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These resources exist on earth in fairly fixed amounts and have the potential of being used faster than they are replaced by nature. These consist of mineral based hydro carbon fuels – coal, oil and natural gas – were formed after the plant life is fossilized. When they are burnt, produce waste products like carbon dioxide, oxides of sulphur, nitrogen etc. cause air pollution. They cause respiratory tract problems in number of people, and affected historic monuments like Tajmahal, killed many forests and lakes due to acid rain. These are also causing global warming, a raise in global temperature, increased drought in some areas, floods in other regions, melting of ice caps, a rise in sea levels and sub merging coastal belts all over the world.
Oil powered vehicles emit carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and particulate matter that are a major cause of air pollution, especially in cities with heavy traffic density. During gulf war, fires wasted 5 million barrels of oil and produced over a million tons of airborne pollutants including sulphur dioxide.
Natural resources such as coal, petroleum, oil and natural gas take millions of years to form naturally and cannot be replaced as fast as they are being consumed. Eventually natural resources will become too costly to harvest and humanity will need to find other sources of energy. At present, the main energy sources used by humans are non-renewable as they are cheap to produce.
Some natural resources, called renewable resources, are replaced by natural processes given a reasonable amount of time. Soil, water, forests, plants, and animals are all renewable resources as long as they are properly conserved. Solar, wind, wave, and geothermal energies are based on renewable resources. Renewable resources such as the movement of water (hydropower, including tidal power; ocean surface waves used for wave power), wind (used for wind power), geothermal heat (used for geothermal power); and radiant energy (used for solar power) are practically infinite and cannot be depleted, unlike their non-renewable counterparts, which are likely to run out if not used wisely. Still, these technologies are not fully utilized.
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