The goods and services that nature provides directly (that is, without the need for human intervention) are known as natural resources. This set can be divided between renewable resources (which can be regenerated as long as the exploitation is not excessive) and non-renewable resources or exhaustible resources.
Non-renewable resources are those whose reserves will inevitably run out at some point since it is not possible to produce, cultivate or regenerate them to sustain their consumption rate. This means that the consumption of non-renewable resources is greater than the capacity of nature to recreate them.
An example of a non-renewable resource is oil. Once the oil reserves have been depleted, there will be no way to get back this natural oily liquid. Experts say that if the current rate of extraction is maintained and no new deposits are found, the world's oil reserves will be depleted in less than half a century.
Specifically, we can establish that there are two clearly defined types of non-renewable resources. Thus, on the one hand, there would be fossil fuels, which are those natural resources that are the result of the modifications that biomass has undergone for centuries and that have great energy potential.
In this way, we can determine that three such elements are oil, natural gas and coal. Their advantages are that they are cheap and easy to extract, while among the elements that are against them is the fact that they pollute, that they can be used up and that they emit toxic gases.
On the other hand, the second major type of non-renewable resources is formed by what is known as nuclear energy. It is not very well regarded due to the fact that it has a high cost, that it is highly polluting and dangerous, and that it can be used for less than peaceful purposes.
Regarding this last point, we can underline the fact that it allows the creation of so-called nuclear weapons such as atomic bombs. These are weapons of mass destruction and in our most recent history they were used: specifically, the United States launched one in 1945 against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A nuclear attack that against those Japanese cities that has been the only one of its kind carried out and that meant that more than 200,000 people died. All this without forgetting that others also died as a result of cancers and leukemias caused by this nuclear weapon.
The minerals are also part of non - renewable resources. Mining is responsible for the extraction of minerals and other materials from the earth's crust; mining consists of blowing up mountains and other similar activities that literally devastate the land. When there are no more minerals in the quarries, they are abandoned.
The protection and replacement of non-renewable resources are some of the main tasks for environmental groups. Solar energy and wind energy, for example, are alternatives to the use of oil and hydrocarbons.