what is the wisest approach to using non renewable resources

[DeeJay573]

[wildwood]

Restrict the necessary use of it to an absolute bare minimum.

[Captain Spod]

Or...

Put your belief in the free market. Use it all up like there's no tomorrow. The price will increase to such a level that it will make economic sense for proper alternatives to be developed as they can be sold at a realistic profit. New methods of production will evolve and reduce the price charged. Everybody wins (except the pandas),

[jake-the-peg]

Interesting to compare the free market with what happened on Easter Island.

The problem with free markets is that unrestrained they do "bad things" like Kill Pandas, wipe out Islands or sell drugs to school children.

One of the principle roles of government is to restrain free markets and try to prevent such things happening.

If you allow a free-market approach as Spod said the price will increase with scarcity. However the development of alternatives assumes that

a) Alternatives are practical
b) They can be developed sufficiently quickly.

In the case of Easter Island trees could not regrow fast enough to replace those that were cut down.

Restricting the use to a bare minimum is often impractical but the supply and demand rules can be given a boost by taxing the resource and giving tax breaks to the development of alternatives.