Nonrenewable Resources

Nonrenewable resources are things such as nuclear energy, fossil fuels (i.e. oil, gas, coal), metals (i.e. copper, aluminum, iron), and minerals that are not naturally reproduced at a fast enough rate to keep up with the rate at which Americans use them, so they are depleted irreversibly.

As times progress, Americans are using more and more of these natural resources, especially petroleum oil. As you can see in chart 2 below, America uses 19 million barrels or oil per day, more than anywhere else in the world. As more and more of these resources get used up, the prices rise because the supply is decreasing but the demand is steadily increasing (Chart 3). The primary example in America is that of oil because the prices are now rising to upwards of $5.00 per gallon, but in the winter the effects of natural gas will be more visible and also that of coal as these are required to maintain a warm environment in households. Additionally, the prices of metals are rising which hes lead to an increase of robberies where the criminal strips the house of all copper/aluminum wires because the metal can be sold for a large profit.

94% of the world's energy comes from nonrenewable resources (Chart 1). So if most of the world relies on these nonrenewable energy resources, what happens when they run out? The only way to prevent a major crisis is to come up with alternative sources so that if and when these nonrenewable ones run out, the world will not be caught up in a major crisis. An example of this is man made substitutions such as ethanol for oil, but the only problem is not all cars can run off of this. Noone knows exactly when all of these resources are going to run out, but it's better to be prepared for when that does happen because at the rate people are consuming, we don't have much time left before they all run out.

Sources:

http://www.facts-about-solar-energy.com/renewable-resources.html

http://www.eco-pros.com/non-renew.htm

Chart 1

Chart 2

Chart 3