was found by the World Bank alongside the New York Declaration on Forests and United Nations are examples of solutions which prevent the depletion of natural resources.
These initiatives might also encourage the general population to actively work towards conserving forests, as those areas are the home, protector and water source for some of the world’s rarest and most distinctive plant and animal species.
Concerning the risks of environmental neglect, people must be taught how to preserve nature via sustainability programs, which in turn unlock milestones of conserving natural resources.
2. Reducing oil, mineral, and material consumption
Countries rich in oil, together with the World Bank, state, and consumables’ regulatory bodies should come together with a plan on how the depletion and usage of oil and mineral resources can be reduced on an international scale.
For instance, aftermarket trims and restyles can be taught about lean manufacturing, which focuses on recycling, reusing, and reducing waste; while consumers are educated on the importance of reusing, reducing, and recycling.
3. More exploration and use of renewable sources of energy
To lessen the dependency on fossil fuel, which greatly pollutes the environment, damages the ecosystem, triggers climate changes, global warming and the destruction of territories, renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind power should be harnessed and used more extensively.
Renewable sources of energy provide an opportunity to develop many advancements in technology, which alongside nonrenewable resources, aids in boosting the conservation of these natural resources.
4. Protecting wetlands and coastal ecosystems
Wetlands, in turn, are areas which are waterlogged or saturated with ground water and wetland vegetation water and play an important part in the economy of a region.
Likewise, the coastal and wetland ecosystems perform important functions in supporting the food web when they provide water and minerals necessary to the primary producers (green and flowering plants) which help to maintain biodiversity of flora and fauna) and primary producers aid in maintaining biodiversity of flora and fauna).
When coastal ecosystems are preserved, they assist in the regulation of overfishing of the seas and assist in the preservation of coral reefs.
5. Sensitization and awareness creation
People should be made aware of the strain on the few remaining natural resources and learn what their role is in resource depletion.
Encouraging people to actively take part in conserving, protecting, and sustaining the natural environment is the goal of fostering awareness about nature.
Others may learn about awareness education during symposiums or by watching videos, reading articles and blog posts or other myriad ways to reach people from all corners of the world.