Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development
What this domain tests
Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development tests classification, the difference between stock and reserve, environmental degradation, and the meaning of sustainability in policy and practice.
Core rules
- A resource is anything that satisfies a human need and is culturally and technologically defined. Classify by origin (natural, human), exhaustibility (renewable, non-renewable), development status (potential, developed, reserve) and ownership.
- Stock is the total quantity in the environment; a reserve is the part that is known, technically extractable and economically viable. A resource can become a reserve when technology or prices change.
- Environmental problems include pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, biodiversity loss and climate change. Many are commons problems: individual gain, shared cost.
- Sustainable development was defined by the Brundtland Commission in 1987 as development that meets present needs without compromising future generations. It rests on economic, social and environmental pillars and on intergenerational and intragenerational equity.
- Policy landmarks: Stockholm 1972, Rio Earth Summit 1992 and Agenda 21, the SDGs adopted in 2015 with 17 goals. Concepts of carrying capacity and ecological footprint operationalise limits.
Worked example
Groundwater in a semi-arid district is called renewable, but extraction exceeds recharge. At that rate the aquifer is being mined and becomes effectively non-renewable. The sustainable yield is the recharge rate, not the total stored water. A policy that subsidises electricity for pumping may accelerate depletion even while it raises farm output.
Traps
Renewable does not mean inexhaustible. Conservation is careful use; preservation is non-use. Sustainable development is not zero growth. A resource is not the same as a reserve, and a stock is not automatically usable.