Product Code Database
A renewable resource (also known as a flow resource (2025). 9780191826320, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191826320) is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of time in a human time scale. It is also known as non conventional energy resources. When the recovery rate of resources is unlikely to ever exceed a human time scale, these are called perpetual resources. Renewable resources are a part of Earth's natural environment and the largest components of its ecosphere. A positive life-cycle assessment is a key indicator of a resource's sustainability.
Definitions of renewable resources may also include agricultural production, as in agricultural products and to an extent water resources. What are "Renewable Resources"?, by A. John Armstrong, Esq. & Dr. Jan Hamrin, Chapter 1, The Renewable Energy Policy Manual, Organization of American States, undated. Retrieved 2013-01-05. In 1962, Paul Alfred Weiss defined renewable resources as: " The total range of living organisms providing man with life, fibres, etc...". Another type of renewable resources is renewable energy resources. Common sources of renewable energy include solar, geothermal and wind power, which are all categorized as renewable resources. Fresh water is an example of a renewable resource.
Water pollution is one of the main concerns regarding water resources. It is estimated that 22% of worldwide water is used in industry. Major industrial users include hydroelectric dams, thermoelectric power plants (which use water for cooling), ore and Petroleum refineries (which use water in chemical processes) and manufacturing plants (which use water as a solvent), it is also used for dumping garbage.
Desalination of seawater is considered a renewable source of water, although reducing its dependence on fossil fuel energy is needed for it to be fully renewable.
Hunting may not be the first source of meat in the modernised world, but it is still an important and essential source for many rural and remote groups. It is also the sole source of feeding for wild carnivores.Mammals: Carnivores. Duane E. Ullrey. Encyclopedia of Animal Science.
Although air and sunlight are available everywhere on Earth, Agriculture also depend on soil nutrients and the availability of water resources. Monoculture is a method of growing only one crop at a time in a given field, which can damage land and cause it to become either unusable or suffer from reduced Crop yield. Monoculture can also cause the build-up of and pests that target one specific species. The Great Irish Famine (1845–1849) is a well-known example of the dangers of monoculture.
Crop rotation and long-term crop rotations confer the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops, and can improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants. Other methods to combat lost soil nutrients are returning to natural cycles that annually flood cultivated lands (returning lost nutrients indefinitely) such as the Flooding of the Nile, the long-term use of biochar, and use of crop and livestock that are adapted to less than ideal conditions such as pests, drought, or lack of nutrients.
Agricultural practices are one of the single greatest contributor to the global increase in Erosion rates.Committee on 21st Century Systems Agriculture (2025). 9780309148962, National Academies Press. . ISBN 9780309148962 It is estimated that "more than a thousand million tonnes of southern Africa's soil are eroded every year. Experts predict that crop yields will be halved within thirty to fifty years if erosion continues at present rates." The Dust Bowl phenomenon in the 1930s was caused by severe drought combined with farming methods that did not include crop rotation, fallow fields, , soil terracing and wind-breaking trees to prevent wind erosion.
The tillage of agricultural lands is one of the primary contributing factors to erosion, due to mechanised agricultural equipment that allows for deep plowing, which severely increases the amount of soil that is available for transport by water erosion. (2025). 9789048185290, Springer. ISBN 9789048185290
The phenomenon called peak soil describes how large-scale factory farming techniques are affecting humanity's ability to grow food in the future. Without efforts to improve soil management practices, the availability of Arable land may become increasingly problematic.
Methods to combat erosion include no-till farming, using a keyline design, growing Hedge to hold the soil, and widespread use of compost. and can also have an effect of soil erosion, which can contribute to soil salinity and prevent other species from growing. Phosphate is a primary component in the chemical fertiliser applied most commonly in modern agricultural production. However, scientists estimate that rock phosphate reserves will be depleted in 50–100 years and that Peak Phosphate will occur in about 2030.
Industrial processing and logistics also have an effect on agriculture's sustainability. The way and locations crops are selling requires energy for transportation, as well as the energy cost for materials, labour, and transport. Food sold at a local location, such a farmers' market, have reduced energy overheads.
