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A renewable resource is an organic natural resource that can replenish in due time compared to the usage, either through biological reproduction or other naturally recurring processes. Renewable resources are a part of Earth's natural environment and the largest components of its ecosphere. A positive life cycle assessment is a key indicator of a resource's sustainability .

Definitions of renewable resources may also include agriculture production, as in sustainable agriculture and to an extent water resources. Paul Alfred Weiss defined Renewable Resources as: "The total range of living organisms providing man with food, fibers, drugs, etc..." The term does not refer however to metals, minerals and fossil fuels. While energy per se is not consumed, some include as well the provision of renewable energy by solar, geothermal and wind power stations under the definition.

Overview

The most important renewable resource at large has been and is still wood provided by means of forestry, which is used for construction, housing and firewood since ancient times. Plants provide the main sources for renewable resources, the main distinction is made between energy crops and Non-food crops. A large variety of lubricants, industrially used vegetable oils, textiles and fiber made e.g. of cotton, copra or hemp, paper derived from wood, rags or grasses, bioplastic are based on plant renewable resources. A large variety of chemical base products like latex, ethanol, resin, sugar and starch can be provided with plant renewables. Animal based renewables include fur, leather, technical fat and lubricants and further derived products, as e.g. animal glue, tendons, casings or in historical times ambra and baleen provided by whaling.

With regard to pharmacy ingredients and legal and illegal drugs, plants are important sources, however e.g. venom of snakes, frogs and insects has been a valuable renewable source of pharmacological ingredients. Befeore GMO production set in, insulin and important hormones ware based on animal sources. Feathers an important byproduct of poultry farming for food is still being used as filler and as base for keratin in general. Same applies for the chitin produced in farming Crustaceans which may be used as base of chitosan. The most important part of the human body used for non medical purposes is human hair as for artificial hair integrations, which is being traded world wide.

Historical role

Historically, renewable resources like firewood, latex, guano, charcoal, wood ash, plant colors as indigo, and whale products have been crucial for human needs but failed to supply demand in the begin of the industrial era. Early modern times faced large problems with overuse of renewable resources as in deforestation, overgrazing or overfishing.

Besides fresh meat and milk, which is as a food item not topic of the article, livestock farmers and artisans used further animal ingredients as tendons, horn, bones, bladders. Complex technical constructions as the composite bow were based on combination of animal and plant based materials. The current distribution conflict between biofuel and food production is being described as Food vs. fuel. Conflicts between food needs and usage, as supposed by fief obligations were in so far common in historical times as well. However, a significant percentage of (middle European) farmers yields went into livestock, which provides as well organic fertilizer. Oxen and horses were important for transportation purposes, drove engines as e.g. in treadmills.

Other regions solved the transportation problem with terracing, urban and garden agriculture. Further conflicts as between between forestry and herding, or (sheep) herders and cattle farmers led to various solutions. Some confined wool production and sheep to large state and nobility domains or outsourced to professional shepherds with larger wandering herds.

The British Agricultural Revolution was mainly based on a new system of crop rotation, the four-field rotation. British agriculturist Charles Townshend recognized the invention in Dutch Waasland and popularized it in the 18th century UK, George Washington Carver in the USA. The system used wheat, turnips amd barley and introduced as well clover. Clover is able to fix nitrogen from air, a practically non exhaustive renewable resource, into fertilizing compounds to the soil and allowed to increase yields by large. Farmers opened up a fodder crop and grazing crop. Thus livestock could to be bred year-round and winter culling was avoided. The amount of manure rose and allowed more crops but to refrain from wood pasture.

Early modern times and the 19th century saw the previous resource base partially replaced respectively supplemented by large scale chemical synthesis and by the use of fossil and mineral resources respectively. Besides the still central role of wood, there is a sort of renaissance of renewable products based on modern agriculture, genetic research and extraction technology. Besides fears about an upcoming global shortage of fossil fuels, local shortages due to boycotts, war and blockades or just transportation problems in remote regions have contributed to different methods of replacing or substituting fossil resources based on renewables.

Challenges

The use of certain basically renewable products as in TCM endangers various species. Just the black market in rhinoceros horn reduced the world's rhino population by more than 90 percent over the past 40 years.

Renewables used for autarky approaches

The success of the German chemical industry till World War I was based on the replacement of colonial products. The predecessors of IG Farben dominated the world market for synthetic dyes at the beginning of the 20th century and had an important role in artificial pharmaceuticals, photographic film, agricultural chemicals and electrochemicals.

