Abstract
A resource is some aspect of the natural environment that can be used by man to his advantage. Whether the occurrence of a physical commodity or natural process is a resource or not depends therefore on the state of knowledge of the men in whose possession it lies. Uranium did not become a significant resource until the discovery of nuclear fission. As technology advances, some materials lose their resource value because they cease to be needed, while others may acquire resource status for the first time.
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Notes
D. J. Patton, The United States and World Resources (Princeton, 1968) p. 81.
E. Vennard, ‘Evaluation of the Russian threat in the field of electric power’ in Comparisons of the United States and Soviet Economies (Papers), Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the US (Washington, 1959) p. 478.
N. C. Field, ‘Environmental quality and land productivity: a comparison of the agricultural land base of the USSR and North America’ in Canadian Geographer, XII (1968) 1–14.
Calculated for the USSR from data given by M. I. L’vovich in Voprosi Geografii, LXXIII (1968) 3–32, and for the USA from data in World Weather Records, I.
Yu. G. Saushkin et al., Ekonomicheskaya Geografiya Sovetskogo Soyuza (Moscow, 1967) 1233.
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© 1972 W. H. Parker
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Parker, W.H. (1972). Natural Resources. In: The Superpowers. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01336-4_5
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