| Background:
A resource can be most easily defined as "something we use". Shelter, clothing, transporting, heating, cooking, and so on can all be considered a resources. They include the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we farm, plus the space we use for living and recreation.
Put simply, resources are all the things we use in our physical environment to meet our needs and wants.
There are three basic types of resources: renewable, nonrenewable and perpetual. In human terms, wind, solar energy and the movement of tides last forever, so they can be considered perpetual. Renewable resources replenish through natural or human actions. For example, trees grow naturally or get planted in clear cuts. Animals that give us food and other products are constantly being raised and replaced after they die. It is important to realize that renewable resources must be carefully managed. People must not use too much of a renewable resource or it will not be able to recover. Many animals and plants became extinct because of our overbearing actions. Nonrenewable resources exist in finite amounts, and once used, are gone. Coal, oil, rocks and minerals are examples of natural resources take millions or billions of years to form and cannot be replaced in our lives.
Today, not only do people use more resources, but they also use them faster than ever before
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