However the former Plant breeding research institutes took a different approach. After the loss of the German colonial empire, important players in the field as Erwin Baur and Konrad Meyer switched to using local crops as base for economic autarky. Meyer as a key agricultural scientist and spatial planner of the Nazi era managed and lead Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft resources and focused about a third of the complete research grants in Nazi Germany on agricultural and genetic research and especially on resources needed in case of a further German war effort. A wide array of agrarian research institutes still existing today and having importance in the field was founded or enlarged in the time.

There were some major failures as trying to e.g. grow frost resistant olive species, but some success in the case of hemp, Linum, rapeseed, which are still of current importance. During the war, German scientists tried to systematically exploit foreign research results in occupied countries. Heinrich Himmler personally supported a research project using Russian Taraxacum (dandelion) species to manufacture natural rubber. The project was conducted using 150 female KZ prisoners and captured Russian scientists kept together as 'Kommando Pflanzenzucht' (Plant breeding command) in a subcamp (SS) of Konzentrationslager Auschwitz led by SS agrarian research officer Joachim Caesar. Rubber dandelions are still of interest, as scientists in the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) announced 2013 to have developed a cultivar that is suitable for commercial production of natural rubber.

Legal situation and subsidies

Several legal and economic means have been used to enhance the market share of renewables. The UK uses Non-Fossil Fuel Obligations (NFFO), a collection of orders requiring the electricity Distribution Network Operators in England and Wales to purchase electricity from the nuclear power and renewable energy sectors. Similar mechanisms operate in Scotland (the Scottish Renewable Orders under the Scottish Renewables Obligation) and Northern Ireland (the Northern Ireland Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation). In the USA, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), use a similar approach. German Energiewende is using fed-in tariffs. An unexpected outcome of the subsidies was the quick increase of pellet byfiring in conventional fossil fuel plants (compare Tilbury power stations) and cement works, making wood respectively biomass accounting for about half of Europe’s renewable-energy consumption.

Examples of industrial use

Bioplastics

Bioplastics are a form of plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, lignin, corn starch, pea starch or microbiota. The most common form of bioplastic is thermoplastic starch. Other forms include Cellulose bioplastics, biopolyester, Polylactic acid, and bio-derived polyethylene.

The production and use of bioplastics is generally regarded as a more sustainable activity when compared with plastic production from petroleum (petroplastic), however manufacturing of bioplastic materials is often still reliant upon petroleum as an energy and materials source. Because of the fragmentation in the market and ambiguous definitions it is difficult to describe the total market size for bioplastics, but the global production capacity is estimated at 327,000 tonnes. In contrast, global consumption of all flexible packaging is estimated at around 12.3 million tonnes.

Bioasphalt

Bioasphalt is an asphalt alternative made from non-petroleum based renewable resources. Manufacturing sources of bioasphalt include sugar, molasses and rice, corn and potato starches, and vegetable oil based waste. Asphalt made with vegetable oil based binders was patented by Colas SA in France in 2004.

Renewable energy

Renewable energy refers to the provision of energy via renewable resources which are naturally replenished fast enough as being used. It includes e.g. sunlight, wind, biomass, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. Renewable energy may replace or enhance fossil energy supply various distinct areas: electricity generation, hot water/space heating, motor fuels, and rural (off-grid) energy services.

Biomass

Biomass is referring to biological material from living, or recently living organisms, most often referring to plants or plant-derived materials.

Sustainable harvesting and use of renewable resources (i.e., maintaining a positive renewal rate) can reduce air pollution, soil contamination, habitat destruction and land degradation. Biomass energy is derived from six distinct energy sources: garbage, wood, plants, waste, landfill gases, and alcohol fuels. Historically, humans have harnessed biomass-derived energy since the advent of burning wood to make fire, and wood remains the largest biomass energy source today.

However, low tech use of biomass, which still amounts for more than 10% of world energy needs may induce indoor air pollution in developing nations and results in between 1.5 million and 2 million deaths in 2000.

The biomass used for electricity generation varies by region. Forest by-products, such as wood residues, are common in the United States. Agricultural waste is common in Mauritius (sugar cane residue) and Southeast Asia (rice husks). Animal husbandry residues, such as poultry litter, are common in the UK. The biomass power generating industry in the United States, which consists of approximately 11,000 MW of summer operating capacity actively supplying power to the grid, produces about 1.4 percent of the U.S. electricity supply.

