The renewable resources can be replenished, naturally or by human efforts when exploited.
Solar, tidal and wind energy are good examples.
Amenity landscape, plants and animals belong here too.
The Renewability of Renewable Resources The replenishment of any renewable resource could be natural or by human effort or both.
For such replenishment, the exploited resource must have enough time and appropriate environmental conditions to recover.
Its renewability is therefore its ability to recover to its state prior to exploitation.
That means, a cleared forest is renewed when its trees grow back to their original state before the clearing.
Today, exploited renewable resources hardly have enough time or conducive environmental conditions to recover before they are further exploited.
This is mainly as a result of both natural and anthropogenic events and activities.
Harsh and unfriendly climatic changes (e.
g.
global warming), increase in sea level, pollution, aggressive urbanization and industrialization, improved farming techniques, have seriously undermined the capacity of these resources to be replenished.
The astronomical increase in human population has not helped matters either.
The need to feed and meet other needs this increasing population has also increased the pressure on the resources.
This has necessitated the clearing of more forest for agricultural purposes, building of houses and industries thus decimating the forest resource.
Water resources are not spared either.
Range animal production is being intensified and more fertilizers are used.
These have grossly altered the pristine nature and ability of the land to support traditional plant and animal species, leading to the extinction or near-extinction of certain plant species.
This has in turn affected the availability of these resources for use.
For instance, ensuring a reliable supply of good quality, portable water for the over six billion people on earth has become one of the greatest challenges of our era.
Water though renewable, has a fixed volume available for human use.
So, increase in population means an increase in the demand of this resource for various purposes - industrial, agricultural, domestic, and others.
To illustrate this, imagine that a pot of soup is served 5 people.
Then suddenly 5 more people came and joined them.
Minutes later 3 more joined and the number continues to increase.
If the number people continues to increase, it would get to a point where each person might not get a teaspoon full of the soup.
That is the crisis envisaged for water supply in the future.
Though water is naturally recycled for use via the Water Cycle, its supply is still finite.
Due to pollution, clean air is increasingly becoming a scarce resource in industrial area and our big cities.
Climatic events such as Global Warming have affected the availability of water by increasingly holding more water in the atmosphere.
Some water bodies have either disappeared or almost doing so especially in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world.
A good example is Lake Chad, which is bordered by four countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroun).
The pressure on water has also gravely affected marine flora and fauna.
With an altered environment, some have gone extinct.
Intensive fishing and whaling also seriously cut down marine population and species.
Pollution originating from man's various activities contributes to the destruction of the already fragile state of our renewable resources.
Industries empty poisonous wastes into water bodies and empty land, and chime their gaseous waste into the atmosphere.
No minding what harm it does.
This has resulted in environmental pollution and degradation.
We Need A Slow Down It is clear that our renewable resources are seriously endangered mainly by human activities.
We have seriously harmed the ability of these resources to regenerate themselves.
Where we are to be agents of regeneration (e.
g.
afforestation), we have failed.
We need a slow down almost on every side.
Think of waking up one morning and there would be no water anywhere to drink because the fresh water bodies has all dried up, is contaminated or just not enough to go round.
Think of a world were there would be no trees or forest because every space has either been cultivated or built up.
Think of an earth were seafood is gone because of water pollution.
Think of other consequences, and you would agree with me that we need a rethink and a slow down.
We need to address aggressive industrialization, sporadic population increase, deforestation and every other human actions and activities that harm renewable resources and our environment.
Our activities in the environment need a serious control.
We have already seriously damaged the environment and lost enough fauna and flora species.
The choice is ours, and is one that should be made quickly.
We have reduced the ability of the environment and the resources it bears to regenerate and renew themselves.
Solar, tidal and wind energy are good examples.
Amenity landscape, plants and animals belong here too.
The Renewability of Renewable Resources The replenishment of any renewable resource could be natural or by human effort or both.
For such replenishment, the exploited resource must have enough time and appropriate environmental conditions to recover.
Its renewability is therefore its ability to recover to its state prior to exploitation.
That means, a cleared forest is renewed when its trees grow back to their original state before the clearing.
Today, exploited renewable resources hardly have enough time or conducive environmental conditions to recover before they are further exploited.
This is mainly as a result of both natural and anthropogenic events and activities.
Harsh and unfriendly climatic changes (e.
g.
global warming), increase in sea level, pollution, aggressive urbanization and industrialization, improved farming techniques, have seriously undermined the capacity of these resources to be replenished.
The astronomical increase in human population has not helped matters either.
The need to feed and meet other needs this increasing population has also increased the pressure on the resources.
This has necessitated the clearing of more forest for agricultural purposes, building of houses and industries thus decimating the forest resource.
Water resources are not spared either.
Range animal production is being intensified and more fertilizers are used.
These have grossly altered the pristine nature and ability of the land to support traditional plant and animal species, leading to the extinction or near-extinction of certain plant species.
This has in turn affected the availability of these resources for use.
For instance, ensuring a reliable supply of good quality, portable water for the over six billion people on earth has become one of the greatest challenges of our era.
Water though renewable, has a fixed volume available for human use.
So, increase in population means an increase in the demand of this resource for various purposes - industrial, agricultural, domestic, and others.
To illustrate this, imagine that a pot of soup is served 5 people.
Then suddenly 5 more people came and joined them.
Minutes later 3 more joined and the number continues to increase.
If the number people continues to increase, it would get to a point where each person might not get a teaspoon full of the soup.
That is the crisis envisaged for water supply in the future.
Though water is naturally recycled for use via the Water Cycle, its supply is still finite.
Due to pollution, clean air is increasingly becoming a scarce resource in industrial area and our big cities.
Climatic events such as Global Warming have affected the availability of water by increasingly holding more water in the atmosphere.
Some water bodies have either disappeared or almost doing so especially in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world.
A good example is Lake Chad, which is bordered by four countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroun).
The pressure on water has also gravely affected marine flora and fauna.
With an altered environment, some have gone extinct.
Intensive fishing and whaling also seriously cut down marine population and species.
Pollution originating from man's various activities contributes to the destruction of the already fragile state of our renewable resources.
Industries empty poisonous wastes into water bodies and empty land, and chime their gaseous waste into the atmosphere.
No minding what harm it does.
This has resulted in environmental pollution and degradation.
We Need A Slow Down It is clear that our renewable resources are seriously endangered mainly by human activities.
We have seriously harmed the ability of these resources to regenerate themselves.
Where we are to be agents of regeneration (e.
g.
afforestation), we have failed.
We need a slow down almost on every side.
Think of waking up one morning and there would be no water anywhere to drink because the fresh water bodies has all dried up, is contaminated or just not enough to go round.
Think of a world were there would be no trees or forest because every space has either been cultivated or built up.
Think of an earth were seafood is gone because of water pollution.
Think of other consequences, and you would agree with me that we need a rethink and a slow down.
We need to address aggressive industrialization, sporadic population increase, deforestation and every other human actions and activities that harm renewable resources and our environment.
Our activities in the environment need a serious control.
We have already seriously damaged the environment and lost enough fauna and flora species.
The choice is ours, and is one that should be made quickly.
We have reduced the ability of the environment and the resources it bears to regenerate and renew themselves.