CONTENT STATEMENT
There are costs and benefits of using renewable, nonrenewable, and flow resources (e.g., availability, sustainability, environmental impact, expense).
CONTENT ELABORATION
Resource use can be examined in terms of the costs and benefits involved. For instance, clear-cutting of forests:
- is a less costly method of harvesting timber resources than selective cutting (expense);
- provides significant amounts of timber in a shorter amount of time than selective cutting (availability);
- requires immediate replanting to restore the forest (sustainability) and prevent excessive erosion (environmental impact); and
- moves the location of animal habitats in some instances (environmental impact).
- Selective cutting of forests:
- is costlier than clear-cutting (expense);
- takes more time to produce equivalent amounts of timber as clear-cutting (availability);
- does not destroy whole forests (sustainability); and
- reduces the overall quality of the forest in some instances by removing only the best trees and leaving behind poorer-quality trees to serve as a seed source for forest regeneration (environmental impact).
EXPECTATIONS FOR LEARNING
Evaluate the relative costs and benefits of using a selected resource.