Some resources are not renewable - such as mineral deposits, petrochemicals and the like. Whether you use them quickly or whether you use them slowly, they don't come back. For this very reason it is hard to define overuse, since any use at all will have the same effect - depletion of the resource.
Adj. 1. altruistic-showing unselfish concern for the welfare of others. selfless. unselfish-disregarding your own advantages and welfare over those of others.
French philosopher Auguste Comte coined the word altruisme (with meaning 3) in 1851, and two years later it entered the English language as altruism. Many considered his ethical system - in which the only moral acts were those intended to promote the happiness of others - rather extreme, so meaning 1 evolved.