overconsumption--2009

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The increasing worldwide competition for natural resourceswill potentially lead to serious conflicts related to access toresources. These conflicts will mainly affect those peoplewho are not currently involved in the race for resourcesand therefore do not significantly contribute to the overallproblem: the poorest inhabitants of developing countries.Overuse of capacities of global ecosystems. Whetherfurther economic growth and increased consumption ofresources will be possible is also determined by a secondcrucial factor: the limited capacity of the global ecosystemsto provide us with biotic resources, such as cereals,fish and timber, and to absorb the waste and emissions wegenerate through our resource use. This capacity is called“biocapacity”.Calculations using “Ecological Footprint” illustrate that theworld is already using around 30% more biocapacity than theglobal ecosystems can provide in a sustainable manner. 43The Ecological Footprint warns us that with our currentlevel of resource consumption, we are already overusingthe biological capacities of the global ecosystems. In otherwords: we are liquidating the “natural capital” of the planet,instead of living on the sustainable interest from this capital.This depletion of natural capital can be observed inseveral ways: many fish stocks are depleted, worldforests are shrinking, fertile land is being lost due to erosionand carbon emissions are causing changes to the climatewith potentially disastrous impacts on our economiesand societies.Figure 15: Distribution of global reserves of selected materials, 2005 (xiv)28 | OVERCONSUMPTION? Our use of the world’s natural resources
8. Towards sustainable resource useSustainable development means a high quality of life for all people on our planet. Countries in theglobal South need to overcome poverty and increase the material welfare of their inhabitants inthe future. This will require countries with high levels of per-capita resource consumption, suchas Europe, to sharply decrease their resource use. Many actions can and should be taken in theshort term: implementing policy measures that reward resource-efficient behaviour, increasingrecycling and informing consumers about their options to reduce natural resource use. In themedium term, however, more fundamental questions need to be addressed. How can new modelsof development be created in Europe and other industrialised countries that focus on well-beinginstead of increased production and consumption? How can developing countries increase theirquality of life without overusing the resource capacities of our planet?photo credits Michael Warhurst/FOE EWNICurrent global development is characterised by increasingresource use and growing inequalities betweenthe rich and poor parts of the world population. Theseinequalities are in both monetary income and resourceconsumption.A world in which the major part of the population lives inpoverty cannot be sustainable. Billions of people, mostlyin developing countries, legitimately demand further economicgrowth and increased resource consumption in thefuture. In a world with limits, economic growth and relatedgrowth in resource use will only be possible in those worldregions if the currently high-consuming countries significantlyreduce their per-capita consumption and their shareof global resource use.In order to achieve such a substantial reduction of ourresource use, we need a fundamental change in how oureconomies deal with natural resources and the servicesthey provide. We need to profoundly transform the way weproduce and consume products and services.Such an ambitious vision cannot be realised within a timeframeof only a few years. However, in order to achieve thesignificant absolute reduction in resource use required byEuropean and other western countries, we need to starttaking action now.The rest of this chapter is split into two sections, the firstlooking at measures that can be put in place quickly to setus in the right direction, the second looking at the biggerchanges that we need to make in the medium to long term.SECTION 1: SHORT TERM MEASURESTO GET US ON THE RIGHT TRACKEnsure that resource use is measured, and that newpolicies are assessed for their impacts on resourceuse. An effective system for measuring EU resource use isessential to enable progress to be monitored, and to enablenew policy options to be assessed as to their impact onEurope’s resource use. SERI and Friends of the Earth Europehave recently proposed such a measurement system fornatural resource use in Europe. In addition to the use ofbiotic and abiotic materials, which is the focus of thisreport, we suggest calculating our use of water, land area,and greenhouse gas emissions. Each of these indicatorsshould incorporate the full ‘rucksack’ of resource use, forexample soya imported into Europe would have a rucksackof land and water use. 44Using increased prices of raw materials in order toincentivise efficiency. Increased prices for raw materialswill incentivise companies to raise their resource productivityand invest in the development of new resource efficienttechnologies. Higher prices would also mean that consumersOVERCONSUMPTION? Our use of the world’s natural resources | 29
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Page 3: Executive summaryNatural resources,
Page 8 and 9: limited amount of wood each year, t
Page 11 and 12: Figure 4: Extraction of resources p
Page 13 and 14: Copper mining and smeltingin Peru 1
Page 15 and 16: 4. Trade in resourcesInternational
Page 17 and 18: Trade reinforces inequalities in re
Page 19 and 20: Export of Fair Trade organic HomMal
Page 21 and 22: larger houses, eat more meat and dr
Page 23 and 24: 6. Resource efficiencyIn Europe, as
Page 25 and 26: Mobile phones: relativeimprovements
Page 27: Figure 14: “Business-as-usual”
Page 31 and 32: continued growth of our economies i
Page 33 and 34: Sources for figures(i)Calculations
Page 35 and 36: 24ICCO. 2007. Food under threat! Th

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