Conservation

Humanity’s footprint is being felt around the world. As the global population continues to increase, the natural resources necessary to sustain life continue to decline. Fresh water, fossil fuels, and arable land are just a few of the natural resources that must be properly managed to sustain a global population that may reach 9.7 billion by the year 2050, as predicted by the United Nations.

Background

The planet Earth may be unable to support future increases in population unless, on a worldwide scale, humans begin to conserve and reduce their rates of and increase efforts to recycle resources for new uses. Moreover, many argue that the current global economy is no longer sustainable and is destroying the environment and providing little to support the globally impoverished. Internationally, governments and social activists have begun to work together to establish policies that protect the environment and the of life while concomitantly fostering harmonious economic growth.

“Conservation” generally refers to the use of resources found in the natural environment in such a way that the resources will serve humans effectively and will be available to humans for as long as possible. Therefore, it does not refer to the indefinite “preservation” of resources in their natural state. Quantitatively, effective conservation could be said to involve obtaining the maximum use for the maximum number of people.

The Earth can be viewed as a life-support system composed of four major subsystems through which energy flows and matter cycles. The subsystems are the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere, referring to gases, life systems, and materials, and water, respectively. As energy flows and matter cycles within and among these subsystems, they interact as component parts to compose the Earth’s ecosystem (an may be defined as a community of plants, animals, and other organisms interacting in an environment). Humans alter the natural cycling of energy and flow of matter in the Earth’s ecosystem. We extract things from natural systems, convert them into what we perceive as more useful products, and then return them to the natural environment in different forms and physical states. In order to achieve more desirable energy conversions, we also use energy from the environment. Natural resources are all of the things that humans take from the environment to help satisfy their needs and wants.

Resources and Reserves

All the matter and energy on Earth make up its “stock.” Natural resources are subsets of this stock that help humans meet their energy and material needs. Those natural resources that are available in a usable form and at an affordable price under prevailing technology and socioeconomic conditions make up “reserves.” For example, uranium was not a part of human energy until the technology to capture and control the flow of was developed. Agrofuels produced from plant resources and biofuels developed from recently lifeless plant and animal materials are other examples of the marriage between natural resources and technology to meet energy demands for such uses as powering vehicles and heating buildings.

Natural resources may be classified as renewable, nonrenewable, and perpetual. Renewable resources are those that can be reproduced at a rate equal to or greater than the rate of consumption. Renewable resources are replenished through natural, physical, and biogeochemical cycles. Examples of renewable resources are forest and soil. They are conserved when they are used and reused at a rate, and in such a way, that does not destroy their sustainability. This does not mean that they cannot be depleted; it means that the rate of consumption does not exceed the rate at which they are replenished over an extended period.

Nonrenewable resources, on the other hand, are those for which the rate of consumption exceeds the rate of renewal. They are exhaustible, cannot be replenished, and exist in fixed amounts. Nonrenewable resources, such as minerals and fossil fuels, are conserved by more thorough exploitation of their deposits and more efficient use. Some can be recycled or reused. Recycling involves collecting and reprocessing a resource, while reuse involves using a resource again in the same form. The reprocessing of used aluminum cans into new cans is an example of recycling. Washing beverage bottles before using them again is an example of reuse. Other nonrenewable resources, such as coal and oil, are gone forever once they are used.

Perpetual resources, such as water, wind, tides, and solar energy, continue to flow throughout the Earth’s ecosystem whether humans use them or not. Therefore, they are sometimes called flow resources. Even when their quality is altered they generally continue to flow within the Earth’s ecosystem, making them inexhaustible. However, man is affecting the flow of some of these resources, such as water, and the recent harnessing of wind resources to produce energy is leading some scientists to suggest that altering the flow of wind with multiple, large turbines may lead to change.

