Thesis: This thesis examines how societies use and sustain the natural resources that fundamentally shape human well-being, the environment and the economy. The links between economic prosperity, resources and environmental preservation are complex and diverse. This implies that, if all dimensions are not taken into account in public policy making, any progress in achieving objectives in these areas can be hindered by undesirable outcomes. A key issue in development studies is how natural resource wealth affects long-term economic growth. In order to address this question, the first chapter examines the impact of non-conventional resource development on the US manufacturing sector over the period 1997-2013. In the same veine, chapter 3 examines the impact of abundant natural resources on the economy by exploiting the volatility channel of natural resources rent on a panel of 103 countries between 1985-2014. Moreover, the extraction and processing of natural resources are often energy-intensive activities that involve large-scale ecosystem alterations. Chapter 2 of the thesis investigates the impact of natural resource abundance on CO2 intensity in developed countries over the period 1995-2014.