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Natural resources (economically referred to as land or raw materials) are naturally forming substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. A natural resource's value rests in the amount and extractability of the material available and the demand for it. The latter is determined by its usefulness to production. A commodity is generally considered a natural resource when the primary activities associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to creation. Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, hunting, and forestry are generally considered natural-resource industries, while agriculture is not. The term was introduced to a broad audience by E. F. Schumacher in his 1970s book Small is Beautiful.^[1] The term is defined in the United States by the United States Geological Survey as "The Nation's natural resources include its minerals, energy, land, water, and biota."^[2]

Natural resources are mostly classified into renewable and non-renewable resources. Sometimes resources are classified as non-renewable even if they are technically renewable, just not easily renewed within a reasonable amount of time, such as fossil fuels.

Renewable resources are sometimes living resources (trees and soil, for example), which can restock (renew) themselves if they are not over-harvested and used sustainably. There are also non-living resources that are renewable, such as hydroelectric power, solar power, biomass fuel, and wind power. If renewable resources are consumed at a rate above their natural rate of replacement, the standing stock will diminish and eventually run out. The rate of sustainable use of a renewable resource is determined by the replacement rate and amount of standing stock of that particular resource. Non-living renewable natural resources include dirt and water.

Flow renewable resources are very much like renewable resources, only they do not need regeneration, unlike renewable resources. Flow renewable resources include renewable energy sources such as the following renewable power sources solar, geothermal, landfill gas, tides and wind.

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