Conservation vs. Preservation

“Conservation” of natural resources means using things found in the natural environment wisely. In a more quantitative sense, it means sustainability of the natural resources by obtaining the maximum use for the maximum number of people without compromising future needs. It does not imply that resources should be entirely preserved for use later; rather, it means that they should be employed in a way that serves humans as well and as long as possible. Although is closely associated with some aspects of conservation, the two approaches are different, as “preservation” means the complete protection of natural resources from human disturbance. It is true that to conserve some resources is to preserve them: We conserve natural resources such as ecosystems, for example, by restricting their use and protecting them from being altered, because their value is diminished if they are not retained in their original state. However, we conserve most resources when we use them in a certain way, not when we leave them idle.

Historical Perspective

Not until technology developed significantly, and the world’s human population reached a certain size, did human exploitation of the environment begin to have significant effects. Until that time, conservation of resources was simply not an issue. For most of humankind’s existence, people lived a simple hunter-gatherer existence, obtaining just enough food to survive. Most people lived in small groups—fifty or fewer people—that had little effect on resources or the environment. They made simple tools and weapons. Many groups were nomadic, migrating with the seasons and following game animals. The shift from a hunting-and-gathering society to a sedentary one began about ten thousand years ago. People began breeding animals and cultivating wild plants, thereby having a greater impact on the environment. Slash-and-burn cultivation involved cutting down trees and other vegetation, leaving the cut vegetation on the ground to dry, and then burning it to enrich the soil. Farmers were “subsistence farmers,” producing only enough to feed their families.

With the invention of the metal plow about seven thousand years ago, agriculture could be practiced on a larger scale. Animals were used to pull the plows, increasing crop productivity and making the cultivation of new soils possible. Forests were cut and grasslands were plowed—soil and degradation of wildlife habitats inevitably began to follow on a small scale. Occasional food surpluses were produced for sale or storage. Surpluses allowed the development of urban cultures by releasing people from the farm. By the nineteenth century, urbanization and the Industrial Revolution were having profound impacts on the environment and the rate of resource consumption.

History of the Conservation Movement

In 1864, George Perkins Marsh published Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Actions. Marsh’s book, which claimed that humanity could no longer afford to continue wastefully exploiting natural resources, is thought by some to mark the beginning of the conservation movement. However, American Indians must also be given credit as one of the first peoples to practice sustainable use. In 1878, John Wesley Powell completed A Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States. Powell’s study of the geomorphology and arid landscape transformations in the Colorado River basin was grounded in scientific methodology and called for the creation of a federal agency to survey and map all US lands. In 1879, the United States Geological Survey was created for this purpose. At the beginning of the twentieth century there was growing concern that resource mismanagement could have tragic future consequences. These concerns were based on scientific findings associated with the exploitation and depletion of timber. In 1907, the Inland Waterways Commission, headed by US Forest Service chief Gifford Pinchot, reported that the use and control of water would have an impact on other resources, including timber, soil, wildlife, and minerals. Pinchot’s views on resource management greatly influenced forest and water management policies in the United States.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration instituted a number of programs in the United States that addressed natural resource problems and helped create employment. In the wake of the severe drought and wind erosion in the Dust Bowl, the Public Works Administration initiated the Prairie States Forestry Project. Its goal was to establish a shelter belt of trees and shrubs from the Texas panhandle to the Canadian border in North Dakota. This project was designed to reduce wind erosion on rangeland and cropland. Other efforts included the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The TVA was an innovative water resource management program that involved comprehensive regional planning. Though confined to the Tennessee River and its tributaries, it provided a model for total resource management. The aim of the CCC was to provide employment while repairing some of the damage that had resulted from past exploitation of natural resources and neglect of the environment. Workers constructed bridges, roads, and fire lanes for the development of recreational facilities; conducted tree-planting programs; instituted soil- and water-erosion control projects; made lake and stream improvements; and participated in flood control projects.

