Environment And

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Natural resources Overconsumption

and the environment

ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY

OVERCONSUMPTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

SUBMITTED TO-
SHIKHA MA’AM

SUBMITTED BY-
PRATIKSHA MISHRA
MA Sociology 1st year
Davv Indore(SOSS)

INTRODUCTION
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We have only one Earth. Today, the 7.7bn people on it

are using more of its resources than it can provide.
Every new person is a new consumer, adding to that
demand.
Some of us take far more than others and there are
many steps we must take to make our consumption
sustainable - adding fewer new consumers
everywhere is one of them.

“Anyone who believes in indefinite growth of

anything physical on a physically finite planet is
either a madman or an economist.”
 – Kenneth Boulding, economist
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What is natural resource consumption?

Almost everything we do involves materials that have
been extracted, processed, transformed, bought and sold,
taxed and subsidised, and often shifted across vast
distances.
Our economy is built around these raw materials – natural
resources – like trees, gas, oil, metal ores, water and
fertile land. Look at your smartphone . It likely contains
cobalt from Africa, copper from Chile and aluminium from
Australia.
Over the years, our appetite for raw materials has grown –
from 1970 to 2010 our natural resource
consumption more than tripled .

What is overconsumption?
Consuming more than we need creates a demand that the
planet can't cope with. Natural resources are being
gobbled up faster than the Earth can replenish them.
It's also struggling to cope with the resulting waste and
emissions. We take too much stuff from nature, make it
into stuff we use – from chemicals to plastics to fertiliser to
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smart phones to meat – and then dispose of it carelessly

into the atmosphere, the oceans and the land.

RENEWABLE RESOURCES
Everyone understands that many of the Earth's resources
are finite. We are currently completely reliant on fossil
fuels, iron and other metals, minerals and even such basic
commodities as sand to keep the modern world ticking
over. Adding more consumers makes those resources run
out faster.
The Earth also provides for our needs with renewable
resources, such as timber, clean water and air, healthy
soils and wild fish consumed for food. However, our
demands are so great that we are now using those
resources at 1.7 times the rate that the Earth can renew
them. That rate has increased continually since the 1970s
and, unless thing change, we will require three Earths to
supply our needs by 2050. (Source: Global Footprint
Network)
Some people believe that greater efficiencies in the use of
resources mean we will use less of them. There is no
evidence to support that, however.
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A study by the Massachussets Institute of Technology in

2017 evaluated the use of raw materials such as crude oil
and silicon, and found that greater efficiencies led to price
reductions, making commodities more affordable
and, increasing their demand and usage.
They investigated more than 60 materials, and found that
only in six was consumption decreasing.

What are the social effects of

overconsumption?
The overconsumption of energy, water and raw materials
worsens climate change and increases air pollution. It
exhausts the planet's life support systems like the ones
that provide us with fresh water, and leaves us short of
materials critical to our health and quality of life – says a
UN report .
Fresh water reserves, fish stocks and forests are
shrinking, many species are under threat of extinction and
fertile land is being destroyed.
And all for what?
Are we any happier?
Apparently not.
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Unmanaged consumerism appears to contribute to a like

obesity and depression.

FOOD AND WATER

More than 800 million people currently do not get enough
food to meet their nutritional needs every day. Meanwhile,
650 million are obese. People go hungry not because
there is insufficient food but because our global economic
system distributes it unfairly.
However, every extra mouth to feed puts more pressure
on our food supply. That is already under threat from
multiple factors, including shortage of fresh water, soil
depletion, decimated populations of insect pollinators and
climate change.
The UN currently projects that we will need 70% more
food by 2050. In 2015, its Food and Agriculture
Organization predicted that at the current rate of soil
erosion, the Earth has less than 60 harvests left.
A landmark report on diet and sustainability by the EAT-
Lancet Commission in 2019 concluded that it is possible to
feed a population of 10bn sustainably if radical action is
taken to revolutionise dietary habits and food production.
It went on to say, however:
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“Global population is expected to exceed 11 billion people

by 2100 unless actions are taken to stabilize population
growth. Healthy diets from sustainable food systems are
possible for up to 10 billion people but become
increasingly unlikely past this population threshold.”

Water is an absolute basic human necessity, and each

person adds to demand Threats to fresh water are even
more critical.
An MIT study concluded that nearly five billion people will
live in water-stressed regions by 2050. The United Nations
has calculated that water shortages as a result of climate
change could displace hundreds of millions of people by
2030.
Regional variations in water availability are extreme but
many of the world's poorest regions, and those which have
high population growth, are among those with the shortest
suppply.
Developed countries also suffer from the effects of
population pressure on water supply. The densely-
populated south-east of England is ranked in the bottom
10% of global regions for ability to supply water to its
inhabitants.
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 POLLUTION
As with every environmental problem, while there are
many solutions to pollution, adding more people to the
population adds more polluters and makes those solutions
less effective.
While rich countries produce more plastic waste per
person, for instance, poor regions where population
growth outstrips the infrastructure to dispose of waste may
contribute more plastic overall.

GREED, NEED AND INJUSTICE

Material footprint per capita in high-income countries is
60% higher than in upper-middle-income countries and
more than 13 times the level of low-income countries.
United Nations
Vast disparities exist in consumption and impact between
the rich world and the Global South, and within countries
themselves. A more just global system, in which resources
are distributed more equitably, is essential. Whatever form
that takes, in order to ensure that there is enough to meet
everyone's right to a decent standard of living, the richest
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must consume more sustainably - in other words,

consume less. When nations leave poverty, their fertility
rates rates reduce - but hand-in-hand with that increasing
prosperity comes increased consumption. People should
not have to compete for the Earth's resoures.
That's why population and family size is an issue in both
developed and developing countries.
Where affluence and consumption is high, reducing the
number of new consumers is an effective, permanent way
of reducing the drain they place on resources, as well as
their environmental impact.
It does not mean that people should not do other things to
reduce their consumption, or that wider isues of global
injustice do not need to be urgently addressed.
Nevertheless, reducing, through effective, ethical means,
the number of affluent people consuming is an essential,
effective method to relieve the pressure.
In the developing world, fewer people means less
competition for natural resources, especially local
resources such as land and fresh water.
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CONCLUSION
It's obvious we need to stop ravaging the planet.

Unfortunately, our 'I am what I buy' culture is an obstacle.

It leads to farcical advertising slogans like "Be yourself" –
as if wearing mass-produced fragrance can give you a
true sense of who you really are.
like belonging to something you love – a sports club,
community choir, animal rescue sanctuary etc. We need
public authorities to create more of these social
opportunities to give people a sense of purpose beyond
being a consumer.
Marketing can help. It's a powerful tool for changing
behaviour. Once used to encourage smoking, it's now
doing completely the opposite. If it can change our
relationship with tobacco, it can change how we consume
too. This means promoting activities and stuff that are
good for people and planet.
And we need stronger laws. Companies should be made
to report on every single aspect of their supply chains –
from excavation right through to the shop window –
including water and land use, and climate-changing
emissions.
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We need circular economies that prioritise re-using,

recycling and repairing. Societies designing stuff to last
longer – using our precious and limited natural resources
far more cleverly.