Q.What is peat?

Natural Resources (Renewable and Non-Renewable)

Everything we use — the fuel in a bus, the water in a tap, the wood in a desk — ultimately comes from nature. These gifts are called natural resources. The single most important question to ask about any resource is: once we use it up, will nature replace it? The answer splits all natural resources into two great groups.

Renewable resources — nature refills them

Renewable resources are replaced by natural processes at a rate that keeps pace (roughly) with our use of them. Sunlight, wind, flowing water, forests, and air are examples. A forest can regrow, a river keeps flowing, the sun rises again each day. Because they are continuously renewed, they can — if used wisely and not faster than they regenerate — last indefinitely. (Even a renewable resource like a forest can be degraded if we harvest it far faster than it recovers.)

Non-renewable resources — a one-time gift

Non-renewable resources exist in a fixed amount and take so long to form — often millions of years — that they are, for practical purposes, irreplaceable on a human timescale. The most important examples are the fossil fuels:

• Coal, formed from the remains of ancient plants buried and compressed over millions of years.
• Petroleum (crude oil) and natural gas, formed from ancient marine organisms.
• Minerals and metal ores.

Once burned or extracted, these cannot be regenerated within any useful timeframe.