With regard to pharmacy ingredients and legal and illegal drugs, plants are important sources, however e.g. venom of snakes, frogs and insects has been a valuable renewable source of pharmacological ingredients. Before GMO production set in, insulin and important hormones were based on animal sources. , an important byproduct of poultry farming for food, is still being used as filler and as base for keratin in general. Same applies for the chitin produced in farming which may be used as base of chitosan. The most important part of the human body used for non-medical purposes is human hair as for artificial hair integrations, which is being traded worldwide.
In addition to fresh meat and milk, which as food items are not the topic of this section, livestock farmers and artisans used further animal ingredients as , horn, bones, bladders. Complex technical constructions as the composite bow were based on combination of animal and plant based materials. The current distribution conflict between biofuel and food production is being described as Food vs. fuel. Conflicts between food needs and usage, as supposed by fief obligations were in so far common in historical times as well. A short history of livestock production, J. Hartung, in Livestock housing, Modern management to ensure optimal health and welfare of farm animals, edited by: Andres Aland and Thomas Banhazi, © 2013 However, a significant percentage of (middle European) farmers yields went into livestock, which provides as well organic fertiliser.Gustav Comberg, Die deutsche Tierzucht im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Ulmer, 1984, , (History of livestock breeding in Germany) Oxen and horses were important for transportation purposes, drove engines as e.g. in .
Other regions solved the transportation problem with terracing, urban and garden agriculture.Nature and Power: A Global History of the Environment. By Joachim Radkau. Publications of the German Historical Institute Series. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008 Further conflicts as between forestry and herding, or (sheep) herders and cattle farmers led to various solutions. Some confined wool production and sheep to large state and nobility domains or outsourced to professional shepherds with larger wandering herds.Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte. 2, Band 0, Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Reiner Prass, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1958, p. 58
The British Agricultural Revolution was mainly based on a new system of crop rotation, the four-field rotation. United Kingdom agriculturist Charles Townshend recognised the invention in Dutch Waasland and popularised it in the 18th century UK, George Washington Carver in the USA. The system used wheat, and barley and introduced as well clover. Clover is able to fix nitrogen from air, a practically non exhaustive renewable resource, into fertilizing compounds to the soil and allowed to increase yields by large. Farmers opened up a fodder crop and grazing crop. Thus livestock could to be bred year-round and winter culling was avoided. The amount of manure rose and allowed more crops but to refrain from wood pasture.
Early modern times and the 19th century saw the previous resource base partially replaced respectively supplemented by large scale chemical synthesis and by the use of fossil and mineral resources respectively. Besides the still central role of wood, there is a sort of renaissance of renewable products based on modern agriculture, genetic research and extraction technology. Besides fears about an upcoming peak oil, local shortages due to boycotts, war and blockades or just transportation problems in remote regions have contributed to different methods of replacing or substituting fossil resources based on renewables.
However the former Plant breeding research institutes took a different approach. After the loss of the German colonial empire, important players in the field as Erwin Baur and Konrad Meyer switched to using local crops as base for economic autarky.Autarkie und Ostexpansion: Pflanzenzucht und Agrarforschung im Nationalsozialismus, (agrarian research during the NS regime) Susanne Heim, Wallstein, 2002, Meyer as a key agricultural scientist and spatial planner of the Nazi era managed and lead Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft resources and focused about a third of the complete research grants in Nazi Germany on agricultural and genetic research and especially on resources needed in case of a further German war effort. A wide array of agrarian research institutes still existing today and having importance in the field was founded or enlarged in the time.
There were some major failures as trying to e.g. grow frost resistant olive species, but some success in the case of hemp, flax, rapeseed, which are still of current importance. During World War 2, German scientists tried to use Russian Taraxacum (dandelion) species to manufacture natural rubber. Rubber dandelions are still of interest, as scientists in the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) announced 2013 to have developed a cultivar that is suitable for commercial production of natural rubber.
The production and use of bioplastics is generally regarded as a more Sustainability when compared to plastic production from petroleum (petroplastic); however, manufacturing of bioplastic materials is often still reliant upon petroleum as an energy and materials source. Because of the fragmentation in the market and ambiguous definitions it is difficult to describe the total market size for bioplastics, but the global production capacity is estimated at 327,000 tonnes. NNFCC Renewable Polymers Factsheet: Bioplastics — NNFCC. Nnfcc.co.uk (2010-02-19). Retrieved on 2011-08-14. In contrast, global consumption of all flexible packaging is estimated at 12.3 million tonnes.
