The Unsustainable Consumption of Natural Resources

Natural resources encompass a wide range of physical and biological materials, entities and systems, from coal or iron ore, to a freshwater lake, North Atlantic cod, the Amazon rainforest, sunlight or the atmosphere. Some of these are exhaustible, some regenerate but can be damaged or depleted, and some are renewable and non-depletable. During the industrial era, and even more so in the era of human-made climate change, attention has been drawn to the multiple threats of unsustainable resource use.

What are the key natural resources in danger of overconsumption or depletion? What are the potential consequences of a diminishing state of the world natural resources? What is being done and can be done to reduce, reuse, recycle and replenish natural resources?