Many of these early conservation practices in the United States spread to other countries and, over time, several international conservation organizations were formed, including the United Nations Environment Programme, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and the World Wildlife Fund. After World War II, nations focused on resource-related problems, many times creating agencies to assess the impact that the war had on forest and natural resources. Moreover, the use of atomic bombs in the war—and the widespread nuclear testing that occurred in the 1950s—exposed ecosystems to significant levels of radiation. This situation marked the beginning of the modern conservation movement.

The Modern Conservation Movement

Although the United States is credited as the front-runner of the early conservation movement through its linking of with conservation and resource management practices on public lands, during the modern conservation movement, especially in the 1980’s, the United States focused on economic growth and deregulation, sacrificing conservation. Nevertheless, the efforts of the Worldwatch Institute and older organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, and Friends of the Earth kept the general citizenry aware of environmental and resource-related issues and their consequences.

In 1962, Rachel Carson, in her book Silent Spring, cautioned the public against the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides. She argued that persistent substances released into the environment move throughout the food chain, concentrating over time, while pests may develop a resistance to the poisons. By the 1960s, pollution from industrial and vehicular sources was beginning to be recognized as a global issue, as industrialized nations increased their spoliation and depletion of natural resources. In the United States, President John F. Kennedy introduced a number of natural resource initiatives aimed at preserving wilderness areas, developing marine resources, reserving shorelines for public use, expanding outdoor recreation, formulating plans for developing water resources and developing actions against water pollution, and encouraging the development of substitutes for resources in short supply. Also, he organized the Youth Conservation Corps to provide a workforce to implement the program. By the 1970s, during the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, the United States had begun to adopt environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency as its enforcement agency. The first Earth Day to celebrate sustainable use of natural resources was in 1970.

The international community came together to discuss the environment for the first time in 1972. The United Nations held the Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. This conference, which came to be known as the Stockholm Convention, resulted in the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme. The 1987 publication of the Brundtland Report (also known as the Our Common Future) by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development was one of the first documents to take on the issue of sustainable global development in modern times in a manner similar to that espoused by Pinchot in earlier times. The goal of the Brundtland Report was to foster global economic development that is conservation-oriented and economically balanced.

In 1980, another international organization became active in conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published World Conservation Strategy. The purpose of this publication, and one of the ongoing goals of the IUCN, was to assist developing nations in conservation planning to protect and maintain natural resources: air, water, soil, forests, and animals.

Since 1992, the international community and world leaders have continued to come together regularly to discuss global environmental problems. At the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, much of the discussion concerned the Brundtland Report. This conference, which came to be known as the “Rio Earth Summit,” focused on dire predictions concerning global warming, climate change, the hole; concerns about the depletion of natural resources, loss of habitats, and biodiversity; and continued concerns with resource pollution and depletion, especially forests and marine resources. Some experts at the Rio Summit suggested that society had to choose between economic development and conserving the environment. Although governments have been unwilling to make an either/or choice, one outcome of the Rio Earth Summit was the ratification by many nations of various international agreements to resolve some of the issues discussed at the Summit. For example, the Summit led to the ratification of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which concerns depletion of ozone by man-made chemicals, and the 1992 Kyoto Protocol, to limit industrial emissions that may be affecting global climate change.

Sustainable development became the main topic of discussion at the UN 2002 Earth Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Many world leaders came together to promulgate international regulations to address such environmental problems as improving air and water quality; improving food access, agricultural productivity, and sanitation in developing countries; and developing strategies and economic incentives to cope with international environmental issues related to war, poverty, and disease.

Although the United States has not been a signatory to some of the latter-day environmental protocols, environmental conservation organizations, including the Sierra Club, and individuals, such as former US vice president Al Gore, alert the public to environmental issues. Gore won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize together with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their efforts in getting out the conservation message on global climate change. International organizations continued the conservation movement in preparation for the 2012 Earth Summit.

Population and Resource Consumption

Population growth is a major factor when considering the time it will take to deplete the Earth’s nonrenewable resources. A resource is considered economically depleted after 80 percent of its known reserves have been exploited, because at that point the resource becomes too expensive for wide use. As the world’s population grows, the rate of resource exploitation grows. More production is necessary to satisfy the needs and wants of larger populations: More materials are needed, more energy is consumed, and more pollution is created.

