Over-exploitation of non-renewable resources primarily leads to:

Question

Over-exploitation of non-renewable resources primarily leads to:

1. A. Decrease in biodiversity only
2. B. Increased photosynthetic rates in forests
3. C. Depletion of resource stock and long-term environmental degradation (Correct answer)
4. D. Stabilization of atmospheric temperature

Correct Answer

Option C — Depletion of resource stock and long-term environmental degradation

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is Depletion of resource stock and long-term environmental degradation.

Key Points

• Over-exploitation of a non-renewable resource has two linked consequences, and the correct option names both: the stock itself shrinks because extraction outpaces any replacement, and the extraction and use cause lasting damage — land degradation, water contamination, air pollution and emissions.
• The other options are wrong in kind:
  • Loss of biodiversity only is too narrow; biodiversity loss is one consequence among several, not the whole effect.
  • Increased photosynthetic rates in forests is unrelated and describes a benefit that does not follow.
  • Stabilisation of atmospheric temperature inverts the truth, since burning fossil fuels destabilises climate by adding greenhouse gases.

Additional Information

• Coal mining illustrates the double cost precisely: it depletes a finite seam while producing land subsidence, acid mine drainage and overburden dumps that persist long after the mine closes.
• The idea that resource use should not foreclose future options is the core of the Brundtland Commission's 1987 definition of sustainable development — meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
• Economists describe the uncosted damage as a negative externality, which is the justification for pollution taxes, cess and the polluter pays principle now embedded in Indian environmental jurisprudence.
• The counterpart concept is resource substitution — shifting to renewables or recycled material — which extends the life of the remaining stock rather than replacing it.