ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part considers skepticism about the validity and relevance of the supposed declining role of natural resources in the growth process. It argues that the most significant resource conservation and public policy problems were likely to involve renewable resources with critical zones, rather than non-renewable or stock resources for which changing technology had been such a dominating force historically. Since 1973, much public and academic attention has focused on the scarcity of fossil fuel and mineral resources. In fact, many economists tend to think that the essence of natural resource economics is the Hotelling problem of husbanding natural resource stocks over time. A system of correlative rights, based on the common property concept, could be helpful in the solution of emerging ground water problems such as excessive depletion.
