The overuse of natural resources is one of the great problems facing humanity these days. This phenomenon that involves several problems is derived from different causes normally generated from daily human activities and I believe that various feasible measures are taken to prevent and overcome them.
On the one hand, there are two main reasons for the growing utilization of natural resources. Firstly, resource consumption at an accelerated rate stems from overpopulation. Population growth could lead to water depletion due to people’s daily needs and the expansion of agriculture to meet people’s nutrition. As in the case of India, which is the second-most populous country in the world, began to face the worst long-term water crisis in history, as demand outstripped supply and threatened agricultural production and economic growth since last year. Secondly, the development of transportation and technology carries out the generation of different modern vehicles and machinery. Such inventions are powered typically by energy generated from fossil fuels such as coal and oil and ultimately cause scarcity of these natural resources. Taking Australia as an illustration, coal burning is the main source of electricity in this country and eventually, Australian coal is predicted to run out in around 40 years.
On the other hand, I believe that many actions have been implemented to help mitigate these issues. For the problem of water scarcity, many countries have published water-saving policies and educational water conservation programs to increase public awareness on this issue. For example, the Singapore government is striving to reduce domestic water consumption to 140 litres per capita by implementing various initiatives and one of them is the water conservation awareness program. Otherwise, for the reduction of fossil fuels, humanity is using alternative energy sources, such as wind, solar and nuclear power that they might be a possible solution to the depletion of nonrenewable sources because they are clean energy sources and available in unlimited supply. As an example, United Arab Emirates launched the Arab world’s first nuclear power plant, which is an attempt to meet the demands of the energy-hungry Gulf state even though this country is the world’s seventh-largest proven crude oil reserves.
In conclusion, the overexploitation of natural resources is attributed to the strong demand derived from the increase in population and the development of technical utilities, as well as the excessive dependence on these resources, governments and individuals in each country are working in various methods to properly use and conserve them.