overconsumption--2009

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limited amount of wood each year, the energy available tothese societies was limited. The population and the economy,which both depend on energy, therefore faced a limitto growth.The Industrial Revolution in the 18th century launched themost important change in natural resource use to date.With the use of fossil fuels – at first coal, later also oil andgas – suddenly much more energy was available to mankind.The use of fossil fuels, produced over millions of years,created an apparent energy surplus for human societies.This surplus was the precondition for the economic growththat has continued until today. It was the availability of energyin a cheaper and more concentrated form that alloweda sharp increase in the production of goods and services.Population has also grown steadily since the IndustrialRevolution, mainly because the use of ever more machinesand ever greater amounts of fertiliser allowed a constantincrease in harvest yields per hectare of cultivated land.Therefore, one hectare of arable land today feeds manymore people than it did in agrarian societies, which werelimited to the use of human and animal labour and had nochemical fertilisers.However, progress has had an environmental price, asthe consumption of resources has risen dramatically. Oneresident of an industrialised country today uses fifteen tothirty-five tonnes of raw materials and products annually –a multi-fold increase in comparison to agrarian societies. 6Today, hunter-gatherer and agrarian societies are still presenton the planet. Hunter-gatherer societies are found inthe rainforests of Amazonia and Papua New Guinea. However,these forms of societies have been almost completelyeliminated. Agricultural societies make up large parts of theglobal South, in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However,an ever larger share of global population has moved intoindustrial societies and urban lifestyles.With a growing global population, economy and affluence,our consumption of nature also grows. It would help ustremendously if global ecosystems would grow accordingly– but we cannot change the size of our planet.How can we become more sustainable without going backto the Stone Age and renouncing the comfort of modernlife? In a world increasingly facing physical limits, we needto find alternative approaches to human development andwellbeing. Finding new models of resource use is one cornerstoneof such a new way of development. The challenge isto ensure a high quality of life for today’s global populationof nearly 7 billion people, and for the 9-10 billion peoplepredicted for the middle of this century, without exceedingthe environmental capacities of our planet.8 | OVERCONSUMPTION? Our use of the world’s natural resources
3. Extraction of resourcesThe amount of natural resources extracted for the production of goods and services is steadilyincreasing. At around 60 billion tonnes each year, humans extract and use about 50% more thanonly 30 years ago. Almost half of global resource extraction takes place in Asia, followed by NorthAmerica with almost 20% and Europe and Latin America with 13% each. Large variations exist innatural resources extraction per capita: on average, an inhabitant of Australia extracts around 10times more resources than inhabitants of Asia or Africa. Increasing resource extraction leads togrowing environmental and social problems, often worst in poor countries in Africa, Latin Americaand Asia.As the world economy grows, humans extract andharvest increasing amounts of natural resources fromecosystems and mines – around 60,000 billion kg (or 60billion tonnes) annually. 7Global annual extraction of natural resources equals theweight of more than 41,000 Empire State Buildings, eachweighing around 365,000 tonnes (or 112 Empire StateBuildings every day).These natural resources comprise renewable and non-renewableresources. Renewable materials include agriculturalproducts and fish to feed us and our livestock, and timberto produce furniture and paper. Non-renewable resourcesinclude fossil fuels that provide energy, metal ores used inthe manufacture of cars and computers, and industrial andconstruction minerals used to build our houses and roads.Figure 2: Global extraction of natural resources, 1980 to 2005 (ii) OVERCONSUMPTION? Our use of the world’s natural resources | 9
Page 1 and 2: OVERCONSUMPTION?Our use of the worl
Page 3: Executive summaryNatural resources,
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 and 28: Figure 14: “Business-as-usual”
Page 29 and 30: 8. Towards sustainable resource use
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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