Extractive industries use non-renewable resources in an unsustainable and environmentally harmful way. Mining, crude oil, and natural gas are examples. Forestry is not extractive. Environmental damage and depletion of resources are concerns, as well as the need for sustainable alternatives.
An extractive industry is one that consumes or uses natural raw materials in an unsustainable and environmentally harmful way. In other words, it is any industry based on the intrusive and aggressive removal of a non-renewable natural resource. Good examples of extractive industries are the mining, crude oil and natural gas industries. Forestry, on the other hand, uses a renewable resource and is therefore not an extractive industry. Recent global green trends have focused an enormous amount of attention and research on many traditional extractive industries in an effort to develop viable, long-term alternatives to their products.
The extractive industry is a term used to describe any concern involved in the exploration or extraction and utilization of non-renewable natural resources. Non-renewable in this sense are natural resources that have no practical means of sustaining their volumes. This is an important distinction, as some activities such as fishing and hunting are sometimes mislabeled as extractive industries. The removal of resources such as minerals, crude oil and natural gas are, however, classified as such, as these resources are irreversibly depleted during extraction.
Beyond the continued depletion of the resource in question, one of the characteristics of an extractive industry that has seen increasing global attention from green action groups is the damage these industries do to the environment. Pollution and acoustic or visual intrusion are among the main issues that environmental protection organizations are focusing on, with much work being done to abate these problems by the industries themselves. These points are not, however, the only inherent weakness of any extractive industry.
The fact that the extractive industry can never be part of a long-term sustainable development plan is of particular concern to all actors. However negative a role these industries often play, they are responsible for a wide range of positive inputs beyond the obvious benefits gained from their products. Employment and industry support activities are also threatened if an extractive industry were to reach the end of its resource pool. The replacement of critical products, especially energy and fuel, with viable alternatives is perhaps the most serious of all these concerns and is the focus of a significant amount of research and development. The replacement of many current extractive industry products with truly sustainable substitutes must be considered one of the most pressing concerns of the world community as of 2011.
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