We are draining planet earth...

Every year we extract almost 90 billion tons of biomass, fossil energy, metal and minerals from the earth - more than 11 tons for every single person on the planet. And for people in the western world this number is much higher.

...at an increasing rate

In the 47 years between 1970 and 2015, human consumption of Earth's natural resources more than tripled. Our use of natural resources is expected to continue its growth and more than double from 2015 to 2050.

The material footprint

The “material footprint” is an indicator of the amount of raw materials used to satisfy our consumption. As you read this we are draining the Earth for fish & seafood, metal, wood, minerals, energy and so on. The amount of resources extracted from Earth is increasing daily and depletion of Earth’s natural resources is an increasing problem.

It’s the stuff we buy

So what do we use all this material for? Most of it is used for all the stuff we buy. In industrialized countries, two thirds of the material footprint is used for private consumption - food, housing, cars, clothing, transport and so on.

A demanding global population of consumers

The growing world population - and especially the growing population of consumers - is the main driver of the increased demand for natural resources. So far, innovation and technological developments have not been able to break this link. 

Environmental effects of materials extraction...

Our use of natural resources has environmental effects in all phases the materials economy:

EXTRACTION of materials from Earth.

TRANSFORMATION of materials into goods, services and infrastructure (manufacturing)

TRANSPORTATION of goods to consumers.

USE of final products and services (consumption of electronics, housing, food, cars).

DISPOSAL of products for waste once they are worn out (or we simply want something new and exciting).

As consumers, we only see a little part of the life cycle our products go through - the final use. What happens before and after we use stuff, is very often completely hidden. We are basically alienated from the effects our consumption patterns have on the planet.

Potential catastrophic consequences

Out of the almost 90 billion tons of resources extracted from Earth every year, 22.5 billion tons are biomass. Biomass includes fruit, cereal, meat, wood, fish and so on. Some of the consequences of human extraction of biomass are truly alarming.

We cannot continue forever

Rich nations may need to cut the use of natural resources by as much as 90 percent to ensure environmental and social sustainability. At the moment, the world is moving in the opposite direction.

Emptying oceans for fish

At current trends, the world will effectively run out of seafood in 2048.

Happiness without consumption!

How do we cut down our use of nature? Well, according to the UN by decoupling population and economic growth from resource use. In other words, we need to find happiness without consuming the planet.

Breaking the link

At the moment, the world population is growing and the same is the world economy and our use of natural resources. We have to somehow break the link between a growing population and our use of Earths resources. Such a decoupling of economic activity and human well-being from our resource use is absolutely crucial to avoid collapse of ecosystems. We need to be able to be happy without consuming.

“To achieve effective decoupling, today’s linear material flows must become circular through a combination of intelligent infrastructure and product design, standardization, reuse, recycling and remanufacturing”.

- UN 2017: “Assessing Global Resource Use”

How is it going?

So what’s the status of decoupling growth with consumption of “nature”?

In short, not great. The human footprint on the planet continues to expand.

Global average per capita income is growing and so is the impact per capita. Our use of natural resources will more than double from 2015 to 2050 though the world population will “only” increase by a third in this period.

The global population of consumers is continuously expanding.

Any good news?

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Per capita impact on the planet is growing slower than the economic growth indicating that it is possible to have growth without a negative impact on the planet. But it is a very dim light and for now not merely enough to save the planet. Major changes are needed.

Human innovation needed

Innovation and technological developments are needed to break the link between human prosperity and footprint on the planet. Our current technology simply cannot keep up with population growth. But this can change:

“The degree to which humankind can change its interaction with the environment through technology cannot be foreseen”.

- UN: One Planet, How Many People? A Review of Earth’s Carrying Capacity

Time is running out

We don’t have forever to find solutions to stop using up Earth’s resources.

“To most of the scientists studying the planet it has become increasingly evident that there are limits to the human impact that our Earth System can absorb”.

- UN: One Planet, How Many People? A Review of Earth’s Carrying Capacity

If we push beyond these thresholds (or “tipping points”) could trigger a spiral of self-reinforcing negative developments impossible to reverse.

It could soon be too late

Natural ecosystems are losing their ability to adjust. They are reaching critical thresholds beyond which they will no longer be able to recover. According to the American ecologist, professor Jared Diamond, we are approaching such tipping points in 2050 at the latest beyond which it will no longer be possible to save the Earth.