Ecologists have come to realize that the Earth is a huge ecosystem with a definite carrying capacity. That is, there is a limit to the number of people that can be supported by the Earth. The rate of resource depletion is a function both of the rate of population growth and of the rate of consumption of resources per person. More resources are consumed per individual in wealthy countries than in low-income countries. As low-income countries strive to develop, greater pressures are placed on the Earth to provide resources and to assimilate wastes. Overpopulation occurs when there are too many people for the available resources or when population growth exceeds economic growth; such conditions ultimately begin to cause damage to the Earth’s life-support system.

Water Resources: The Next Great Conflict

The availability and purity of water may be the next great natural resource issue facing the world, and control of water resources could lead to serious conflict. Water not only is necessary to sustain life and health but also is needed for food production and various industrial uses. Water resources continue to be polluted; rivers have dried up and have been dammed, thus reducing downriver flows to wetlands and floodplains; underground water supplies from aquifers have been used faster than they are replenished with rainfall; and development is destroying wetlands and other water resources and converting them, in some cases, to deserts. Because the global society has always relied on water as a renewable resource, it has continued using management policies that are no longer viable. In order to maintain human and wildlife populations, habitats, and health, and in order to ensure that there are sufficient water resources to sustain food production, water resource management policies must change.

Other Natural Resource Issues

Other global natural-resource issues concern extractions from the Earth: minerals, precious metals, and gems such as diamonds; oil and gas drilling; and coal mining. Some of the methods used for these extractions and the consequences of accidents and spills have raised the global consciousness about their impact on the environment. A search for renewable resources to replace many of these nonrenewable resources is under way within the global community.

Also controversial is the negative environmental impact of outdated rangeland management techniques, uncontrolled timber harvesting, forest destruction, and mismanaged disposal and dumping. Many developed nations suffer from wasteful consumerism and overuse of natural resources, such as those that provide energy. Government structures to foster conservation are lacking in most developing countries, and in many industrialized nations government leaders and the public are unwilling to make genuine efforts to conserve vital and dwindling natural resources, especially if they negatively impact economic growth. Scientists predict that these abuses of the environment and overuse of natural resources can no longer continue at their present rate if we want to preserve the future of humanity.

Economics and Conservation

Economics plays an important part in the balancing of resource conservation and resource exploitation. Continued growth in the use of a can occur only for a number of years before the resource is depleted. As a resource becomes scarce, the price increases, making it less affordable and reducing the rate of consumption. This is a self-regulating process that makes conservation more practical as resources become more scarce in a market-driven system.

Effective conservation programs often require governmental influence, regulation, or incentives. Since most resources are associated with property, governmental agencies that regulate land, businesses, and private citizens all make decisions that affect resource consumption. The general aim of many decision makers is to maximize the return on investments; conservation must therefore be profitable within a reasonable time for people to practice it voluntarily. In a free enterprise system, resource exploitation produces income from the land and provides much of the incentive for land ownership. Thus, resource exploitation is likely to win out over conservation if there are no incentives to conserve.

Conservation practices must be congruent with economics. Conservation programs are not effectively executed when economic necessity or opportunity intervenes. For the most part, conservation is good for the economy over the long term, because it improves the efficiency of production systems. However, because modern economic growth has not been balanced and has not conserved natural resources, more drastic measures may be necessary to control future growth.

One of the more controversial proposals to combat economic growth issues facing the environment are taxes on carbon-related energy sources. Another highly debated policy recommendation is over emission trading, or cap-and-trade. Controlled ownership of resources through vehicles such as trusts to avoid depletion of natural resources—mostly nonrenewable resources—is another proposal being debated. Those involved in national and global political and social debate must become serious in reaching a consensus for resolving the many environmental issues facing the world and recommend sustainable policies that bring together economists and environmentalists in working for the same achievable goals regarding future growth. However, no matter what policies are eventually adopted, one of the main goals of balancing economic growth with conservation must be continued public awareness. The public and organizations are more likely to become supportive partners for sustainable economic growth if they are provided with not only information on economic growth and its effect on the environment, but also feasible, market-driven solutions.