Sustainable harvesting and use of renewable resources (i.e., maintaining a positive renewal rate) can reduce air pollution, soil contamination, habitat destruction and land degradation. Biomass energy is derived from six distinct energy sources: garbage, wood, plants, waste, landfill gases, and alcohol fuels. Historically, humans have harnessed biomass-derived energy since the advent of burning wood to make fire, and wood remains the largest biomass energy source today.Global biomass fuel resources, Matti Parikka, in Biomass and Bioenergy, Volume 27, Issue 6, December 2004, Pages 613–620, Pellets 2002. The first world conference on pellets
However, low tech use of biomass, which still amounts for more than 10% of world energy needs may induce indoor air pollution in developing nations and results in between 1.5 million and 2 million deaths in 2000.
The biomass used for electricity generation varies by region.Frauke Urban and Tom Mitchell 2011. Climate change, disasters and electricity generation . London: Overseas Development Institute and Institute of Development Studies Forest by-products, such as wood residues, are common in the United States. Agricultural waste is common in Mauritius (sugar cane residue) and Southeast Asia (rice husks). Animal husbandry residues, such as poultry litter, are common in the UK. The biomass power generating industry in the United States, which consists of approximately 11,000 Megawatt of summer operating capacity actively supplying power to the grid, produces about 1.4 percent of the U.S. electricity supply.
Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from produced in sugar or starch crops such as Maize, sugarcane or switchgrass.
Biodiesel is made from and . Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel in Europe.
Biogas is methane produced by the process of anaerobic digestion of organic material by .,Redman, G., The Andersons Centre. "Assessment of on-farm AD in the UK" , National Non-Food Crops Centre, 2008-06-09. Retrieved on 2009-05-11. etc. is also a renewable source of energy.
Tuna meat is driving overfishing as to endanger some species like the bluefin tuna. The European Community and other organisations are trying to regulate fishery as to protect species and to prevent their extinctions. COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy. Retrieved 2013-01-05. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty deals with aspects of overfishing in articles 61, 62, and 65.
Examples of overfishing exist in areas such as the North Sea of Europe, the Grand Banks of North America and the East China Sea of Asia.
The decline of penguin population is caused in part by overfishing, caused by human competition over the same renewable resources
Deforestation also affects the water cycle. It reduces the content of water in the soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture. Deforestation reduces soil cohesion, so that Soil erosion, flooding and ensue.
Rain forests house many species and organisms providing people with food and other commodities. In this way biofuels may well be unsustainable if their production contributes to deforestation.
Challenges
The use of certain basically renewable products as in TCM endangers various species. Just the black market in rhinoceros horn reduced the world's rhino population by more than 90 percent over the past 40 years. "Rhino horn: All myth, no medicine", National Geographic, Rhishja Larson Facts about traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): rhinoceros horn, Encyclopædia Britannica, Facts about traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): rhinoceros horn, as discussed in rhinoceros (mammal): – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Renewables used for self sufficiency
The success of the German chemical industry till World War I was based on the replacement of colonial products. The predecessors of IG Farben dominated the world market for Dye at the beginning of the 20th century (1991). 9780812282078, University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812282078Alfred DuPont Chandler (2025). 9780674789951, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674789951 and had an important role in artificial Drug, photographic film, Agrichemical and Electrochemistry.
Legal situation and subsidies
Several legal and economic means have been used to enhance the market share of renewables.
The UK uses Non-Fossil Fuel Obligations (NFFO), a collection of orders requiring the electricity distribution network operators in England and Wales to purchase electricity from the nuclear power and renewable energy sectors. Similar mechanisms operate in Scotland (the Scottish Renewable Orders under the Scottish Renewables Obligation) and Northern Ireland (the Northern Ireland Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation). In the US, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), use a similar approach. German Energiewende is using feed-in tariffs. An unexpected outcome of the subsidies was the quick increase of pellet byfiring in conventional fossil fuel plants (compare Tilbury power stations) and cement works, making wood respectively biomass accounting for about half of Europe's renewable-energy consumption.
