Topi Tanttu Since the beginning of Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century world’s human population has grown significantly, new cities have been built, new technologies discovered, and the quality of living elevated to a standard, that couldn’t have been imagined before. Now with over 7 billion people on the planet we are about to face a new kind of problem to challenge us, natural resource depletion. So, what does natural resource depletion mean? To put it simply, humankind is using more resources, faster than the resources can replenish themselves. Examples of such resources are water, oil, deforestation, living- and farming habitats and minerals. There are rough estimations about when some resources are going to run out, for example aluminum, coal and iron are expected to run out within the 21st century as seen in Picture 1. With the constantly increasing population, consumption and building rates this problem is only going to get worse. Picture 1. Estimations how long different resources last Consequences of resource depletion are vast but at the same time hard to predict accurately due to constant development in technology and constantly changing society. As of now the most dire consequences seem to be water- and food shortage, due to lack of freshwater and soil erosion, and the effect that oil and highly used metals such as iron running out, are going to have on global economy and basically everything we take for granted in day to day life. What to do Even though it might not feel like it, an individual can do something to ease the depletion rates.
Sources: https://flowingdata.com/2009/04/24/how-long-will-the-worlds-natural-resources-last/ Physical genomics: Combining the exergy and Hubbert peak analysis for predicting mineral resources depletion, Alicia Valero, Antonio Valero https://www.environment.co.za/environmental-issues/natural-resource-depletion.html http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/consequences_of_depletion_of_natural_resources |
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May 2019
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