Even renewable resources face depletion when consumption outpaces replenishment

Evidence

Burgeoning populations consume even renewable resources—for example, fish stocks—faster than the earth can replenish them. With growing demand outstripping diminishing supplies, renewables eventually could be obliterated. Despite religious and cultural taboos and impediments to family planning and access to contraceptives, many countries with high birth rates are stabilizing their populations to near zero growth. However, as stated earlier, if population stabilizes at an unsustainable level, exceeding the earth’s carrying capacity remains possible. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2925

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘renewable’ means replenishable only at a certain rate — demand can outpace regrowth and obliterate the resource.
• XREF: connects to: Taxation-driven manure scarcity trapped French peasants in soil exhaustion cycles — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 275; Having too-efficient harvesting tools lets people take more than is sustainable — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 637; The pioneer growth strategy succeeds only when resources appear infinite — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1047 (+1 more)