Examples of industrial use
Biorenewable chemicals
Biorenewable chemicals are chemicals created by biological organisms that provide feedstocks for the chemical industry. Biorenewable chemicals can provide solar-energy-powered substitutes for the petroleum-based carbon feedstocks that currently supply the chemical industry. The tremendous diversity of enzymes in biological organisms, and the potential for synthetic biology to alter these enzymes to create yet new chemical functionalities, can drive the chemical industry. A major platform for creation of new chemicals is the polyketide biosynthetic pathway, which generates chemicals containing repeated alkyl chain units with potential for a wide variety of at the different carbon atoms. Polyurethane research is ongoing that specifically uses renewable resources.
Bioplastics
Bioplastics are a form of derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, lignin, corn starch, pea starch or microbiota. The most common form of bioplastic is thermoplastic starch. Other forms include Cellulose bioplastics, biopolyester, Polylactic acid, and bio-derived polyethylene.
Bioasphalt
Bioasphalt is an Asphalt concrete alternative made from non-petroleum based renewable resources. Manufacturing sources of bioasphalt include sugar, and rice, maize and potato , and vegetable oil based waste. Asphalt made with vegetable oil based binders was patented by Colas SA in France in 2004. COLAS CST - Végécol
Renewable energy
Renewable energy refers to the provision of energy via renewable resources which are naturally replenished as fast as they are being used. Examples are sunlight, wind, biomass, rain, tidal power, wave power and geothermal heat. Renewable energy may replace conventional fuels in four distinct markets, namely electricity generation, hot water/space heating, , and rural (off-grid) energy services.REN21 (2010). Renewables Global Status Report p. 15. Manufacturing of renewable energy devices uses non-renewable resources such as mined metals and land surface.
Biomass
Biomass is referring to biomaterial from living, or recently living organisms, most often referring to plants or plant-derived materials.
Biofuel
A biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various .
Biogas
Biogas typically refers to a mixture of produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas is produced by anaerobic digestion with anaerobic bacteria or fermentation of biodegradable materials such as manure, sewage, municipal waste, green waste, plant material, and crops.National Non-Food Crops Centre. "NNFCC Renewable Fuels and Energy Factsheet: Anaerobic Digestion", Retrieved on 2011-02-16 It is primarily methane () and carbon dioxide () and may have small amounts of hydrogen sulphide (), moisture and .
Natural fibre
Natural fibres are a class of hair-like materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to pieces of yarn. They can be used as a component of composite materials. They can also be felted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt. Fibres are of two types: natural fibre which consists of animal and plant fibres, and man made fibre which consists of synthetic fibres and regenerated fibres.
Threats to renewable resources
Renewable resources are endangered by non-regulated industrial developments and growth."Capitalizing on Environmental Injustice: The Polluter-Industrial Complex in the Age of Globalization", by Daniel Faber, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 17 Jul 2008 They must be carefully managed to avoid exceeding the natural world's capacity to replenish them."Management for a Small Planet" by Jean Garner Stead and W. Edward Stead, M.E. Sharpe 2009 A life cycle assessment provides a systematic means of evaluating renewability. This is a matter of sustainability in the natural environment."Environmental Science: Creating a Sustainable Future" by Daniel D. Chiras, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 21 Dec 2004
Overfishing
National Geographic has described ocean over fishing as "simply the taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for fished species to replace themselves."
Deforestation
Besides their role as a resource for fuel and building material, trees protect the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide and by creating oxygen. How Much Oxygen Does One Tree Produce? By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., About.com Guide The destruction of rain forests is one of the critical causes of climate change. Deforestation causes carbon dioxide to linger in the atmosphere. As carbon dioxide accrues, it produces a layer in the atmosphere that traps radiation from the sun. The radiation converts to heat which causes global warming, which is better known as the greenhouse effect.Mumoki, Fiona. "The Effects of Deforestation on our Environment Today." Panorama. TakingITGlobal. 18 July 2006. Web. 24 March 2012.
Endangered species
Some renewable resources, species and organisms are facing a very high risk of extinction caused by growing human population and over-consumption. It has been estimated that over 40% of all living species on Earth are at risk of going extinct. Many nations have laws to protect hunted species and to restrict the practice of hunting. Other conservation methods include restricting land development or creating preserves. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Internationally, 199 countries have signed an accord agreeing to create Biodiversity Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatened species.
See also
Notes
Further reading
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