'The curriculum area, 'uses of natural resources within society', defines the cultural goals of the production systems of industrialism. Industrialism is a way of using resources to meet goals of supplying goods to people of the right design and the right price. It applies mass production and automation to increase the speed of production and reduce the costs. It is now a global force for producing goods in the manufacturing sector, the farming sector, the forestry sector, the fisheries sector, and the service sector, throughout the world

Industrial production is governed by 'consumer systems' which determine what goods will sell, and and at what price. Goods are sold to households at prices determined by the interaction of supply and demand in the market place.

Through the market place, consumer systems connect with 'economic systems'. In an economic system households supply labour to businesses via the labour market and receive wages in return. Some households also supply land and invest money. To persuade people to invest money, businesses undertake to pay it back with interest. For the use of land, they pay rent. The levels of wages, rent and interest in this simplified picture are determined by supply and demand in the labour, land, and money markets.

In reality government, trade unions, international institutions and other bodies have a role to play in this process (political economy).

Economic systems answer the questions of what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce. The answers are provided by individual economic agents (businesses and households) interacting through markets. In practice, market economies are also capitalist economies. Capitalism involves the private ownership of the means of production.

Economic systems are also linked with the the 'care systems' of society by which we look after ourselves and others. These are funded out of the market economy. In addition, some of the care systems, for example, education and environmental protection, now have a direct influence on consumer systems.

This closed looop commercial model of the systems by which natural resources meet the goals of society is shown in Fig 4. It indicates that all four systems change with time, and that past and present uses of natural resouces have an influence on future uses. Some of the subsystems and goals are presented in the amplified diagram in Fig 5.

Fig 4 The cultural context: uses within society.

Fig 5 Systems and goals based on the utilisation of natural resources