Assessing the Future

Experts attempting to assess the future of natural resources are divided in their opinions. Positions range from optimistic to direly pessimistic to somewhere between the two extremes. Those who believe that technology can and will solve human problems have reason to be optimistic, and, to a great extent, history supports this view. Whenever humans experience shortages, they turn to technology for solutions—either developing more efficient ways of finding, extracting, and using resources or finding substitutes for them.

On the other hand, technology may not be able to continue solving all humankind’s problems—at least not in a timely enough manner to avoid a crisis. The primary basis for the pessimistic argument is that increases in resource consumption rates, coupled with an increase in population, may not allow enough time to find technological solutions to resource shortages. Furthermore, the heavy modern dependence on nonrenewable resources is certain to cause resource shortages.

A more moderate view of the resource future suggests that, although there is good reason for concern, humankind has sufficient time to avoid a major crisis if we begin moving toward a sustainable society now. A sustainable society is one that allows humanity to meet its needs today without compromising its environment and future needs. Sustainability almost certainly requires that people in developed countries begin to live a lifestyle that includes more conservation and recycling, a greater dependence on renewable and perpetual resources than on nonrenewable resources, population control, and more self-discipline. This view embraces the ecological approach to resource management and employs the multiple-use concept. For example, forest conservation not only provides timber but also preserves a habitat for plants and animals; it can serve to help manage water resources, prevent flooding and soil erosion, and provide recreational areas. When we reach sustainability, most of humankind’s material and energy needs will be provided by renewable and perpetual resources that should last indefinitely if properly managed.

The ecological approach is holistic. Based on the philosophy that all things in the natural environment are interlaced through a complex system of feedback loops, it implies that the whole is functionally greater than the sum of its parts. This approach to resource management requires an understanding and anticipation of the consequences of human actions throughout the ecosystem.

Bibliography

Castillon, David A. Conservation of Natural Resources: A Resource Management Approach. 2d ed. Madison, Wis.: Brown & Benchmark, 1996.

Chiras, Daniel D., and John P. Reganold. Natural Resource Conservation: Management for a Sustainable Future. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.

Degregori, Thomas R. The Environment, Our Natural Resources, and Modern Technology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

Freyfogle, Eric T. Why Conservation Is Failing and How It Can Regain Ground. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006.

Greenland, David. Guidelines for Modern Resource Management: Soil, Land, Water, Air. Columbus, Ohio: C. E. Merrill, 1983.

Greiner, Alfred, and Will Semmler. The Global Environment, Natural Resources, and Economic Growth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Harper, Charles L. Environment and Society: Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008.

Jakab, Cheryl. Natural Resources (Global Issues). North Mankato, Minn.: Smart Apple Media, 2008.

Knight, Richard L., and Courtney White, eds. Conservation for a New Generation: Redefining Natural Resources Management. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2009.

Krupp, Fred, and Miriam Horn. Earth: The Sequel—The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.

Loeffe, Christian V., ed. Conservation and Recycling of Resources: New Research. New York: Nova Science, 2006.

Miller, G. Tyler, Jr. Resource Conservation and Management. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1990.

Parson, Ruben L. Conserving American Resources. 3d ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972.

Raven, Peter H., Linda R. Berg, and David M. Hassenzahl. Environment. 6th ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2008.

Scott, Nicky. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: An Easy Household Guide. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green, 2007.

"World Population to Reach 8 Billion This Year, as Growth Rate Slows." United Nations, 11 July 2022, news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1122272. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

Conservation International

International Union for Conservation of Nature

The Nature Conservancy

United Nations Environment Programme

World Resources Institute

World Wildlife Fund

Worldwatch Institute