Biofuel

A biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases.

Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from carbohydrates produced in sugar or starch crops such as corn, sugarcane or switchgrass.

Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils and animal fats. Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel in Europe.

Biogas is methane produced by the process of anaerobic digestion of organic material by anaerobes., etc. is also a renewable source of energy.

Biogas

Biogas typically refers to a mixture of gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas is produced by anaerobic digestion with anaerobic bacteria or fermentation of biodegradable materials such as manure, sewage, municipal waste, green waste, plant material, and crops. It is primarily methane (CH
₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) and may have small amounts of hydrogen sulphide (H
₂S), moisture and siloxanes.

Natural fiber

Natural fibers are a class of hair-like materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to pieces of thread. They can be used as a component of composite materials. They can also be matted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt. Fibers are of two types: natural fiber which consists of animal and plant fibers, and man made fiber which consists of synthetic fibers and regenerated fibers.

Threats to renewable resources

Renewable resources are endangered by non-regulated industrial developments and growth. They must be carefully managed to avoid exceeding the natural world's capacity to replenish them. A life cycle assessment provides a systematic means of evaluating renewability. This is a matter of sustainability in the natural environment .

Overfishing

"Ocean over fishing is simply the taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for fished species to replace themselves."

Tuna meat is driving overfishing as to endanger some species like the bluefin tuna. The European Community and other organisations are trying to regulate fishery as to protect species and to prevent their extinctions. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty deals with aspects of overfishing in articles 61, 62, and 65.

Examples of overfishing exist in areas such as the North Sea of Europe, the Grand Banks of North America and the East China Sea of Asia.

The decline of penguin population is caused in part by overfishing, caused by human competition over the same renewable resources

Deforestation

As well as being a renewable resource for fuel and building material, trees protect the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide and by creating oxygen. The destruction of rain forests is one of the critical causes of climate change. Deforestation causes carbon dioxide to linger in the atmosphere. As carbon dioxide accrues, it produces a layer in the atmosphere that traps radiation from the sun. The radiation converts to heat which causes global warming, which is better known as the greenhouse effect.

Deforestation also affects the water cycle. It reduces the content of water in the soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture. Deforestation reduces soil cohesion, so that erosion, flooding and landslides ensue.

Rain forest shelter many species and organisms providing local populations with food and other commodities. In this way biofuels may well be unsustainable if their production contributes to deforestation.

Endangered species

Some renewable resources, species and organisms are facing a very high risk of extinction caused by growing human population and over-consumption. It has been estimated that over 40% of all living species on Earth are at risk of going extinct. Many nations have laws to protect hunted species and to restrict the practice of hunting. Other conservation methods includes restricting land development or creating preserves. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Internationally, 199 countries have signed an accord agreeing to create Biodiversity Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatened species.

Water resources

Water can be considered a renewable material when carefully controlled usage, treatment, and release are followed. If not, it would become a non-renewable resource at that location. For example, groundwater is usually removed from an aquifer at a rate much greater than its very slow natural recharge, and so groundwater is considered non-renewable. Removal of water from the pore spaces may cause permanent compaction (subsidence) that cannot be renewed. 97.5% of the water on the Earth is salt water, and 3% is fresh water; slightly over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction (0,008%) present above ground or in the air.

Water pollution is one of the main concerns regarding water resources. It is estimated that 22% of worldwide water is used in industry. Major industrial users include hydroelectric dams, thermoelectric power plants, which use water for cooling, ore and oil refineries, which use water in chemical processes, and manufacturing plants, which use water as a solvent.

See also

• Exploitation of natural resources
• Habitat conservation
• List of renewable resources produced and traded by the United Kingdom
• Natural capital
• Natural resource
• Recycling
• Resource
• Seed tree
• Stewardship
• Sustainable development
• Scarcity

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Further reading

• Krzeminska, Joanna, Are Support Schemes for Renewable Energies Compatible with Competition Objectives? An Assessment of National and Community Rules, Yearbook of European Environmental Law (Oxford University Press), Volume VII, Nov. 2007, p. 125
• Masters, G. M. (2004). Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems. Hoboken, NJ:John Wiley & Sons.
• Panwar, N. L., Kaushik, S. C., & Kothari, S. (2011, April). Role of renewable energy sources in environmental protection: A review. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15(3), 1513-1524.
• Sawin, Janet. "Charting a New Energy Future." State of the World 2003. By Lester R. Brown. Boston: W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated, 2003.

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