Environmental Sustainability

and Economics
By: Sanwarya
 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF
THINKING

Summery SCARCITY
With a current world population of 7 billion people, the demand for natural resources
will inevitably arise. The demand for these resources will increase as more nations assist
in the development of low-income populations. Each year, humans deplete the Earth's
supply of water, soil, clean air, and other resources. Humans had consumed more natural
resources by August 2, 2017, than the world could replenish in a year. This is referred to
as "Overshoot Day." "The Living Planet report calculates that humans are using 30% more
resources than the Earth can replenish each year, leading to deforestation, degraded soils,
polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in the numbers of fish and other species,"
according to a report published in The Guardian ten years ago. As a result, we are
incurring an annual ecological debt of $4 trillion to $4.5 trillion."

Extended learning
Natural resource scarcity is a very important environmental issue that would lead to much bigger
issues for both the environment and the economy. The reason for natural resource scarcity to
occur is because of the large-scale demand for the resources by the consumers and the lack of
supply of these resources needed for the producers. The world population is 7 billion and the
majority of these people rely heavily on the produces created from these natural resources such as
electricity, food, furniture, technology and more. This leads to excess demand or a shortage of
resources. Many countries and businesses specialize in selling these resources both domestically
and internationally after these resources are all used up many of these businesses will stop and the
countries might face an economic crisis. Another example would be overfishing, which also has a
huge impact on both the environment and the economy. Many people make a living out of fishing,
because of fish scarcity there could be a food crisis as well as a high increase in unemployment, up
to 60 million people who work in the fishing industry will be unemployed which would impact the
countries economy. Overfishing will also impact the environment as it causes an imbalance that
can damage the food chain and result in the extinction of other essential marine organisms, such as
sea turtles and corals.
Thinking Question:
What can we do as citizens to help?
Do you think it’s too late to go back?
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